This is the period when people are milder, more forgiving and warmer thanusual and we can’t escape that either: just recently, after the World Cupfinal, when we saw a disappointed Kylian Mbappé, we even had a feeling that wecouldn’t be any different. than to call pity. But when the VRT fires aChristmas special of ‘Dertigers’ at us, an episode that just takes an hour anda half, yes, it becomes very difficult to remain peace-loving.
Stephen WerbrouckWednesday December 21, 202212:00
At the beginning of this year, the finale of ‘Dertigers’ was already shown onOne, but that does not mean that the series will end: a new season of the soapwill start in a few weeks, but with a completely different cast and newstorylines that reflect the turbulent life. of the average thirties. Beforethe actors and actresses from the original series had to pass on their taskand their one facial expression to their successors, they were allowed to goto Lapland for a Christmas special. Since the recordings took place at a timewhen there is much less snow in the region than around Christmas and all theaction in Lapland was situated in and around the group of friends’ chalet, themakers could have saved a lot of energy and money by shooting in the Ardennes.rent a cottage and one snow machine. But come on, you only say goodbye once tothe character you will be associated with for decades to come.
Now ‘action’ is too positive a word for what happened in the Christmasspecial, because there was not much to experience. Of course ‘Thirties’ neverhad to rely on the surprising plot twists, but when you spread a story thatcould have fit into one episode of twenty minutes over an hour and a half, therinse becomes very thin. It started with a montage showing how the friendswere doing today – to the tune of ‘A Long December’ by Counting Crows , inhindsight an excellent hint at what was to come. Alex and Elias scoured thefloor of their new home together and argued about whether to choose white orblack outlets. There was an extended Secret Santa scene where the friends drewtickets to know who would buy a present. After fifteen minutes ‘All I Want forChristmas’ was over Mary Carey already passed twice on the soundtrack,while we weren’t even in Lapland yet.
The paltry attempts to provide some tension turned out to be little. In thetoilet of the Lappish log cabin, Alex and Elias, who were arguing about thetiles in their shower, found the leaflet for a pregnancy test. In the end itturned out not to have been thrown away by Louise, Bart’s daughter, but byCaroline, Bart’s new partner; when he heard that he was going to be a fatheragain, he got about the same look in his eyes as Bruce Willis when hediscovers in ‘Die Hard’ that his wife is trapped in a skyscraper with a groupof terrorists. And Saar and Pieter, even in the toilet, had a veryuncomfortable conversation about what it would be like to have sex one lasttime, without feelings or consequences, after which they of course jumped intobed together and just as naturally decided to drop their jumps. relationshipagain.
In the end, Alex and Elias had to do a tour around the log cabin completelynaked in the freezing cold, because, in the opinion of their friends, theytalk a little too often about the gyproc talked in their new home. Itwouldn’t have been bad if the screenwriters of this special had had to suffera similar punishment.