If you keep pestering TV critics long enough with countless reruns, long-running summer hits and endless football analyzes by Wesley Sneijder, they will eventually end up in the dark TV forest called Net 5. It was pretty much the only channel on which we could see something new on Wednesday evening, in the form of a fashion program Am I wearing something from you?a curious mix of Stars on the canvas, All of Holland bakes and Project Runway.
Three starting designers can get to work to design ‘an ultimate outfit’ for ‘a celebrity who is on the guest list of an important event’. In this episode it was Maxime Meiland, who entered because she was looking for an evening dress for the first dance at her wedding (just to be clear: it was not a wedding dress, but ‘one of the dresses’). Normally Meiland was more hysterical, but for this special occasion she wanted ‘not too much’ (a Meiland who wanted ‘not too much’, that made this program completely unique). You could participate via the Twitter hashtag #hebikwatvanjeaanNet5, but that sounded more like a threat than an invitation.
The participants were ambitious designers who hoped for an international breakthrough. They deserved a nicer format, because the program had nothing to do with it. The role of presenter Olcay Gulsen ended with the lending of her shoes, while ‘fashion mentor’ Mart Visser occasionally gave some vague tips. At the end of the episode we got for dessert the entire Meiland dynasty, who expressed their preference for the dress of ‘Fashion Friezin Rosalie’.
Still, even the Meilandjes couldn’t save this boring program anymore. Fortunately, Net 5 had a tasty antidote ready right after that with the start of the twelfth season of Endlessly in love, in which Dutch people are followed who emigrate abroad for love. In this episode it was 19-year-old Julia, who had started exchanging letters with an American prisoner. She fell madly in love with 31-year-old Kyle from Dallas, who was serving a sentence for drug trafficking. According to Julia, he was absolutely no bad boy And everyone deserved a second chance. Mother Petra didn’t seem very pleased with her overseas son-in-law, but hey, “at least he didn’t kill anyone.”
When Julia traveled to Texas after his release to live together in a trailer, it all turned out to be a bit disappointing. Kyle seemed particularly interested in smoking weed and paintballing, and Julia was soon bored to death. Still, the romance miraculously persisted, especially when Kyle “asked” her in bed to marry him. Julia thought that was ‘actually fine’.
It didn’t increase confidence in boundless love, but as long as TV stars continue to tire us all summer long with repetitions, easy-going success formulas and Wesley Sneijder, Net 5 no longer sounds like a dark refuge.