Because Nora suspects that she is the fruit of a secret love, she starts a podcast in which various guests talk about the secret relationships in their lives. In between acts, the young woman discovers who her father is and why he couldn’t be in her life.
That’s the premise of Secret Love. The six-part TV series is similar to previous series such as In therapy. Each episode has a separate, completed story. At the same time, we follow the story of the listener throughout the series, in this case the podcast maker Norma. That is the first leading role for Stephanie van Eer, who previously appeared in Spangas, GTST, The Sinterklaas news and The F*ckultity. Van Eer carries the series convincingly. Rifka Lodeizen plays her concerned mother who prefers to leave the past alone.
The reasons for secrecy are diverse. Some problems are still manageable. The strict boss secretly does it with a younger employee; the tough rugby player secretly lets himself be tied up by the dominatrix; and two close friends lose each other at school camp due to unspoken feelings. Other problems are more complicated. Later in life, a grandmother chooses her childhood sweetheart over her violent husband, after which the family turns against her. Or a young man cheats on his wife after a miscarriage and has a secret child with his mistress. The latter problem affects the podcast maker personally because it resembles her own story.
Breeding ground for screenwriters
Actually a nice series. Mostly sympathetic. Producer Pupkin and broadcaster BNNVARA have designed the production as a breeding ground for new talent: each episode has a different screenwriter making his debut here. After a call, more than two hundred candidates registered.
What the various love stories have in common is that those involved do not express everything and fill it in for each other, as a result of which they miss out on or torpedo their own happiness in life. The power difference between lovers also arises again and again. Secret love, bad idea – is the message. Except in the last story, which welcomes the concealment of paternity as a beautiful sacrifice. While Nora’s overarching story shows how disastrous this later turns out to be for the child.
