The public broadcaster almost seems to have made it a mission to ensure that we start the week with a smile. On Sunday evening we see, among other things, comedy series jos and Tropic yearsthe masterly absurdist Joardy Seasonand the media satire of Roel Maalderink in sticky shot†
It’s good that the latter program has been given time to grow, because it’s in the second season sticky shot – presented by Maalderink from his ‘own living room’, flanked by his unsurpassed brother Jos – at a consistently high level almost every week. That’s great, because the satirical TV playing field has become overcrowded in recent years, and then played Promenade the genre has actually been completely out before.
Until recently, Maalderink was mainly known for his satirical Voxpop films (parodies of the nonsensical Journaal interviews with ‘the common man’), but sticky shot look wider. The program is at its best when it navigates between cheerful imitation nonsense and ironic media criticism (think of ‘De Knorrespondent TV’, in which presenter ‘Ernst-Rob Bregberg’ goes beyond the issues of the day by talking to drunken football supporters about major social themes).
Another highlight was ‘VPRO JUS’, a new juice channel with ‘jusmeister’ Bas Heijne as a canal belt equivalent of Jan Roos. Heijne had heard through his ‘spies’, among other things, that Macron and Putin had been haggling, and had received ‘juicy images’ from the EU summit. In between, expensive wine was drunk and Heijne and Maalderink sang the European national anthem. Nutrition for the gut and the mind: a shrewd producer buys this format as quickly as possible.
There was apparently a lot less laughter on the San Blas Islands on Sunday evening. Between all the comic programs there was also the return of Stef Biemans, who Between the Americas a four-part series about the ‘sounds of Central America’. Equipped with a simple recorder, Biemans travels through the area he inhabited for fifteen years, in search of the meaning of the sounds of the region (think of the soothing, but at the same time threatening sound of the sea). Biemans himself admitted that it all sounded a bit pretentious.
The sounds of Central America gained meaning through strong interviews with members of the Kuna community, among other things. Due to the rising sea level, the islands on which this community lives are in danger of disappearing. Yet Biemans seemed to be more concerned about this than the islanders themselves, for whom it turned out to be mainly a matter of waiting. In addition, there were advanced plans to move towards plastic Vinex homes in the countryside as soon as the water comes.
Between the Americas never got too heavy. You wouldn’t get away with that on Sunday night humor night either. After all, Biemans’ ‘pretensions’ seemed a rewarding subject for Bas Heijne’s gravy canal.