As the dust settles of the first wave of COVID-19, societies slowly crawl back out of quarantine. However, for the time to come, we will probably spend more time at home than in pre-corona times, as many of us will be forced to reduce their holiday plans to staycations. These are the Dutch television shows that bring colour to life between four walls.
De regels van Floor
Director Maurice Trouwbord turned Marjon Hoffman’s book series De regels van Floor into one of the most popular children’s shows of recent years. The star of the show is Floor (played by Bobbie Mulder), a girl who believes (and practices) that children have the right to create rules as much as adults do. It’s just delightful to see how brother Kees (played by Ole Kroes), father Jan (Ferdi Stofmeel) and mother Irma (Elisa Beuger) deal with these rules and the temper of this teenage girl. Three seasons of this hilarious and adventurous show have now been broadcast in The Netherlands, and the show has recently won a prestigious International Emmy Kids Award for ‘best series’. No surprise that the series has also been sold to Germany, Denmark, France and Belgium. We absolutely love Floor! It’s difficult to pick a favourite episode, but you could start with this one.
De kijk van Koolhoven
Martin van Koolhoven is arguably The Netherlands’ most prominent movie director of the moment. We might love the series he’s made for the small screen even more than his big screen achievements. During the 2 seasons of De kijk van Koolhoven Martin pours his love for cinema over us, one genre at a time. Want to understand what’s so great about spaghetti westerns, post-apocalyptic movies, Eurocrime, time travel and other fascinating tropes? Here’s your chance!
Tokidoki
Paulien Cornelisse is known for her funny insights on the Dutch language. She’s lesser known for her love and fascination with Japan and Japanese culture. In her own quirky, funny and vulnerable way she has made a television show about Japan, trying to show why she’s so in love with the country by giving us insights in its often contradictory antics. Each episode she dives into the background of a specific Japanese word or saying to make us understand Japan a little bit better. With a second series starting on May 17th, we’ll be sure to spend a part of our holidays at home in Japan.
100 dagen voor de klas
One of our absolute favourite television makers is the young, bold and lovely Tim den Besten. Older series like Beestie Boys, Tim’s tent en De outsiders are worth every minute of your time. But we are also super thrilled about his new show 100 dagen voor de klas, in which Tim together with Nicolaas Veul becomes an intern at a secondary school, to discover the beauty and hardships of being a teacher. It’s a heartwarming show about one of the most critical and undervalued jobs out there. A great show that’s both fun and relevant.
We hope you’ll enjoy these 4 shows that together will make up for dozens of hours of excellent television, as much as we do.