Red Light

This drama is set in Antwerp and Amsterdam and focuses primarily on the sex trade and a particularly nasty pimp called Ingmar who runs a brothel with sex-trafficked Eastern European girls. 3 strong female characters also feature: Ingmar's "partner" who he obsessively controls, a police officer investigating the death of one of the trafficked girls and the upper-class wife of a client of the brothel who is found dead. The series comprises 10 episodes and for the most part is an excellent taut and gritty drama. Sadly however, all this good work is totally undermined by a farcical final episode which stretches credulity to new limits. What a shame!

I love watching foreign dramas, especially Flemish ones, and had very high hopes for this drama. The plot, characters, portrayal, and direction were superb. I binged watched the first 7 episodes and although some of the scenes and the story were very difficult to watch I enjoyed it. The character of the Opera singer I found neurotic, insecure and really quite vacant. The "Madame" a selfish but desperate woman who insisted on staying with her controlling and really quite nasty boyfriend. The star of the show was the police lady. I found her and her character very engaging and I sympathised with her plight. I've not watched the remaining episodes for two days now as I found the whole bargaining for the baby thing quite disturbing, but more importantly the trafficking and exploitation of girls by men even more so. Morally I can't separate what the world should be, and unfortunately is, and thus I'm not sure I can watch the last two shows. I think for a happier life shows like this, that touch on prostitution, drugs, adultery and violence need to be absent from my life.

It started off great and couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I got to episode 5 and found my attention wandering because the storyline began to drag. Especially the woman cop's story which just repeated itself scene after scene and it got to the point where I began to fast forward everytime her scenes came on. The same old thing over and over, on and on with her husband. Maybe she sorts it out by the end but I don't care. I think I'll jump a few episodes and watch from 9 onwards. I'm sure I'll catch up and still know what's what. Good story and excellent acting from all concerned but like many tv series these days they contain too much padding. I keep shouting at the screen Get On With It. (Well, I've tried to submit my review but apparently it's too short so I'll just find some more words to pad it out - a bit like this series.

Dutch drama series haven't been all that good lately, and I've never been that big of a fan of both Halina Reijn or Carice van Houten, let alone in things they made together... That said, this whole series turned out to be rather surprising. Especially Reijn is convincing, along with Derwig's character and their whole relation/family dynamic. Van Houten plays decent, but goes a little over the top at times, especially with the accent. Flemish supporting cast is doing great; good dynamic between Ingmar and his helpers. Also great role by Koen de Bouw who shows something is troubling, but doesn't give it away until the end. Only character that can't get any sympathy out of me is Neuville's, but I don't think that's so much bad acting, as it is rather poorly written; wannabe deeply psychologically traumatized, but always remaining rather shallow to the viewer.

Three main actresses are great. If anything, they are a good reason to watch the show. However the material they work with has all the markings of a titilating thriller, but without the titilation. So the tv series is in a weird place. It tries to be cognizant of the ways the female body and violence is portrayed (not always succeeding in that, I must add), but it is still at its core, a tv series that has female body and violence as its main ingredients. It didn't move to some other, more profound territory. It is nor here, nor there.

At times predictable but I thought it was thrilling. 3 different female characters, well played. They keep you wondering what's going trough their mind. Maaike played her role as a "almost emotion numed" cop well, but loved those dutch Girls role even more.

The title fooled me to think this would just be a sexually explicit romp with little dimension. Wrong. Red Light is a multi-layered drama with several story strands going simultaneously with the main story. Superbly done with some wonderful acting and interesting characters. Highly recommended.

Goed gedaan dames! I am not totally finished with all episodes yet, but already very much intrigued. Great acting, great feel and good setting.

Saw 2 episodes. It is a well made tv series, good writing and acting. Too depressing for me, I think this might very well be all true. If you like to watch the dark side of prostitution in Amsterdam and Antwerp, give it a try.

What could have been told in two hours is dragged out over 10 episodes: Not convincing acting from Carice, towards the end it became predictable and unrealistic. Pros Geert van Rampelberg is the star actor in this series. Safe your time watch the recaps at every episode.