NinadeL

The final season of Pan Tau was available as individual episodes or in cuts for two feature films, Alarm in the Clouds and I Won’t Conjure After Today. The main roles were played by the children's elite of the time, Hofbauer and Bočanová, with Brodský and Brejchová as the adults. We know the same practice from films with Žaneta Fuchsová. But because even that was not enough, the final full stop for the whole phenomenon was the film Pan Tau, screened as of January 1, 1989, making the 23-year-long series the longest-running Czech series ever.

The third series is Robinson-esque by Ota Hofman. Menšík, Bohdalová, Filipovský, and Peterka are all there as usual, although Peterka is unusually funny this time. The scenes where Bohdalová sells movie theater tickets are pleasant. The island episode is Šimánek's solo in the double role of Tau and Alfonz. If there were more stories like this, the whole series would be much more timeless. Alas. In this way, Karel Höger's unintentionally parodic commentary, the ubiquitous weather girl Julinka, and the goat Cleo all come to light. If the saintly Beneš, the know-it-all Somr, the bland Smejkalová, the crazy Čížková, the Dítě/Hanus duo come along, we then approach communal satire by leaps and bounds. The question of whether Alfonz is a good member of socialist society is answered by Bek and his big-mouthed suit in the chocolate factory. Later on, Bláha, Hrzán, Vala, and Šmída as Mafiosi are alienating Julinka, and we're not done yet... The pleasant theme has dissolved into one big mess.

Werich's stories about the little girl Claudia and Mr. Viola are much more acceptable than the previous purely normalization episodes, thanks to their subtly fairy-tale touch. True, nowadays the cries of technology are not so impressive, there is no sci-fi and dreaming at the Hluboká castle belongs entirely in the archives of the FSB/ČST. There are also minuses, a musical insert, or the unnecessarily dishonorable Ferbasová-Tichánková combination... But also some partial pluses. Tau, as a representative of the Globus travel agency, arranges Viola and Claudia's trip around the Czech regions. In a way, it's a shame because the original order with a few extras sounded a bit more appealing and exotic (Loch Ness was in play, for example ;)). The supporting roles featuring Lanďák and Kopecký have their own charm alongside Werich. Along with the weather girl episodes, this season is the most typical for a series with Pan Tau.

Season 1 of Pan Tau is a mixture of puppet film, children's film, musical and late slapstick. However, years after the pilot episode produced by Carlo Ponti, the format has undergone some changes. All your favorite normalization actors are in place and there's no reason to object, or...? Lovers of Bohdalová, Budínová, Štekl, Sovák, or Dvorská regularly watch all the reruns. Whether they take place in a block of flats or in the mountains.

Season 3 of Outlander continues to be the most exciting. We follow several storylines in turn, 20 years of Jamie's life after the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746, and 20 years of Claire and her daughter Brianna's life up to 1968. They also make room to tell Frank's story. The material is endless, pop culture references follow one after the other, and Diana Gabaldon adds to the number of pages as her saga grows. However, the pace of the plot twists and turns from Scotland to America becomes more and more absurd in its gradation, with Claire and Jamie losing each other, finding each other, dying for each other, and, of course, having very active sex in between. Gone is the magic of the original theme, and with the return of Geillis, they've managed to add horror in a similarly blood-bathing fashion alongside the sci-fi storyline. The next season with the main theme of a family reunion will again be strong stuff.

Unfortunately, Fanney Khan is just another Indian remake, this time of an Oscar-nominated Belgian-Dutch-French co-production, but looking at the subject matter, it's clear that it was the perfect material for Anil Kapoor. As a poor nobody, he dreams of great fame for his daughter (i.e., Fanney Khan is not a personal name but the designation of a naive dreamer, much like Tees Maar Khan is someone who pretends to be tough when he is not). Unfortunately, his daughter may be named Lata after the legendary Lata Mangeshkar, but she would love to sing pop in talent competitions, which doesn't work because she is obese. The very attractive and successful singer Baby Singh (played brilliantly and hilariously by the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) gets involved in this quest for fame, and the road to the reality show India ki Awaaz is suddenly very close. Nevertheless, the sensitive comedy has socially critical themes, the theme of terrorism and the uncovering of the glitter of superficial consumer culture, but it all holds together only thanks to the soulful Kapoor. He so beautifully experiences his daughter's journey to the top and his emotion is so strong that one would like to forgive him for everything. His place in Indian films will not be replaced by anyone else for a long time. Humanity is absolutely palpable in his interpretation and that is a dimension of acting that everyone should cherish.

Karan Johar is very kitsch. Yet his films are perfectly polished and executed, and that also works for him with the broadest of classes. His characters aren't just flat, they're not just heroes and heroines who go from point a to point b exactly as planned. Nowadays, even Karan Johar can make fun of himself and especially of genre Bollywood films. He has the darling Ranbir Kapoor, an absolute idol of the last decade, and the lovely Anushka Sharma as his sidekick, both critics' and audience favorites and regular Filmfare nominees. Finally, in a supporting but not insignificant role, we have the goddess Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, as a divorced poet living in Vienna. Is there anything else you're missing? Yes, the scene of Ranbir and Aish meeting SRK is an absolute highlight. It really only takes one scene for him to win over the crowds, and I can still feel the butterflies in my stomach now. What charisma! The west should learn from this work with a star :) So, yes, in the beginning, there was a flamboyant youth lost in European capitals, after London came Paris and Vienna, and the Tyrol mountains were there as well. It's nice to see the development, by the way, 20 years ago Indian filmmakers didn't care if they were in Italy and pretended to be in Hungary, today they are better at Europe. For seasoned viewers, O Heart, It Is Difficult is an obvious choice, while newcomers have a chance to see a fairly representative star-studded experience. Fans of Aish are of course in seventh heaven and enjoy the video for Bulley's song in particular.

So how is Matt Groening's new series? Different. It's not The Simpsons or Futurama, and it's actually a medieval satire for Netflix. Is a princess who ran away from the altar, her personal demon, and an elf really going to carry the whole series? Although the animation quality is great, the humor is far from being for everyone.

For lovers of chapters from the history of Czech film, this is an absolute joy. Gajer's The Smiling Country is exactly halfway between The Village Revolt and Holiday with Angel. Learning and celebrating from the early years of the United Agricultural Cooperative has never been such a lovely affair before or since. Otomar Korbelář’s wise and friendly chairman in the lead role gives the impression that the old order is long behind us. After all, it is so easy to fill the acting ensemble with just figures of all those village types that our dear chairman can handle so playfully. All of them will eventually understand that only the United Agricultural Cooperative is the right path forward. Even the former gossips will understand this, and only Baldinka remains plays a villain because she would rather gossip and not build. If Czechs have always counted only from 1943, they don't look at work, but only at money... The motif of young love, the collective forgiveness of the widow of a resistance fighter who fell at the radio station, fits in quite naturally. It's simply unforgivable how many films like The Smiling Country are still unavailable to the general public. Because only if all the films are available can there be justice. Critical thinking cannot be learned from brief scripts; films must first be seen.

Is Lisbeth Salander the most interesting European heroine of the last decade? Maybe she is and maybe she isn't. However, watching all the attempts to adapt her stories for so many years is quite an ordeal. Noomi Rapace had the trilogy and the series, while Rooney Mara unfortunately only had the American remake of the first part, and now Claire Foy is here with the fourth (!) part. The fact that Hollywood doesn't have a second and third part is pretty funny. Personally, I'm even more amused by the fact that in Noomi Rapace's time Claire Foy was known only as Dickens' Amy Dorrit, which really doesn't make for any consistent career work. So what's next? Will there be a next time? And will any other actresses who are just now creating classic series on the BBC be starring in the fifth series? It would be magical because I long ago stopped believing in the pluses Millennium could offer anyway. And yet the potential of this material is so great.