"Buiten de Zone" (1994) TV series 1994-1996

User Rating:

9.1/10   

Director:

Luc Coghe

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

April 1994 (Belgium)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

'Buiten de Zone' is set at a telephone exchange, run by five volunteers, who try to answer the telephone calls from people of their own age...

Cast

Bart De Pauw	...	Raf Willems (20 episodes, 1994-1996)
Mathias Sercu	...	Ubi Stevens (20 episodes, 1994-1996)
Danny Timmermans	...	Robin Laureys (20 episodes, 1994-1996)

Country:

Belgium

Language:

Dutch

Color:

Color

Too Brilliant for Belgian TV!

I can only concur with my fellow reviewers (and compatriots!) and re-establish that "Buiten de Zone" is an absolutely brilliant comedy series and actually way too good according to our country's usual standards! Anyone who ever saw this show, even if it's only one single episode, knows what nearly dying with laughter truly feels like! The premise is so incredibly simple and yet every single episode feels totally refreshing and original, even after a million repeated viewing. We have the naturally gifted writers to thank for that, but also the super-enthusiast regular cast as well as loads of guest appearances and cameos. Every actor or actress who means something in Flanders popped up in this show sooner or later and they clearly all loved their little parts. We follow the five volunteers of a helpline center where teenagers can anonymously call to whenever they face typical social problems or questions regarding adulthood. There isn't that much work and thus the main characters constantly flee into a world of fantasies, dreams and absurd hypothetical situations. Every episode features a main theme (sex, drugs, death,) on which all the fantasies revolve but there are also running gags that return in every episode, like the negative comments of a family that supposedly watches the show on TV. The brilliance about the humor in "Buiten de Zone" is that the jokes are always genuinely hilarious without getting crude, vulgar or offensive. Even with vulnerable topics, like religion or suicide, the humor is always effective. This is comedy for all generations, even my parents never missed one episode, and it's the most creative formula that ever hit Belgian TV-screens.