To retire (1990–1992) User Reviews

The Gospel of Petit-Bourgeoism

[gitb_665 · 10/10 · 15 August 2007]

"H euthimi tileoptiki seira,To Retire"(The cheerful TV-series,the Retire)were and IS one of the most legendary series that Greek TV had ever made.Giannis Dalianidis manages with his masterpiece to create a Gospel about the thoughts,joys,fears and life of the Greek petit-bourgeoises.The average Greek,will easily find so many things in common with the lovable characters of "Retire".Katerina Gioulaki as Katerina and Elnta Panopoulou as Haroula are the most avant-guard characters but the viewer will find himself to agree with their thoughts and acts most of the time!One of the most exciting episodes were those where one of the retire heroes has his/hers birthday and all their friends buy them the same present!!!Top episode was that where Haroyla had stopped smoking,but everyone gave her as a present for her birthday a lighter!Totally Hilarious!One other amazing funny episode was that in which Katerina had problems living with her husband Hristos(who had a pharmacy-often called ironically "Farmakotriftis"for that)and with Katerina's mother and her niece!Those people had only one bathroom and you can imagine what was happening when they all woke up in the morning and wanted to go to the toilet!Poor Katerina was always the last one in the queue and that is not enough!Sometimes Hristos sister visited her when she wanted to go to the bathroom and told her how to wash some vegetables,saying that she must pour great amounts of water in order to clean them right!Hahaha!Really great stuff!Finally one of the best part of the series was that when a character was saying one sentence twice,the episode ended!So all of us fans of the Retire knew when one episode of our favorite series was going to end,by simply listening Katerina/Haroula etc saying the same thing twice!For all of you that want to live again the "Retire Experience",MegaChannel has put it again at 12:00 in the noon!

Greek history in half an hour!

[nikolas34 · 31 May 2003]

The best greek series ever! Surrealistic circumstances, a tribute to greek temperament and an amazing Katerina Gioulaki as you have never seen her. No other european director has ever managed to convey human psychology in such a beautiful way. Congratulations to Yiannis Dalianidis who managed to bring together so many great actors. Thanks to Mega Channel that younger generations have also the chance to watch this masterpiece through several midday repetitions. It's about a real addiction....

..cheap arguments and petty characters do not make an amusing sitcom..

[Christos_Stamos · 21 July 2005]

"To Retire" was one of the more worthless situational comedies to ever grace Greek airwaves to this day. Comprised mostly of a set of unpleasant, petty and spiteful characters, the series was sadly devoid of either wit or cleverness. The "humour", if such a word can be used, consisted of watching said characters snarl at each other for the most mundane, nonsensical reasons (or often, as the case would be, no reason at all). A typical "hilarious situation" in "To Retire" would have a polite friend, colleague, neighbor, or passerby, be mistreated and badly (if uncreatively) insulted by one of our misfit, neurotic protagonists, just because it was in their "amusing personality" to do so. Granted, in the hands of a talented script-writer, even the most mundane or absurd situation can be presented in an amusing manner, but unfortunately, such was not the case with the creators of this particularly unpleasant series. Unless you find ranting sociopaths amusing, you'll have serious trouble wringing even the slightest smile out of this trash.