The Portal (2021– ) User Reviews

Amazing!

[krgeorgiev · 9/10 · 16 May 2021]

One of the few quality TV shows in Bulgaria. Unique plot, great acting and sense of humour.

Time travel, destiny and director's decisions

[ivailo_penchev · 8/10 · 8 June 2021]

Pleasantly surprised. Good cinematography(I can only imagine how you used old lenses for the shots for 1979...or may be is the postproduction - anyway, I love it), good acting, good editing ( I really liked the transition with the taxies - present/past - ep. 6)

I am a huge fan of time travel and here I will mention the script.

The script is THE thing, that is making the series interesting to me. This is the reason why I started watching it. And I hate myself of mentioning the word "but" , but I wanted more about the time travel itself. Main thing of time travel films/series is the time travel paradox. It is not a must, BUT questions are arising.

What will eventually happen when Krum is meeting himself?! How they can exist at the same time, at the same place and even interact with each other. How the universe is not collapsing? They are meeting and nothing is happening.

Ok, director's decision.

The director's decisions and the meaning.

There are things that you can't change - the POSSIBLE existence of destiny

• Jana Yaneva is dying
• Krum is not close with his father (lets call it first timeline or the timeline before the portal - his father is dead - and second timeline - a probability that he never walked his father's footsteps)
• Krum is turning from criminal psychologist into..... taking the role of his false/stolen identity from 1979 (really nice, thank you!!!)
• on the other hand aunt Zorka is not dying in the 90's. The future is changed in a way that destiny has no power.

• Ani is a famous singer and songwriter - destiny - zero - director's decision - two

/I need to mark something, before I make the connection with the word "two" and the next paragraph/ Changing the past, changing the future and goodbye destiny

• The sister of Krum (second timeline) has a family - the presence of a father figure is helping her to have a male figure later in her life. Raising a child in a loving family will make the child's subconsciousness to do the same later in life (this is good stuff!)

There are only two things I didn't enjoyed: To many close ups(details) of commercials - coffee machine/coffee, brandy, ljutenitsa, sweets, etc... It is obvious to all of us that you need money to make the series, but at least can you embed those more gently and make the durations of the shots shorter? It is so intrusively.

And to much drinking

• ok it is part of the character characteristics, but c'mon

Krum, Jana, Jingibi, Ani... should I continue Promoting drinking is not a good example for anybody. It is an anachronism!

Drinking is another way of running from your own traumas. Work on your traumas not on your addictions!

Be healthy and continue with the good tv content!

Ivaylo Penchev.

Time to travel

[shefchenko · 10/10 · 2 August 2021]

The plot isn't unique, and has been used multiple times throughout the years, but it hits home for sure. I have some critique about the acting, because it doesn't seem appropriate in some of the scenes, and even forced at times. But generally speaking, it's good. Dialogues are okay, directing is fine. And as far as I know, it's the first Bulgarian time travel type of series/movie. I enjoyed it, and hope to encourage it by this 10, because realistically - it's around 7.5-8.

Smooth Experience

[intg-57953 · 10/10 · 25 January 2022]

I enjoyed this bulgarian tv series a lot. Brought the vibe from the past, interesting story, authentic quality music and moments of love presented in a very well manner. Thank you guys for creating it, real people will value it.

Too good marketing

[alexcubata · 2/10 · 6 June 2021]

Mistakes in timelines, terrible sound, some good actors, but also some terrible. The dialogues should be better, especially after ep.2 Also, the editing wasn't very convincing. What was the idea behind the character of Yordanka Hristova??? Some heavy grammar mistakes in the dialogues too. Back to the future weak copy in too many scenes and ideas(the numbers of the lottery-the sport almanach; playing one of G. Minchev's Sony infront of him in the past - McFly playing Johnny B. Good infront of C. Berry's cousin. As a co-producer, I am not happy of this production.

Yes for Nostalgy, no for mediocre acting

[whotheff · 5/10 · 10 January 2022]

Except for the huge nostalgia hit I took by this series, it could not move me much. Dialogues are unnecessarily long and sometimes dull. Sitting in the same room for 10 minutes, after witnessing time travel, with no emotion is bad acting and quite boring for the viewer. Velislav Pavlov's acting improves a bit in the second episode, but not by much. Slow, emotionless, "slick", talking lazy, with boredom in his voice. When I mentioned voice, I have to also mention the infamous bad sound of the Bulgarian cinema. Most younger actors were just spitting out their lines without acting. Voice sound was pretty quiet and hard to hear. Luckily it improved in episode 2. The beginning credits are too long, but this maybe intentional. There are several seconds in almost each shot which can be cut without harming the story. It would speed up the otherwise slow pace. Now the good part - excellent nostalgia trip throughout the 1979 communist Bulgaria: cars, props, communist slogans, clothes, toys, places.. A lot of small details to remind/picture the social and political situation at the time. Excellent use of the 2019 protests and the blend of old video footage and today's video shots. I hope next episodes to become better.