The truth is that with police series Greek fiction hasn’t always been on the best of terms, yet Alpha’s new series, The Scarab,which premiered last night in combination with some other productions of the last two years, shows a renewal of the specific genre in Greek fiction and probably in a positive direction.
On the other hand, the Greek public is trained in police series as it has watched – and even obsessively – foreign productions and so the bar is high.
But let’s go to Skaraveos, not the well-known Athenian bar, but to an alternative policeman and his… everyday life.
The introduction is interesting, with Topological phase transitions from Remute, it puts you straight into the atmosphere, the colors are dark and dull, just like the cases that Scarab undertakes to solve.
A woman walks alone in a parking lot, is attacked by an unknown man wearing a mask and takes her with him.
Konstantina Michael in a cameo, a la Angeliki Nikolouli, was an apt choice and the actress evolves in every role she plays – big or small – and always pleasantly surprises us.
Yiannis Tsortekis, plays Markos Alexiou or Skaravio, the central character of the series and from the first moment he makes an easy transformation, from a popular capsuleer in the series “This night lasts” last year to an alternative policeman who not only has to deal with difficult cases in his work, but also in his personal life.
The technique of Yiannis Tsortekis, always slightly distanced from the role, but extremely internal and with nuances of sensitivity, gives the hero-role the character he was looking for to stand out.
His partner Martha Lazaridis is played by Maria Papafotiou, who supports him well, it wouldn’t be annoying if the role gave some tension in scenes with her partner. After all, she plays a dynamic woman.
The lens now zooms in on an elderly woman imprisoned, silent, playing with her dolls.
She is the mother of Scarabaios, that’s why she also looks at his photos, Elena Alexiou, played by Rania Economidou, an actress who always masterfully uses two powerful acting tools in her performances: the voice and the look, she creates fragile sensitive performances that they initiate emotion. And he succeeded this time too.
Nikoleta Karras, as Margarita Constantinou, the half-sister of Scaravaios, makes a surprise and proves that she likes to be tested and accept challenges pretendingly and it’s not bad at all, because in the end she succeeds.
We see Giorgos Pyrpasopoulos maturing very nicely acting, he leaves behind the roles of the lover or lighter characters and now moves into roles with depth and psychological layers. He is followed by the cynical Makis Priovolos and we wait to see what happens next.
We expect to see something similar from Alexandra Tavoularis, Vasso Kavalieratos, Manolis Mavromatakis, because in the first episode we didn’t see enough of them to form an opinion or opinion about their role and how it will unfold in the future.
The costume part, which in recent years has improved a lot in Greek productions, was in the right direction. We saw people dressed normally, according to the circumstances and the demands of their role.
A cold color palette was chosen for the photo, it wouldn’t hurt us if it made some “breaks” of warmer tones that would also give some feeling, some emotion. It is known that colors affect the mood of the viewer,
The lighting is also cold, yes appropriate because the case mainly moves in business premises, we are dealing with crime, but also with people.
The directorial direction was also not very evident in the first episode, a cinematic image for sure, but it needs to develop a distinctive identity, but that’s something I think will be found along the way.
The soundtrack is atmospheric and inspires mystery, the subject matter also had a topical “tinge”, because in the background the femicides entered the scene.
The script therefore takes the pulse of the society, what is happening around us and passes it on to the fiction, keeping the pace right in the suspense. I also noticed that it had references to known crimes of passion that had rocked Greek society in the past. However, the dialogues should be tighter, more personalized.
In general from a first taste, the evenings will also acquire police interest with the Scarab which undoubtedly it’s a powerful series, this is a genre of fiction that has been sorely lacking and we will see… Good start!