DE DAG

BELGIUM TV SHOW

imdb.com

“What could happen in only one day? This thrilling hijacking low-key full of strategy encounter and action-jammed”

Season: 1

Year: 2018

Rating in IMDB: 8,4

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Creators: Gilles Coulier and Dries Vos

Main Casts: Sophie Decleir (Vos), Lukas De Wolf (Ibrahim), Johan van Assche (Ivo), Willy Thomas (Roeland), Maaike Neuville (Freya), Jeroen Perceval (Arne)

The story unfolds a bank hijacking in the Brussels center. Starting from the negotiator team, Vos, Roeland, and Ibrahim called to team up with the special force for getting the hijackers. The hijacking event happened at dawn of the morning when the two hijackers started to attack the bank. Three bank workers, Serge, Michael, and Walter were the hostages eventually and some other people who were incidentally the hostage too. These are the unlucky people who got a coincidence in the bank at the wrong time: Freya (daughter from the popular businessman and she has a rich family) and two children from the worker at the bank.

If you have watched Money Heist or La Casa De Papel from Spain Netflix, you familiar with this kind of story. But, this show has a different tone. This show doesn’t embrace the bizarre tone or crazy ideas like Money Heist. De Dag shows the reality of the police team or hijacking event would like to happen, especially in a safe city where it is impossible to do such a big criminal. As an example, the negotiator team pictured not as a perfect team and they sometimes failed to do certain strategies. The police team doesn’t always successful, they often get challenged and pressured by the hijackers. On the other side, the hijacker team gets some pressure too and they aren’t pictured as the best evil team or something like that. Both two sides show their weakness and try so hard to solve their faults or weaknesses.

De Dag not only viewed the police and hijacker or hostage side, but also the hostage’s family and the several parties who are involved in the hijacking events. For example, the journalists often annoy the police by breaking the protected area surrounding the bank. Surprisingly, these journalists helped the police in the latter incident (at the last episodes). Besides the journalists' side, the families are of course the most vulnerable target. When Freya; the daughter from the overpower father; Rolf Van Landschoot becomes the hostage, he tried so hard to get his daughter back by intruding his will. And, spoiler for you, Rolf Van Landschoot and his family would lead the most of the mystery in this story (like why hijacking event happened, et cetera).

This show is smart, the plot in the police team and the hijacker team completing each other perfectly. I only find small plot holes and those don’t destruct the overall story. There are also some twists in some last episodes. Moreover, De Dag conveyed the event in a unique way. Within 12 episodes, De Dag shows the side of the police team in the odd episodes (1, 3, 5, etc). Meanwhile, the side of hijackers and the hostages in the bank viewed in the even episodes (2, 4, 6, etc). This kind of storytelling made me engaged.