Boxing Clever: A drug lord in a pimped up chalet in a local campsite — amazingly good
Undercover Netflix
Happy New Year. I hope you’re not one of those people who watches Christmas classics in January. I remember how sad I’d get watching or in the January gloom when I was I was a kid, the weekend before we went back to school. It was like an Easter Egg in September — out of date and out of place.
So that’s why you need to watch on Netflix. None of your snowy Christmas messages of hope and goodwill here. Set in Belgium, t his is The Sopranos crossed with and , and it’s amazingly good. As long as you stop after Season 1.
I’d never heard of it until a Dad mentioned it in the playground after school the other day. (As I said last week, all my best TV tips come from parents in the playground now.) Based on a true story, season one of Undercover orbits around one of the biggest ecstasy dealers in the world, a Dutch guy called Ferry Bouman, played by Frank Lammers. This drug dealer lives in a mansion in Belgium, but spends a lot of his time living in a pimped-up chalet in a local campsite, surrounded by his cronies. If this sounds contrived, it isn’t. The real life drug-lord who inspired Ferry Bouman did just that which is why the Belgian cops planted a ‘couple’ in a nearby chalet, with the aim of infiltrating the gang.
The TV show does the same, with ‘ Peter’ and ‘Anouk’ moving in next door to Ferry and his wife Danielle. There are plenty edge-of-the-seat scenes as they try to lure Ferry into a drug deal, but that’s only part of the attraction with Undercover.
The best bits are actually the domestic arrangements of the two couples. And, just like in , the most compelling character is actually the mobster’s wife. Carmela Soprano didn’t just have an awful taste in clothes, she had an awful taste in men. (Remember the creepy priest.) But she also tried to be a good person, while staying married to a monster.
Ferry’s wife, Danielle, brilliantly played by Elise Schapp is along the same lines. She commits a crime against fashion every single time she appears on the screen. But, like Carmela, she is a proper human being, torn between being nice to her neighbours and looking the other way on the whole drug-lord, murder stuff with Ferry.
There is a further bonus with Undercover. It’s funny. It will give you a laugh in early January, particularly if you decide to watch it subtitled instead of dubbed, because the Dutch for ‘in the campsite’ is ‘op de camping’, and every time Danielle said that, I nearly wet myself. (You probably had to be there.)
Don’t worry, I found plenty more to laugh at than a funny accent. And now for the bad news. Season 2 of Undercover isn’t half as good. That’s my opinion, take a look for yourself.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the news they’re making a prequel movie of Undercover, featuring Ferry and Danielle, which explains how they ended up running a drugs empire ‘op de camping’. I can’t wait.
