KLEM Season One: A Great Start For This Dutch Breaking Bad Lookalike

Klem is a Dutch thriller and drama series. The first season was released in 2017. The series has been broadcast by the BNNVARA. Its first episode aired on January 19, 2017, and attracted 1.4 million viewers. The first season consists of 10 episodes. The series has been developed and written by Frank Ketelaar and Robert Kievit. Today I am reviewing the first season of Klem. I do this in preparation for my reviews of the second and third season of Klem.

The story of Klem

Klem season one tells the story of Hugo Warmond (Barry Atsma). He is a high-ranking tax official living in Amsterdam-Zuid with his two daughters. His wife and mother of his children has died of cancer. The series has been set three years after this loss. Hugo’s youngest daughter, meanwhile, has a best friend named Chrissie. Chrissie’s father turns out to be the just released criminal Marius Milner (Jacob Derwig). Marius gets into financial trouble because he still has to pay back a lot of money to a former buddy and accomplice.

Kitty (Georgina Verbaan) is the mother of Chrissie and the wife of Marius. She supported Hugo’s family after the death of his wife. Now, Kitty enlists the help of Hugo to solve her family’s financial problems. No matter how much Hugo fights it, as a neat tax inspector, he gradually ends up more and more in the criminal world. This, of course, brings with it major consequences.

The idea for this film script came from screenwriter Frank Ketelaar. In 2004, he heard from his little daughter that real estate trader Willem Endstra was liquidated close to her school. His daughter told him about the dead man lying in the street. This led Ketelaar to the realization that criminals could be living in the same neighborhoods as passing parents or citizens. He began to wonder about what might happen if the child of law-abiding people befriended the child of a criminal. On this he formed his first screenplay, but this story had never been filmed. In later years, it did form the basis for the television series Klem. The first shootings of the series took place in 2016. The 10 episodes of season 1 were filmed in about 75 days.

Klem vs. Breaking Bad

Klem is a perfect example that Dutch television series are not immediately bad. It may take Klem season one a few episodes before the story takes off. But from episode 3 onwards, I was incredibly hooked on this Dutch thriller series as a viewer. As a series, Klem season one reminds me most of the first season of Breaking Bad. Just like in that famous American series, we see how a civilized citizen slowly enters the criminal world. About my next statement, some of you might not agree, but in my opinion the first season of Klem is better than the first season of Breaking Bad.

The story of the first season is pretty much the same in the basics with both series. Namely, a normal citizen entering a criminal world. It is in the execution that Klem differentiates itself from Breaking Bad. The characters of this first season of Klem are simply more deeply developed and alive than the characters from Breaking Bad. By this, I do not mean that Walter White and Jesse Pinkman are not interesting characters, but in season one of Breaking Bad, these are the only interestingly fleshed-out characters in my opinion. In Klem, every main and secondary character is important to the further telling of this exciting story. Not only the characters of Jacob Derwig, Barry Atsma and Georgina Verbaan are developed. But also the side characters like Hannah, Laura, Chrissie and Suus get good character development.

Each episode gets better and better

As a viewer, you really experience the consequences of the actions the main characters take. From the sadness and disbelief that the children feel towards their parents to the fact that the police allow good citizens to be spied upon. In terms of edited images, the editing of Klem is tremendously strong. The first season of Klem uses an applied montage of simultaneous contrasting or similar events. This creates a connection between the two families and their corresponding characters. As a result, you will be fascinated watching the similarities and differences between the families. In terms of editing sound design, the series is a lot weaker, though. The supporting music is not the problem, but the editing of sound effects is. At times, then, a sound effect had been abruptly removed at the end of a scene, to proceed directly to another scene in another location.

As a result, the editing, and use of sound design, feels very messy. The script for the first few episodes also feels a bit sloppy. This is mainly because the screenwriters wanted to get as much exposition for the first season done in the first few episodes. As a result, there is just a bit too much happening in the first few episodes and as a viewer I didn’t know where to put my focus.

As a result, I often lost focus in the first few episodes. But the incredibly strong acting grabbed me from episode 3 onwards, and its grip on me only grew stronger each episode. As a viewer, I have also not been so shocked in ages while watching a series. This was due to one particular scene. I had to stop the series for a moment to process what I had just seen happen. This is the direct power of Dutch television series.

Conclusion

The biggest compliment I can give Klem is that this first season makes me want to watch more Dutch television series. If they are even half as good as Klem, then I already know that I can have fun with them. That’s how good Klem is as a series. So I definitely recommend this first season to fans of Dutch television series. But also to novice viewers who haven’t watched a lot of Dutch television series. Klem shows that Dutch series sometimes have a better start than award-winning American series like Breaking Bad. In short – Klem is a must-see television series.

Have you seen Klem? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!