Ludik
Ludik: First time to forget the original South African seriality on Netflix with the sluggish thriller created by Paul Buys and Annemarie Van Basten, available on the platform from 26 August 2022.
On August 26, 2022, the date chosen for Ludik's release on Netflix, among the nations that had not yet stamped the original seriality tag on the Stars and Stripes platform (which previously had only offered the Sauvage Beauty miniseries) was among others the South Africa which, on the other hand, on the cinema front has already had some fleeting experience with films produced or set in that geographical area such as I Am All Girls and The Siege of Silverton.
Now, this box has been filled in by the series created by Paul Buys and Annemarie Van Basten, directed by Ian Gabriel and Harold Hölscher who shared the six one-hour episodes that compose it in equal parts. The first time in general should never be forgotten, but unfortunately, this is not the case, because the structural deficiencies that can be found in the course of the vision are so many that they do not allow the show to remain standing and at least tear a skimpy enough in the report card.
The many cracks present in narrative and dramaturgical architecture, starting with the incurable ones caused by writing, extend to the point of causing its collapse. Moreover, if the solid foundations on which to be able to count are lacking and the supporting columns prove unable to support the weight of a story built over a long distance, the percentage of failure can only be high.
Ludik: a story that has the unmistakable aftertaste of heated minestrone, in which the authors have thrown random ingredients
Trying to dig deeper in search of the reasons that led to the disastrous fall, the first suspicions lead straight to the script and to the lack of originality of a story that has the unmistakable aftertaste of heated soup, in which the authors have thrown random ingredients into the hope that the outcome would prove them right.
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| Ludik/Netflix |
The creators of the series have decided to walk blindly into the minefield of thriller and crime, to tell the misadventures of an enterprising mobile tycoon who in order to save his kidnapped brother-in-law is forced to use his secret diamond smuggling business to transport arms across the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. A plan that obviously if it were to come to light would shatter the empire he created, destroying his family as well.
The reason why the protagonist, Daan Ludik, will do everything to prevent this from happening and to resolve the situation he will field all the knowledge in his possession, relying on old collaborators and making new alliances. But as the old school thriller teaches us, snipers, double agents, traitors, and corrupt are never lacking and it is from those that the character played by Arnold Vasloo must be defended in the first place.
Ludik's plot develops horizontally without jolts, depriving the pilot of the tension and contribution of the cliffhangers
In this sense, already from the plot reading there was an intense smell of burning, the one that normally once intercepted signals the beginning of fire destined, if not tamed in time, to flare up, reducing everything that comes within range to ashes. Here it is a short circuit in the script that caused the fatal spark.
The weakness of the story and the laziness of the writing manifest themselves in many different forms together representing the insurmountable obstacle beyond which the final result fails to go. The plot develops horizontally without jolts, depriving the pilot of the contribution of the cliffhangers, ie those "precipices" that leave the viewer poised on the edge that separates one episode from the next. No relaunching therefore, rather we proceed by inertia, with the character of Ludik who finds himself from time to time resolving situations and hiding others.
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| Ludik/Netflix |
Meanwhile, he will also have to deal with family issues, which inevitably take a back seat because they are not thoroughly investigated (the conflictual relationship with the violent father, the unresolved one with his brother, wife, and children), in favor of the criminal odyssey. Housewives dynamics would have deserved more space or at least equal treatment.
Arnold Vosloo tries in every way to give depth and credibility to his character, but more than a lot he can't because he is poorly supported by the script and by his colleagues on the set
In doing so, the mismanagement of the creative phase has triggered a chain reaction, a domino effect that has destabilized and impoverished the framing and all that it collects. The mild pace, the exasperation of certain merely accessory dynamics, the poor quality in the development of the one-lines of the primary and secondary characters, as well as the inability to create tension for almost the entire duration of the series, except for the last two episodes, prevents the viewer from getting involved in the story and its evolutions until an ending that leaves you totally indifferent.
The contribution in front of the camera of Vasloo, the Imhotep of the two chapters of The Mummy, but also the Peyton Westlake of the second and third chapters of the Darkman trilogy, where he inherited the role from Liam Neeson, is of little use. For his part, he tries in every way to give depth and credibility to the figure they have entrusted to him, but more than that he cannot because it is not supported by the script and by his colleagues on a set where it is really difficult to find someone able to act in a dignified manner.