In one of the first scenes of The teacher and blue music (Netflix), a beautiful young woman appears riding a scooter through the narrow streets of an island in Greece. Everything is open air, sea and warm colours. Within minutes, you see the dark image of a man agitated by the carrying of a dead man which, of course, he wants to throw in the water to erase its traces.
Those two worlds, that of the island idyll and that of the abyss under the seabed where the mud rises -as the tango says-, try to tell the first Greek series of the streaming platform. The production, which took place on the island of Paxos in the waters of the Ionian Sea, has nine episodes lasting almost an hour.
Klelia (Klelia Andriolatou), the motorcycle girl and daughter of a businessman and candidate for mayor, falls in love with Orestis (Christopher Papakaliatis), a teacher 30 years her senior who comes to the island to organize a music festival . And, somehow, even up to shaking the apparent calm of the place.
hidden beauty and romance
Throughout the episodes, creators Christopher Papakaliatis and Akis Polizos show the beauties of the island and the slow and stormy progress of the love story between the teacher and the student. In turn, they start shelling the stories of love triangles and families often torn apart.
Dirty laundry appears in this display. Or at least, cloudy enough to cover so much Mediterranean beauty.
One of the men keeps thousands of euros under some wood in the cellar of his house. Another wife beats him and cooperates with him in his money laundering rackets. Women are bent. Young people want to go to Athens to have some freedom. And the teacher has his things to hide too.
One of the problems of The teacher and blue music is that, sometimes, he is only concerned with the visual brilliance of a beautiful photograph and music. Forcibly, she tries to sustain the tension of the story with numerous flashbacks, a resource that loses its effectiveness as the episodes go by.
a common sin
In this way, the series commits the sin of many other Netflix series: they extend the plot to the unspeakable. The result is a succession of repeated situations, a voice-over that tells, explains and tires, and lost characters; they all appear as lost creatures in unconvincing stories.
With themes that are too universal and landscapes that are too local, the series becomes diluted and boring, mainly due to a weak script. The chosen narrative, with multiple perspectives, does nothing but confuse and interrupt a certain rhythm of the story. The performances are only correct, but they are not enough to save European production.
A motorcycle ride through a blessed island in the Mediterranean is quite a plan. A forbidden romance can be tempting. Shady dealings and a crime add spice to the story. But none of that is enough to sustain an entire series, with more than six hours of screen time.
File
The teacher and blue music
Qualification: Regular.
Type: Romance and mystery protagonists: Christopher Papakaliatis, Klelia Andriolatou and Maria Kavoyianni creators: Christopher Papakaliatis and Akis Polizos Problem: Netflix Duration: nine 50-minute episodes
Source: Clarin
