Arcadia - Season 1

In dystopian Arcadia, it's all about your citizen score. Keeping this high is of vital importance because a score that is too low or committing a criminal offense means deportation.

The Dutch-Flemish series Arcadia, a collaboration between KRO-NCRV and VRT (Eén), contains everything a good series should have. However, this story has not become the great success that was hoped for. The first season, which had eight episodes, has now fully aired and a second season has already been ordered. Can a next season still make up for what went wrong during season one and is it even worth giving Arcadia (still) a chance?

Arcadia is primarily a complicated series with a lot of mystery and few answers.

Arcadia is een dystopische serie die op het eerste oog veel gelijkenissen lijkt te hebben met de Divergent films. In het beschermde Arcadia leven mensen volgens een puntensysteem. Hoe hoger je score, hoe meer luxe en rechten je hebt. Acties in het dagelijks leven kunnen je score beïnvloeden en als je score onder een bepaald getal daalt word je gedeporteerd. Een leven buiten Arcadia is voor de meeste mensen ondenkbaar. Gevaar ligt daar overal op de loer en middelen om te kunnen overleven zijn er nauwelijks.

The Hendriks family is a composite family headed by mother Cato (Monic Hendrickx, Penoza) and father Pieter (Gene Bervoets, Goesting). Their luxury life is brutally disrupted when it turns out that their scores have been cheated and someone within the family is responsible for this. After the deportation of the responsible family member, the remaining family members must start a new life now that they have lost not only a loved one but also their high civilian scores. This is an extra challenge for daughter Luz (Lynn Van Royen, Beau Séjour) who is autistic. Daughter Alex Jans (Melody Klaver, Incognito) is also having a hard time and she is struggling with her sense of responsibility.

With director Tim Oliehoek at the helm and a budget of more than one million euros per episode, I expected a film-like series of a high level. I can't deny that the environmental shots were beautifully made. Filmed on locations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France, these images were then digitally edited to build Arcadia. However, the story told little about how all this came about. The start was slow, very slow. After the main cast was introduced I hoped for more depth and background information, but instead, everything remained vague. There was much talk but little action.



The Shield is responsible for order in Arcadia and they work for, among others, the diligent Marco Simons (Maarten Heijmans, Ramses). He is targeting the Hendriks family and is willing to go to great lengths to catch them all. It is unclear exactly where this hatred comes from. In addition to law enforcement in Arcadia, there is also a field service that patrols around the protected city. When a sign of life emerges from this seemingly no man's land, it turns out that there are many more secrets surrounding Arcadia than previously thought.

The last episode was also the most exciting with the most action and development in it. If the makers had stuck to that from the start, I would probably have been a lot more positive about Arcadia. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that this was the only exciting moment during the season. The rest of the season babbles on without properly addressing how and why things happen. Many things remain unclear and although you eventually get to know the characters better, even they still lack depth that explains why they view life in a certain way.

Everything that has happened so far could have been told in half the time.

Arcadia is primarily a complicated series with a lot of mystery and few answers. The family relationships between the characters alone are not made very clear at any point. But it also remains a guess as to the ultimate idea behind Arcadia. Why did the entire community ever agree to this scoring system? How can the Shield have so much power over everyone without anyone really knowing what goes on outside of Arcadia? And what is actually outside Arcadia, what is everyone so afraid of?

I have no complaints about the special effects. The acting is fine and although the mix between Flemish and Dutch feels a bit strange in the beginning, you get used to it soon enough. The problem with the series is really in the story and story building. Everything that has happened so far could have been told in half the time. The ending didn't feel like an end but felt like you're somewhere in the middle of the story. And although you clearly notice that all the characters are afraid of something, the question remains what exactly they are afraid of. It's a shame because the idea of ​​the series is really good and it's not the cast's fault. But a lot more information, depth and excitement is needed to make Arcadia a success.