In Badgast a father with his daughter moves to Terschelling to start a diving school. In reality, he's there to retrieve a stash of drugs. In Badgast, we meet Vince (Tom Waes), owner of a diving school in Curaçao. For years, the divorced man has promised his daughter Zoë to take her there and teach her how to dive. When he reappears in Belgium, he takes his daughter to Terschelling under the pretense of setting up a diving school there.
The reality is that Vince got into trouble in Curaçao and therefore has to go to Terschelling to retrieve a lost shipment of drugs. Once the duo arrives on Terschelling, they each go their own way. Vince, of course, doesn't want Zoë to find out the real reason for the Terschelling trip.
Zoë quickly makes some friends on the island, and Vince looks for a way to retrieve the drugs. Just when he is about to succeed, the island is hit by a storm, and Vince has to return without the drugs. A storm on the Wadden Islands also means beachcombing afterward, and who finds the washed-up drugs? That's right, Zoë and her friends. They start a small business with the found drugs, which naturally doesn't go unnoticed by the local dealers. Vince's problems are far from over. The situation attracts even more unsavory characters who suddenly appear on Terschelling.
After the first episode, we had our doubts about Badgast, and even in the following episodes, the series couldn't really convince. Perhaps too much was happening, and the series needed the viewers to be slowly but surely steered in the right direction. Eliciting sympathy for someone who lies and deceives is, of course, not the easiest task. But Vince may not be the best father, he does want to be there for his daughter. He just doesn't quite manage it.
The various characters living on Terschelling initially seem to be mere fillers in the story, but gradually they become more important, and their true nature emerges. Slowly but surely, the series builds towards a climax, and with each episode we watch, Badgast becomes more interesting and stronger. Especially when problem solver Richard (Frank Focketijn) appears. Focketijn manages to seriously elevate the series' level, making the final balance slightly higher than we initially estimated after episode one.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
