Sylvia van Maele faces the case of her life in Nemesis when she decides to go after Martin Heezink. Who can be trusted and will she ever catch this elusive criminal? The first Dutch Disney+ series Nemesis started promisingly last month. As a prosecutor in this story, Sylvia van Maele (Lies Visschedijk, Soof: Een Nieuw Begin) has to deal with the biggest case of her life. When she unsuspectingly investigates a company, she is soon called back from higher up. Sylvia does not trust the case and decides to continue the investigation secretly together with her right hand Lars van Deurnen (Romana Vrede, Santos). However, she does not realize that this has consequences for her private life and that she is endangering the lives of everyone around her.
Sylvia's strong character is undone by certain actions she takes along the way.
The FIOD is central in Nemesis. The Netherlands turns out to be quite a tax haven for companies and that is exactly what this story is about. When such amounts are at stake, the step to other criminal practices is not great. In addition to embezzling money and fraud, murder and threats are also commonplace. The main suspect in this case is the elusive Martin Heezink (Chris Peters, A murder costs more lives). This young millionaire turns out to own an empire that is responsible for corruption within governments worldwide.
During the eight-episode series we find out who is involved in the Heezink case. The acting of a large part of the cast is excellent and convincing. Yet as the story progresses there are some implausible storylines that even the best actors cannot convey credibly. Sylvia's strong character is undone by certain actions she takes along the way. Moreover, the whole thing is sometimes unnecessarily complicated and events seem to be forgotten by the makers, which does not do the continuity any good.
Sylvia co-parents her teenage son Julius (Florian Regtien, Skam (NL)) with her ex-husband Ed Koppers (Peter Blok, Anoniem). Ed is also her boss at the Public Prosecution Service and a former teacher, which makes their relationship rather unbalanced, to say the least. Although the couple is no longer together, they have a good relationship. However, this is coming under pressure as the investigation into Martin Heezink progresses. Julius has a hard time with this and decides to investigate himself to find out what his parents are doing. His naivety gets in the way of this when he eventually ends up in the middle of the case.
The enthusiastic Nina Jacobs (Jade Olieberg, Ares) tries to conduct an investigation into both the FIOD and Martin Heezink simultaneously with her podcast 'Where's My Money?'. Although she initially gets in the way of Sylvia and her team, they soon form a kind of collaboration to find answers. Sylvia's colleague prosecutor Markus Frederiks (Bram Suijker, Vliegende Hollanders), on the other hand, is less easy to convince of a collaboration. He sees Sylvia's secret investigation mainly as a way to rise up and take away her job.
Nemesis initially manages to build up the tension well, but ultimately loses me as a viewer halfway through the story.
After the strong start I was very curious about the rest of the season. I had high expectations after seeing the first episode and at first Nemesis seemed to be able to live up to them. Unfortunately, the level dropped considerably halfway through the season. The story became more and more unbelievable and all kinds of unimportant storylines were added. The biggest disappointment was the ending of the series. Not only did many questions remain unanswered, even the most important thread was not completely completed. Yet the makers don't really seem to be hinting at a sequel with this ending. Why this ending was chosen is a mystery to me.
Nemesis is based on the book of the same name by Simon de Waal. Although I have not read this book, I suspect, based on online reviews, that the story of the series differs slightly from that of the book. We will never know whether the series would have been better if it had followed the book more closely. But as it stands now, it unfortunately disappoints in my opinion. As excited as I was about Nemisis after seeing the first episode, I was disappointed after seeing the entire series. Nemesis initially manages to build up the tension well, but ultimately loses me as a viewer halfway through the story. That's a shame because with this cast and visual finish, Nemesis could really have been a hit. But unfortunately it is now stuck at a final grade of just a passing grade as far as I am concerned.
Top cast! Highly recommended