Kalimera zoi

In 1989 Nikos Foskolos produced two Greek soaps. "I Lampsi" was the first to air and "Kalimera Zoi" followed shortly afterward. What can I say, except that both shows were exactly the same. If one word could describe these shows, it's "monotony".

I honestly don't know how these shows survived 16 years on air. It was even being sold overseas on video cassette for rental. I watched only a few episodes, not by choice might I add, only because we had one TV in the house and my mother would watch it faithfully.

From what I have heard when these shows started they were watched everyday by the whole of Greece. It was Greece's hottest produce at the time. By 1999 when I came to Greece, it was watched ONLY by old ladies and grandmothers who believed the story lines were heart-wrenching.

It's not surprising though when in all truth the characters were shallow, the plot was completely hideous, the sets were all the same, and the only thing it achieved in telling us was that the Greek police force is completely useless. I remember one storyline in particular where the wife of the chief-of-police went missing, the whole police force searched high and low for months and couldn't find her anywhere, yet her husbands daughter who wanted her dead found her the very next day, on a busy road, in the heart of the city! It took about 6 months for that particular storyline to end.

Thank God these shows finally came to an end. It's beyond me how they lasted well into the new millennium.