The series rides on the wave of popularity of 'light' athletics in communist czechoslovakia of the eighties/nineties... It is however a very sad story of an ageing and written off athlete ; the collection of top czech actors elevate the otherwise shallow and simplistic story to an almost watchable tv drama. A surprisingly realistic reflection on the life of 'professional athletes' paid by the communist government / becoming employees within industrial entities and fed and looked after by communist sports bodies and groomed to win and beat the imperialist/capitalist competitors at all cost.
A lot of the dialogues and subplots are typical for the tv production of that era and are quite sad to watch; talented but I sufficiently loyal actors forced to play degrading and trivial parts and take part in a nasty propaganda wrapped in an emotional coat... technically relatively good portrayal of the training and daily routines of the professional runners and a transformation the athletic Union was going through in eighties.
The denial of doping as a serious challenge and a skeleton in a closet of all communist block countries was to be expected. The sport on a European and international level was a matter of political prestige for all communist governments some of which were more than willing to utilise the methods of the Soviet Union and sacrifice a few bodies in the process. Here it is indirectly suggested that the 'baddie' coach who offers 'assistance' of doping to one of the athletes brings the drugs from the west while the athlete surprisingly does not represent the socialist morals but refuses his 'help' out of genuine doubt of the efficacy.
One of few points which does not reflect on the reality of the czech professional sports men and women - majority of which - the talents and prospective representatives had no choice and were fed drugs from the east and west in order to meet the political demands of the top brass and expected to be beating western athletes regularly and often at all costs.
