In de Gloria

Directed by Jan Eelen, this sketch program is disguised as a human interest show. The characters are portrayed by the same cast of actors in every skit and sometimes guest actors are invited to expand the program's variety. Let me keep my opinion on this program very short: sublime, fantastic, excellent! What makes the show so fantastic? First of all, it's extremely recognizable, especially for the Flemish people, because it's about everyday people in everyday situations that become not so everyday when there's a camera in their face. The realistic quality of the program makes it so that the viewer can imagine it actually happening, which makes it all the more amusing. Second and foremost, it plays perfectly to the modern-day viewer's desire for things to go horribly wrong, and gives him exactly what they want.

It is mostly the realistic set-up and sublime acting of the cast members that makes this program to what it is: the best program ever produced by Woestijnvis, by the VRT and probably in the entire history of Belgian television, since the mid 1950s.

Americans, although they might not have realised it themselves, have most likely seen a skit from this program on the internet, where a talk show host finds himself having a laughing fit when a guest on his show - that had undergone a failed tonsil operation - speaks to him in a girlish, high-pitched voice. Many people think this happened on live television, but there you go, the secret's revealed! Besides this sketch, there are tons of other sketches, such as the worker that gets drunk after a squash game with his supervisor and calls him a 'faggot', an elderly actor that has gone dangerously senile, and the woman that can't sing along in church because she's unable to sing in tune. All of these elements combined make 'In de Gloria' what it is.

Real people, real situations, real comedy.

A big, fat 10 well earned.