Ethniki Ellados

I don't usually write reviews, but I had to do it for this.

In this TV series we see a group of four women, who are ready to drop everything in their life, but suddenly they decide to form the first ever national team of Greece in the sport of Curling (a sport unknown to the Greek audience). After some research in this "exciting sport", they find a Greek-Canadian curling champion, and together they set sail for the championship.

Now,you'd think that the plot is not really bad, and that Kapoutzidis (the writer of the scenario and also the actor who plays the curling champion) will succeed in delivering it correctly to the Greek audience, but he is really far from it. He thinks that it's wise to add a LOT of known social problems in the Greek Community, instead of sticking just to one, or two. He only scratches the surface in problems like racism, homophobia, domestic and road violence, in a failed attempt to show the audience how things are in his mind. He is really inordinate and excessive, and his dialogs are ALWAYS far from reality or they are trying to find a new way, a new solution for these problems. The other actors are trying hopelessly to save the situation, but they can't, due to the scenario that is was given to them.

After a long and successful career of sitcoms and comedies, Kapoutzidis decides to form a drama series, by far his biggest mistake. I really don't like where this is going, and of course I change the channel when "Ethniki Ellados" is on.

Awful series, the worst one in Greek Television right now.

The central concept is a reminder of the Disney classic "Cool Runnings": five very different people unite in order to form the most unlikely national team - curling being for Greece what bobsledding is for Jamaica.

Niki Aggelidou is a former volleyball teen champion, now a struggling divorced mother of a teenage daughter and a disabled ten-year-old son. After yet another failed job interview and with her practical and financial problems piling up, she decides to change her life and follow a crazy dream: to form the first national curling team in Greece. Niki manages to persuade her reluctant sister Froso, whose life as a talentless hair dresser in a failing marriage has also reached a dead end, to help her in her venture. Together they also recruit Foivi, an actress whose career and fame had been built on her exposure to the media and constant presence on the gossip columns rather than her actual talent.

After some research, the three women find the Greek-Canadian curling champion Christos Melitis and ask him to become their coach. He is not thrilled with the idea, given his past disappointments with how things work in Greece, which have also turned him into a recluse. When he is finally persuaded to help, the four of them recruit the last member of the team, bubbly Cypriot Stallo, who spends her time going to all sorts of talent show auditions.

The newly formed national curling team will have to fight against corrupted entrepreneurs, bureaucracy, the general gloominess of the Greek situation under the economic crisis, as well as to conquer their own fears, inhibitions, and complete lack of experience with the sport.

Ethniki Ellados is abundant in social messages(unsubtly criticising corruption, discrimination, lack of support from the state, the rise of neo-Nazi groups in multicultural neighborhoods etc) to a degree that could be deemed patronising. At the same time, however, it is full of heartwarming and inspiring moments of well-written and well-acted drama, sprinkled with Giorgos Kapoutzidis' ("Sto Para Pente", "Savvatogennimenes") familiar comedic style.

Ethniki Ellados is a powerful TV series, that bravely tackles a lot of taboo issues of modern Greece and tells a story of hope and perseverance against all obstacles.