‘The Green Globe Gang’ Review: Three Old Ladies Are Ready to Take It All
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Netflix has been pushing crime dramas left and right in the last couple of months. With good reason, because these shows managed to gather quite a following and people kept watching them from beginning to end. Poland has also been doing a lot of great things, and many of its best productions end up being released on Netflix. The two partners collaborate once again on The Green Globe Gang, a crime series that also adds a bit of comedy to brighten things quite a bit.
The Green Globe Gang is a Polish TV series developed by Netflix, directed by Tadeusz Sliwa, and written by Joanna Hartwig-Skalska, and Anna Novák-Zemplinska. The series tells the story of three old ladies who are actually veteran thieves. When one of their heists goes the wrong way, they need a place to hide and lie low for a while. Their best option ends up being a nursing home for the elderly. There, they will find new friends and also new accomplices.
A show like The Green Globe Gang is very much needed today. Netflix and other streaming shows have been focusing a bit too much on drama series. This is good, because there is nothing better than a well-written drama. However, more lighthearted shows have been taking a step back because of it. This is sad, because comedies can be just as equally good. Yes, they are harder to do, and not everyone finds the same things to be funny, but when done right, they can end up gathering quite a bit of a following.
The Green Globe Gang tries to be just that, a show that people can watch, have a good time, and then be done with it. The series consists of eight episodes with an average runtime of 30 minutes. This is one of those series you begin watching and then finish without even realizing it. Many other streaming services, such as Amazon, and Apple TV+ have been moving away from the binge-watch model, but Netflix continues to deliver the entire series at the same time. This can be an advantage for some series and a disadvantage for others.
For The Green Globe Gang it means that people can watch the series all at once, and for a show with short episodes, this is the best way to watch it. Shows with longer episodes might have the choice of releasing just one episode per week, but shows with short episodes might not have what it takes to satisfy the audience from week to week. This is what is happening with the latest Marvel TV shows. The release schedule is weekly, but the episodes are so short that they don’t register at all.
The Green Globe Gang doesn’t look or is a very expensive show to make, and yet, the production values are quite solid for what the series must do to sell the world and the characters. The series just needs real-world locations and not much else, so you won’t be seeing big visual effects sequences here. The directing comes across as solid, but there is really nothing visually striking in the show. All the shots and the lighting remind you that this is a Polish show, and it seems to be afraid of color quite a bit.
The actors are really what make the show stand out. Especially, the three leading ladies. The trio of thieves is played by Malgorzata Potocka, Anna Romantowska, and Magdalena Kuta. Each of the veteran actresses comes across as confident and comfortable in their roles. This is a must because these characters need to always appear in control, even when things are going sideways. The trio is quite charming, and you can really feel that the friendship between them is quite incredible.
However, the show isn’t perfect. Some storylines feel like they could have been done in fewer episodes, and for a show that is so short, some second acts of the season feel like running in circles. There are enough fun things happening here and there, but the plot doesn’t move forward enough. This is a shame because you can definitely see that a tighter plot could have made the show even better than it already is. Thankfully, watching our trio of heroes is always a good time.
In the end, The Green Globe Gang serves as a good distraction. It is the most compelling crime comedy you will ever see, but it is charming enough to warrant one viewing. The short length of the episodes also makes it easy to watch, even when the middle of the season gets a bit repetitive. As it is, the show keeps proving that Poland is ready to go to the big leagues when it comes to producing films and TV shows that can be competitive in the international market.
Will The Green Globe Gang be remembered after its debut week? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot have a great time watching it.
