「ネメシス」
In a new Dutch thriller streaming on Hulu, a team of investigators pursues a man who laundered money in offshore shell companies to avoid taxes. That doesn’t really sound fascinating, does it? Well, at least the first episode has threats and other interesting twists, right? GOOD…
NEMESIS: Stream it or ignore it?
Opening shot: Podcaster Nina Jacobs (Jade Olieberg) repeats her explanation about financial crimes that often take place in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
The bottom line: In The Hague, Lars van Deumen (Romana Vrede), a Dutch tax detective FIOD, discusses the attack on an online gaming company, in a case launched by prosecutor Sylvia van Maele (Lies Visschedijk). As the team goes to the offices of the gambling company, which is also the headquarters of 125 other shell companies, Lars executes the warrant which allows them to search electronic documents and break into the office safe of the director.
Suddenly, two lawyers arrive, one of whom, Sabine de Wolff (Mara van Vlijmen), seems to know Sylvia. They said Sylvia had the “wrong address.” She soon receives a call from Ed Koppers (Peter Blok), who is her boss, to call off the raid.
Right after meeting his new assistant, Daniel de Leuuw (Celion Kerk), they meet Ed, and he tells Sylvia that the company is owned by “good guys”, which means he means high-ranking government officials. Oh, and there’s a position in another division he thinks she’d be perfect for. When Daniel asks her what happened at the meeting, she replies, “I think I just got fired.” »
Sabine meets Sylvia to give her the bills incurred by the FIOD during the aborted raid. But then she inserts another bill that Sylvia believes involves huge payments to a shell company controlled by a man named Martin Heezinik (Chris Peters). Later that night, Sabine calls Sylvia drunk and tells her that she hates working for who she works for, and she has more information where that comes from. Unfortunately, Sabine is found dead the next day; either she jumped from her balcony – from where she called Sylvia – or she was pushed.
The information, however, is enough to go after Heezinik and the law firm Sabine worked for. With the help of Nina, the podcast host who seems to know more about Heezinik than they do, they recruit Faber Metekohij (Mustafa Duygulu), under house arrest for financial crimes, to see if she can convince the law firm to establish create an illegal shell company. Behind Ed’s back, Sylvia obtains the warrant for Faber to wear a microphone. This not only complicates things because Ed is her boss, but he is also her ex-husband and the father of their son Julius (Florian Regtien).
What shows will this remind you of? The Golden Hour and Van Der Valk, other Dutch detective series, except this one deals with financial crimes.
Our opinion: The details of the crimes being investigated on Nemesis, created by Willem Bosch based on Simon de Waal’s book, are murky at best. As Nina says at the end of each episode of her podcast: “If you’re confused by something we’ve discussed, that’s precisely the point. “So if a podcast devoted to unraveling the web of financial malfeasance in the Netherlands and elsewhere acknowledges that what it’s talking about is confusing, then we’re not sure how clear a detective series about it would be.
There’s an interesting dynamic between Sylvia and Lars, who go back and forth more as if they were work – and sometimes life – partners than like a cop executing raids orchestrated by a prosecutor. And, of course, much of this case has to do with Sylvia’s personal life, as it appears that Ed is involved in covering up the malfeasance that is occurring.
We keep talking about “malfeasance” because, let’s face it: financial crimes may seem like an interesting drama, but it really isn’t. Bosch ups the ante by turning up bodies here and there, but the main focus of this investigation is on shell companies, Cayman Islands accounts, possible links to organized crime and other shady financial elements. It’s all serious, but not interesting enough to sustain an entire season of investigative activity.
Sex and skin: None in the first episode.
Starting shot: Sylvia swears there’s someone in the house in the middle of the night; she finds Julius and snuggles with him in his room.
Sleeping Star: Soumaya Ahouaoui plays Ellen van Raat, a young lawyer at the firm Sylvia targets, who has enough common sense to avoid involving her firm in financial shenanigans. When Sylvia notes that her firm managed Heezinik’s accounts before 2016, Ellen retorts: “I was 17 in 2016.”
Most pilot line: Sylvia’s potential replacement, Markus Frederiks (Bram Suijker), tells Daniel to keep an eye on Sylvia. “She might be the smartest person in this whole place, but…I’m not saying.” But you understand, don’t you? You understand me, yeah? What is he supposed to get?
Our call: SKIP IT. Nemesis is well acted and we liked the interactions between the characters. But the crimes and case pursued by the main characters are murkily written and we don’t really care whether they bring down the nominal “bad guys” or not.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but he’s under no illusions: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.