With "Matroesjka's", in 2005, writer/director Marc Punt (co-)created - hands down - the greatest Belgian series ever! It's still by far my personal favorite piece of television work ever to come out of this country, and it more than obviously was groundbreaking as well. Ever since "Matroesjka's", all native series, films and even daily soap shows have become more brutal, violent and vulgar. Many series attempted to imitate the success of "Matroesjka's", evidently. Some of them were really cool, most notably Luk Wyns' "Crimi Clowns", but nothing could ever top the original. The last person who I ever expected to imitate "Matroesjka's" was Marc Punt himself, but he did with this absurdly over-the-top (*), excessively violent and hyper-narcissist saga of the corrupt Antwerp Police (narcotics' department) versus the organized crime syndicates and drug cartels active in the Port of Antwerp.
In the world of "Fair Trade", there aren't too many differences between the good guys and the bad guys (and girls). Police commissioner Walter "Wally" Wilson and his assistant, the tough lesbian cop Robin, are as corrupt as the pest. They collect large sums of cash from drug baron Patrick Paternoster in exchange for anonymous tips about his competitors' transactions. Commissioner Wilson is also addicted to East-European prostitutes and shoves industrial amounts of white snow up his nostrils; - a true role model, in other words. Paternoster's biggest rival, the psychotic Bob "Martino" Martens, returns from Thailand and reclaims his position in the Antwerp drug circuit. Moreover, Martino has an old score to settle with Robin and he becomes the informant of Wilson's arch enemy inside the narcotics' brigade. Of course, as you might reckon, this description is only the tip of iceberg. "Fair Trade" serves the regular crime-cocktail, with mandatory ingredients like Russian mobsters, savage executions, loathsome lawyers scavenging for procedural errors, kidnapping, double-crossing and Antwerp swearing. Lots and lots of Antwerp swearing.
"Fair Trade" can't hold a candle to "Matroesjka's". In fact, I found the first episode so embarrassing that I narrowly quit watching. Luckily, the series gets better along the way, mostly thanks to the non-stop spitfire of graphic violence and black humor. The plot twists and turns like a pretzel and the frame-ups grow more and more absurd. They better be working on a second season already, though, since the finale of last episode was downright terrible.
(*) I'm claiming to plot is far-fetched and absurd, but whilst the series was airing on television, another Belgian scandal came to the surface in which prominent lawyers and police officers are involved. It's probably more realistic than we think.
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