NinadeL

Season 1 became the absolute hit among Czech domestic series after the year 2000. However, this fact was deservedly killed by the crypto-fascist move to release 11 episodes of a 12-episode set on 11 DVDs.

Nowadays you can watch the entire series (34 episodes) on DVD in the original, read the books, etc., but the best part of the whole thing has always been the award-winning costumes and the impeccable sets and great music. Because the kind of 1920s that the BBC managed to create is something perfect. There's nothing lacking at all. It’s got fun and parties, but also crisis, middle-class honor, and clashes between the classes. On top of that, we get modern art, aviation, and silent film. London and Paris... What more could you ask for? I just wish Jack Maddox (Aden Gillett) was real :) Season 2 is just wonderful. It starts in London and ends on the road to America. Bea succumbs to Jack and Evie has a forbidden romance. The fashion collection is thriving and despite the unfavorable financial situation, newer and newer designs are being created, some for the theater, others for films.

At the beginning of the 90s, this was a very popular series by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins. In a way, the story of the two Eliott sisters follows Upstairs, Downstairs (a generational saga from 1903-1930). We follow Evangeline (Louise Lombard) and Beatrice (Stella Gonet) in three stages (1920, 1924 and 1927) as the not-so-happy daughters of their father who kept them at home all the time, then as modern women waking up to an independent life (after their father dies), and finally as very successful businesswomen with their own dress salon. Naturally, several men, potential partners and wives, sometimes girlfriends, sometimes rivals, pass through their lives...

While Lynda Carter played her Diana incredibly elegantly on TV, whether she was covered from head to toe or just wore a bathing suit, the comic book version had just returned to the Justice League after some very tumultuous events, but thankfully 70's fashion wasn't all turtlenecks and ridiculously large glasses ;) Perhaps a hinted-at move to L.A. would have helped Season 4, but sadly that never happened.

The next season, the series moved to CBS under the new title The New Adventures of Wonder Woman and the storyline shifted to the then-present 1970s. Diana thus had to overcome the time shift at first, but then life was back to normal. Instead of Hitler, we now just need to keep nuclear war within limits. Or perhaps a danger from outer space. Lyle Waggoner is still present as Steve Trevor, but there's no spark between him and Diana anymore because they're a generation apart. On the other hand, he is her supervisor and she works as an IADC field agent and their mutual friend is the IRAC computer and Rover, the mechanical dog. In the second half of the season, everything is more focused on Wonder Woman's solo action, which is conditioned by the "Diana Prince in distress" situation - and thanks to this, Wonder Woman has more opportunities to show off her abilities both on land and underwater. Unfortunately, no continuous plot is resolved, so the only real tension comes from the stories that are a continuation of Wonder Woman's adventures during World War II. Still, there is a certain contemporary charm in the details of each story that makes the tension between the TV and comic book worlds of Wonder Woman stand out today.

I almost can't believe that Wonder Woman was such a relatable series a good 20 years before Xena. It’s equally funny, fresh, ironic and of course with a very well-balanced portion of good and evil. Finally, Princess Diana aka Wonder Woman herself is an amazon from an idyllic island that hasn't seen a man in 26 centuries... and now, in 1942, she arrives just in time to fight the Nazis. So yes, there's a bit of poetics, but mostly I understand the Double Dare documentary, which in 2004 linked the fates of Wonder Woman and Xena. Her crown acts as a chakram, and her lasso makes her opponents speak the truth, just like Xena's legendary knowledge of pressure points. Wonder Woman may use a similar alter ego to Superman, but Xena, in turn, also made a visit to the 1940s (alongside a female Indiana Jones). Moreover, the two heroes share a bond with Greek mythology and some episodes of both series are like a mirror of themselves. Now all I need for perfect happiness is the same positive attitude of Lucy Lawless toward her heroine that Lynda Carter has had toward hers for years. After Wonder Woman also come to Hollywood during the war, the Wonder Woman aka The New Original Wonder Woman series on ABC ended.

The final season of Pan Tau was available as individual episodes or in cuts for two feature films, Alarm in the Clouds and I Won’t Conjure After Today. The main roles were played by the children's elite of the time, Hofbauer and Bočanová, with Brodský and Brejchová as the adults. We know the same practice from films with Žaneta Fuchsová. But because even that was not enough, the final full stop for the whole phenomenon was the film Pan Tau, screened as of January 1, 1989, making the 23-year-long series the longest-running Czech series ever.

The third series is Robinson-esque by Ota Hofman. Menšík, Bohdalová, Filipovský, and Peterka are all there as usual, although Peterka is unusually funny this time. The scenes where Bohdalová sells movie theater tickets are pleasant. The island episode is Šimánek's solo in the double role of Tau and Alfonz. If there were more stories like this, the whole series would be much more timeless. Alas. In this way, Karel Höger's unintentionally parodic commentary, the ubiquitous weather girl Julinka, and the goat Cleo all come to light. If the saintly Beneš, the know-it-all Somr, the bland Smejkalová, the crazy Čížková, the Dítě/Hanus duo come along, we then approach communal satire by leaps and bounds. The question of whether Alfonz is a good member of socialist society is answered by Bek and his big-mouthed suit in the chocolate factory. Later on, Bláha, Hrzán, Vala, and Šmída as Mafiosi are alienating Julinka, and we're not done yet... The pleasant theme has dissolved into one big mess.

Werich's stories about the little girl Claudia and Mr. Viola are much more acceptable than the previous purely normalization episodes, thanks to their subtly fairy-tale touch. True, nowadays the cries of technology are not so impressive, there is no sci-fi and dreaming at the Hluboká castle belongs entirely in the archives of the FSB/ČST. There are also minuses, a musical insert, or the unnecessarily dishonorable Ferbasová-Tichánková combination... But also some partial pluses. Tau, as a representative of the Globus travel agency, arranges Viola and Claudia's trip around the Czech regions. In a way, it's a shame because the original order with a few extras sounded a bit more appealing and exotic (Loch Ness was in play, for example ;)). The supporting roles featuring Lanďák and Kopecký have their own charm alongside Werich. Along with the weather girl episodes, this season is the most typical for a series with Pan Tau.

Season 1 of Pan Tau is a mixture of puppet film, children's film, musical and late slapstick. However, years after the pilot episode produced by Carlo Ponti, the format has undergone some changes. All your favorite normalization actors are in place and there's no reason to object, or...? Lovers of Bohdalová, Budínová, Štekl, Sovák, or Dvorská regularly watch all the reruns. Whether they take place in a block of flats or in the mountains.