MOST!

The entire country went crazy about the TV show MOST! and it makes me think that it’s actually not a bad idea for shows and movies to be made to look more natural so that we can imagine where they may actually be taking place. On top of that, the city of Most was lucky that nobody thought much of it before the first episode aired. And now the city gets probably mentioned in any discussion among friends who are planning to go on a trip and haven’t decided where to go yet. Most! is simply a blast and in my opinion it is somehow the climax of the best stuff that the creative duo of Kolečko + Prušinovský could have put together. I was a bit worried about the serious part of the TV show because in the past I have seen cases where too much seriousness didn’t work out too well for Kolečko as a screenwriter. But Prušinovský is such a gooddirector that he can shoot the serious parts with the kind of lightness that I exactly need. In a similar vein, Mr. Menzl always managed to do that with the stories of Bohumil Hrabal. A thing of beauty! I am glad that we have creative artists like that in our country and I am glad that the city of Most attained a status of uniqueness. Apart from the creators, I would like to thank the actors as well – they provided me with one of the best film experiences of this year. It was a pleasure to watch the show every Monday. Under regular circumstances, Monday pretty much sucks as a day, but this time, those eight Monday were actually quite nice. Thanks! (28/02/2019)

While half of the world today enjoyed excessively politically correct Oscars, the whole of Czechia enjoyed the last episode of politically incorrect MOST! This is a refreshing series that humorously and flawlessly reflects the Czech temperament, which is milked until the very last drop. These top-quality bold jokes are necessary for these times. It is not anything groundbreaking, however, I am happy about the high viewing figures and it is nice to see a production once in a while that, thanks to its strong creative leadership, simply hits the spot. (25/02/2019)

I believe that MOST! has to be at least a little endearing to anyone with a bit of humanity and goodness. I love it, regardless of all its mistakes (it grinds a lot here and there, and then it doesn’t). It has a full palette of emotions and moods. But what’s most telling about the series after all is where the harshest criticisms come from. 1) From the model SPD voter, i.e. the racist and homo/trasnphobic human garbage (something like Čvančarová’s character). 2) From the not-so-smart SWJs that take themselves too seriously, who, in all their seriousness and combativeness, aren’t able to get a joke. 3) From the adherents of that formal morality so popular in Czechia, who pleadingly demand that vulgarisms should not be used, but lack the capacity to know what is really moral and why, and fail to understand that words aren’t moral or immoral on in themselves; it’s actions or thought that are. MOST! has everything that annoys these groups, and in a generous measure. I haven’t watched the previous series by Prušinovský & Kolečko, but I will sure do. Because this… I don’t want to throw superlatives too generously in my initial enthusiasm, so I won’t claim it’s the best that’s happened in this country since the revolution. But it’s a passion. Don't stop believin'! (26/02/2019)

South Africans have Soweto, Americans have Detroit, and Czechs have Most. From this perspective, the Czechs are noticeably better off. Prušinovský came up with a collection of caricatured characters from the outskirts of Czech society and he succeeded in impressing me. Not that I don't have any reservations, as the second episode was a clear decline in quality, but overall the series maintains its style and manages to navigate between nonconformist edginess with subtly subversive elements and educational messages about the necessity of getting along within the local community, no matter who we are. It cleverly plays with prejudice and stereotypes, and for the most part, it is fresh and rarely awkward. Overall impression: 80%. (07/02/2019)

If there was ever a series that I never wanted to watch from the start, it was the story from my hometown. Even before I was aware of its existence, it had settled in almost every Czech living room, on the street on Tuesday morning there were loud reports from yesterday's episode, and when someone dared to say that they were not following Luďan and co. yet, the response was a bewildered and uncomprehending look. At the moment when I got the impression that I would probably be the last person who had not yet visited the Severka, I gathered up my courage – and visited. And as the surprisingly aggressive start succeeds with a salvo of more or less funny situations (and the second part of that enthusiasm is again hindered by the relentless effort to make the main character an unbearable idiot), I had to be curious whether there would be any way for them to maneuver their way out of the relatively incoherent spectacle. The reason is that Jan Prušinovský's skillful hand is blocked most of the time by the constant targeting of genuine social issues, in which it is easy to find strong little stories, but genre deviations often do not work due to the need for hyperbole. That's not the case here and, most importantly, it is thanks to the actors. Without a perfectly fitting cast, leaps into romance, existentialism, and sporadically even into action could not work. But both the most celebrated Martin Hofmann, the fateful discovery Erika Stárková, and my personal favorite Michal Isteník play both the surface-layer grimaces and surprisingly sustainable glosses, which could do nothing but win hearts and ultimately show the most serious side. Behind the omnipresent "Dycky Most" or the vulgarity in every other heated exchange, there is a surprisingly apt message, which to my shock matches my own view of the world on many points. When combined with the seriousness of the last episodes, I gladly forgive the initial looseness and incoherence, and when at the very end the first tones of one of my all-time favorite songs sound, everything falls into place. For a few seconds, I even considered giving it the highest rating, from which I am prevented only the unpleasant sweatiness of Czech efforts which haunt even their first-class pieces. But MOST! belongs to this group nonetheless, and even though I wouldn't have believed a month ago that I would ever write this, it rightfully deserves its cult status. (13/04/2019)