User Reviews

Kalkanski krugovi is a series that stands out visually compared to many others, especially the domestic ones that are currently in my focus. All those "forest" shades of color are nicely expressed, even in the costume, and the director of photography has done a great job. The actors are mostly convincing, especially Lausevic and Cetkovic. Mima Karadzic is also very interesting. The story is easy to follow but, like in most domestic series, it is quite slow. This probably has to do with money, but also with the skill of domestic writers. Speaking of the story, it is very reminiscent of the basic plot of the first season of the series "Dug moru", even further on: Father lives alone with his daughter, they are not in good relations and understanding, it is not known what happened to her mother... they come to their villige where there is a mysterious place that everyone is afraid of. The dead appearing to the living and much more simply disrupts the story... Since we have seen all of this before, and for the first time in the domestic production in this "seaside" version, then all of this has less significance in the "forest" version, even though they are not the same in atmosphere and meaning. Therefore, I lost some interest due to so much repetition. Knowing myself, I will still watch the last episodes of Season 2 Kalkanski krugovi, at some point. If you want to watch both series, which I recommend, don't watch them back to back unless you're a big fan of the genre. This would allow you to focus more on each series, instead of getting overwhelmed with too much information and events. My rating is 6/10. Maybe it will improve by the end. I kindly request the production to create a more diverse cast.

The Kalkan Circles represent one of the many Serbian series that combine the crime genre with elements of mysticism or Slavic/Serbian mythology. Like most of the previous ones, it achieves this more or less unsuccessfully.

Dejan, an architect, comes from Belgrade with his daughter to his native village on the mountain. The reasons are somewhat unclear at the beginning, but they have to do with daughter's involvement in drug dealing and trying to get her out of it and protect her.

From there, a network of human and business relationships is built between Dejan, his daughter Miona and the villagers, as well as mystical secrets about the common origin of the villagers.

Pros:The sound in the series is very good, which is really surprising for Serbian series. All dialogues are heard, and the background sounds are not several times stronger than the dialogues and do not "eat" the entire atmosphere. The effect of mysticism, the atmosphere of Serbian rural superstitions or beliefs is solidly conveyed. Landscapes are, to a certain extent, beautiful. The idea for the script was interesting, however... Cons: The dialogues, as well as the behavior of the characters, are, in many cases, completely illogical and meaningless. There is no normal gradation of the relationship between the characters, nor the consequences of certain actions. In one moment they are in an argument, angry or in the process of doing something, and in the next scene they behave as if the previous situation did not happen. Editing is bad and in several places you can see where the scene begins, where the director says "action". The daughter character, Mione is incredibly unlovable and irritating. From the first episode, her behavior is often illogical, as are her dialogues with other characters, especially her father. This is, in a certain part, a consequence of the director's decision, but also of an obviously very bad script. At one point she was completely disinterested in the happenings in the village, then suddenly she was making friends with everyone, then disinterested again, then fanatically ready to solve the village mystery and all over again.

Such is the situation with the figure of the father and uncle and several others. The vast majority of the conversations between the characters are artificially half-finished, unsuccessful in their intention to convey the mystique and keeping of village secrets. This makes everything seem very forced and implausible. The crime part of the series is very amateurish, and everything related to it seems to be at the level of a high school script and play. Criminals, as well as police officers, are so unbelievable that it is sometimes comical.

The greatest illogicality lies in the fact that, if not all, then most of the inhabitants of the village are familiar with the legend about the common origin of the villagers and their blood relations. This can also be seen in Peter, a character born from a relationship between relatives. And yet, despite this realization, Dejan and Vera, whom he knows with certainty is his relative, renew their love relationship. Vera's son's flirtation with Dejan's daughter is also viewed without judgment, as well as all other relationships, which are exclusively between characters from the same village. As for the mystical - mythological part, it, as in most Serbian series, is shown in a negative way. Although Serbian mythology is full of positive and protective beings and phenomena (of course also negative), Serbian filmmakers mostly decide to portray the local mythology as dangerous and evil. It has a much deeper, political-ideological background. Interesting.

At the beginning it was interesting. It looked like it would be something different. But after, it turned to a stupid ,shallow, pseudomystery. The author just did not know how to keep the story interesting, so he went deeper and deeper to a nonsense. There are many untold and unsolved things. Who is and where is Miona's mother? Why did Velibor locked up Miona, and after nobody cares about it? She is a bit angry ,but very soon forgets about it. Bojan comes with devil's plan, then he gets killed in totatally stupid turnover. Miona instead to be happy to be saved, desperatly cried over him, but very soon she totally forgets about him and next day she is at the party. Dejan is crazy in love with Vera , but in just one episode he forgets about her and suddenly he goes for Svetlana. And many other stupid , superficial ,pseudodramatic turnovers. Zarko Lausevic was really good, and he is the only thing why I kept watching 10 episodes .I do not think i will watch eventual season 2. I hope it will appear because if the episode 10 is the end, then the whole series does not deserve more than 1 star.