Bitange i princeze (2005– )
Croatia's answer to "Friends"
23 May 2005
This is Croatia's almost-first sitcom (the first one supposedly being "Our little clinic"). It IS the first one that heavily borrows from American sitcom lore, especially "Friends" which was its primary inspiration.

The show concentrates on five main characters, three guys and two girls who live in neighboring apartments. They are Teo (a dopey guy who was just dumped by his girlfriend), Robi (a little dumb wannabe act..ahem, anchorman who has a "way" with girls), Kazo (a geeky guy who cannot get a date), Irena (a ditsy looker) and Lucija (confused romantic). In other words, they are just a Monica away from a full cast.

Although it looks like a typical "Friends" setup, the show really doesn't have that much in common with that beloved American sitcom apart from the original premise. Even though the main plot is supposed to be about relationships between the characters, the show is unfortunately plagued by the recent unwritten Croatian rule which states that in order for situation to be funny it absolutely needs to be a convoluted and unbelievable mess and must contain some serious overacting. So as the story goes it turns out that Teo's ex-wife is dating a mobster who has a gay twin brother who fruther on has interests in Robi. Furthermore, in a surprising turn of events Teo becomes the mobster's defense attorney, and at the same time Robi (as sport anchorman) gets an assignment to interview Teo's girlfriend and shows up at her house at the same time Teo and the mobster are there. And all this in the first two episodes with some more additional happenings on the side. These kind of setups allow some funny moments, but are at the same time so ridiculous it is very hard to suspend disbelief and start caring for the characters. The fact that the main roles are played by probably the two most prominent TV persona in Croatia also doesn't help much.

As its main competition, "Our little clinic", this show also reaps the success mostly by walking over the corpses of previous Croatian "sitcoms" which were simply dreadful. In other words, there are a few laughs here and there and the show is good for killing half an hour or so if you have nothing better to do, but other than that it's nothing to write home about. If you are not Croatian, an average American sitcom would probably be a much better choice.
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