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SHOWS YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING: Dirty Lines (2022 -)
Amsterdam? Check. 1980s soundtrack? Check. The first sex phone line service? Check! Dirty Lines, take it away.
Created by Pieter Bart Korthuis, Dirty Lines follows Marly Salomon (Joy Melina), a regular, inexperienced psychology student who takes up a part-time job… reading lines for an adult phone line service, set up by brothers Ramon and Frank Stigter, played by Chris Peters and Minne Koole, both of whom deliver particularly great performances.
Set against the backdrop of late-80s-going-into-the-90s Amsterdam, Dirty Lines balances cultural and historical references (and tunes!) with the lives and relationships of our main characters. With her cheerful and extremely likeable personality, Marly navigates this world, while trying to break out of her own prudishness and find herself emotionally and sexually, as well as financially. She leaves her parents’ home and moves in with her street-wise best friend Janna (Julia Akkermans), and through voice-over, she takes us through this brand new world and its characters, which include the Stigters’ business partner Johnny Santini (Andre Dongelmans), Ramon’s wife Natasja (Charlie Chan Dagelet), Frank’s wife Anoek (Abbey Hoes), and an array of colourful characters that round up this comedy-drama. Each of them has their own personal turmoil to deal with; particularly Frank and Anoek, who are trying to conceive while Frank still wants to live out his bachelor days, and Ramon, who is in the closet, and can’t bring himself to tell his wife.
Covering difficult topics, with characters that you care and root for, Dirty Lines is an emotional, joyous and insightful series, and you should be watching it on Netflix.
