About Judas

Sunday, January 6 has been circulating in our editorial app for weeks. We were really looking forward to it. Book devoured and now huge excitement for the TV epic. More than a million people felt the same, as Judas is proudly at the top of the viewing figures top 25. What are our tips and tops? Here they come.

Top

Rifka as Astrid

Smart, intelligent, experienced, subtle. Rifka delivers a rock-solid Astrid.

The leader

Beautiful work by director Joram Lürsen. With perfect family snapshots from the ‘60s and images of Amsterdam from the ’80s. We have one question left: can we get that filter on Instagram too?

Styling

Captures very well the fashion image of the time and also the taste of the family and their friends.

Tip

Marit van Bohemen

I like her, really like her, but as Sonja it's just a bit too much of a caricature. It's because Rifka is so rock-solid, but she's brought down a bit by the character of Sonja. The hair, the blue eyeshadow, the accent... It's all a bit too much, shall I say.

The nose

We really didn't need that. Just like the somewhat fussy top toupee that Gijs Naber wears. Willem Holleder was/is quite a character, an impressive man who was a magnet for women. We miss that in this figure. It does look a bit like a costume party. And that’s not necessary. Peter R. de Vries is not approached in terms of appearance (the voice is a bit, which I find very strange), moreover, Gijs Naber is a great actor. Even without that nose, we would believe him blindly.

Finally

Here, really no one can do anything about it, but what has been gnawing at us all a bit is that we already know the story. We knew that beforehand, but because quite a few scenes are literally adapted from the book, you feel like you are watching an audio-visual book. And I keep thinking about that poor mama Holleeder. If your role is played by Carry Tefsen, that’s not really the biggest boost for your ego.

Maybe we need to get used to it. To the nose, to the accents. And who are we, a bunch of nitpickers and pedants who can't even hold a camera and aren't allowed to tie Gijs Naber's shoelaces, but still, we didn't binge on Videoland but dove in with the whole editorial team into the last season of The Affair.

One more thing. Why does Miljuschka have a different name than anyone else? And why is she called Francis? Wasn't that the name of Cor van Hout's daughter who had Down syndrome and had to go to a foster family?

Image: Mark van Aller