Episode Guide
Episode 1: The first episode of the show. It introduces the characters and the setting. Episode 2: The second episode of the show. It follows the story of a group of people who are trying to escape from a prison. Episode 3: The third episode of the show. It follows the story of a group of people who are trying to find a way to escape from a prison. Episode 4: The fourth episode of the show. It follows the story of a group of people who are trying to find a way to stop someone from going into a prison.
Ludik is a character who is not likable. He is a cold-blooded killer who does not care about anyone or anything. He is the antithesis of the ideal protagonist we want to see on our screens.
Despite the good intentions of the writer, Daan Ludik is a terrible person. He’s a mean-spirited jerk who doesn’t care about anyone, and he’s not even particularly interesting or likable. The plot is weak because it doesn’t have any interesting characters to make it work, and the ending is too easy.
Although flashbacks in episode 1 go some way to explain his attitude, the rest of the episodes do nothing to improve his persona. In fact, Daan doesn’t really have much of a character journey beyond “don’t get caught”, making for a rather tepid and forgettable journey.
Daan’s furniture business is a sham. He doesn’t make any money, he doesn’t ship any furniture, and he doesn’t have any experts running his show. In fact, Daan is actually a criminal mastermind who has been running the business for years without anyone knowing.
This operation is a front for a secret diamond smuggling trade, which operates behind the scenes. Daan’s buyer is Farhad, but with great reward comes even greater risk.
Swys becomes a more integral part of the plot as the season progresses, and the story evolves into a revenge thriller.
In the final episode of the season, we get a lot of new players into the mix, including Nkala who wants revenge for his dead father and demands answers from Arend. We also get the Brigadier investigating Ludik’s enterprise, determined to figure out what our protagonist may be hiding. All of this leads to a bombastic final episode that resolves most of the big plot points but does also leave things wide open after a big discovery at the end. No spoilers here though!
Ludik has plenty of time to play with but the pacing is really quite poor. It doesn’t help that the sound design is uninspired on the whole, and the characters cliched and very tropey. Swys is your typical recovering/relapsing drug addict, Lil is the generic computer whizz and Daan’s messy family life is typical for a show like this.
Despite having some good characters, Ludik’s story feels one-dimensional and unfulfilling. The development of the characters is minimal and the plot does not seem to be particularly interesting or compelling.
Ludik is a slow-paced action thriller that starts off on shaky ground before petering out into mediocrity. The story isn’t too bad but the slow pace and a terribly unlikable protagonist make this far less appealing than it should be. There’s definitely potential here, but the execution needs to be better.
