Written by Jonas Geirnaert and Julie Mahieu
Directed by Gilles Coulier and Dries Vos
Starring Jeroen Perceval, Liesa Van der Aa and Sophie Decleir
Not Rated: Some swearing and graphic violence, a flaccid penis is briefly shown as a man takes a bath
Language: Flemish with English subtitles
Running time: 12 episodes averaging 45 minute=9 hours

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

I enjoy visiting Belgium. The Old Sport and I both enjoy their beers and we’ve been to visit a couple times. We spent some time in the cities as well as the countryside and enjoyed both quite a bit for what they had to offer. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to go back in the last few years and I was starting to miss it. Then, all of a sudden, I saw that The Day was going to be available in the US and Canada to stream on Topic. Now, I also enjoy an interesting heist premise. And what I’d read about The Day was that you were seeing a bank heist from the police’s perspective and then the crooks’, alternating each episode. Of course, it’s all taking place within one day- hence the title. Well, I was sold. Why not give it a shot? And it paid off!

I’ll try to give you a general idea of the story without getting spoilery. The show opens up with a few disparate characters all making their way to the bank for their own reasons. Most of them are employees, getting ready to open up for the day, but there’s also a couple of kids that are stopping to get some money as well. As the kids’ mother goes to meet them at the bank, this is where all the drama starts. The door’s locked, her son’s hat is on the floor and there are signs of a struggle. She contacts the police and they come to investigate. As the police are looking around, a hidden cell phone starts to ring. Of course, it’s the crooks and we learn that this is a hostage situation. The remainder of the episode is the cops setting up a command center and trying to gather information. The next episode, we see the masked crooks just as things are starting to get going at the bank and we see how the shit all goes down on the inside over that same period of time. They alternate like this for the remaining ten episodes without much bleedover between the two, and it’s quite successful at making a compelling story.

Now, I realize that was VERY general, but that’s because this show is dropping twists and turns constantly. Shockingly, most of them are neither too obvious nor unbelievable. The motives of the majority of the characters are questioned at various times. Many turn out to not be quite what they seemed, and some of them are up to no good. They manage to pull it off thanks, not only, to good writing and direction, but solid performances from the entirety of the cast as well.

Some of the standouts were Sophie Decleir as Vos (the lead hostage negotiator), Maaike Neuville as Freya (a hostage and daughter of the wealthiest man in the region) and Titus De Voogdt as Elias (the “lead” crook). As we learn new details of each of the characters, we see the change in their behaviors. The individual layers are skillfully crafted to build up the whole causing you to become more invested in them as the story plays out. This is not just your run of the mill television writing and acting.

The same can be said for the look and production values. This takes place in the darkened winter with the exteriors mostly being in the business districts and the interiors are industrial looking or storage areas. So, sadly, I didn’t get too much of the Belgian feel of old city architecture and pastoral countryside that I was looking for. However, it DID have a consistently raw/gritty look of a heist procedural.

If heists and who/how/why-dunnits are your thing, I HIGHLY recommend checking this out. The only possible drawback MIGHT be that it is subtitled, but the action rarely happens when there is dialog. You are not missing out on anything in that sense and the story is certainly gripping enough to keep you engaged.

This is available as of today, June 4, 2020 on Topic. If you don’t know what Topic is, it’s a new streaming service that features TV and film from around the world. Currently, there are 38 different countries represented from 6 continents (sorry Antarctica). You can sign up for a free 7 day trial, which is plenty of time to bang through this series and still have some leftover to try out some other titles. They currently have some films I really enjoyed (The Fits, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Girl Asleep) as well as some things I’ve been meaning to check out (Braddock, PA, Dark Days and I am Big Bird).

Watch The Day (De Dag) series today on Topic.