When a group of kids goes missing, some extraordinary things happen in Wałbrzych, where Black Daisies’ convoluted plot takes place. It’s so twisted and incalculable that at some point you’re not surprised. Rather, you’re just completely tired.

Imagine a mix of Scandinavian mystery thriller, historical sci-fi, social drama, Queer cinema and many more. Yes, this show has everything like this, struggling to find its identity and style. It follows Lena Opalińska (Karolina Kominek), a mother of one of the missing children, who has to confront her past in order to save her daughter. When she becomes the main suspect, Lena has to fight to reclaim her voice, once lost to depression and alcoholism.

It’s not like the entire show deserves the bad press: it’s a complex topic, as Black Daisies is in the end a collective work. It means that hundreds of people worked on it and enumerating just cons just doesn’t feel right. Therefore, we can find some interesting elements. For instance, we have Olaf Lubaszenko with his character of a “mad scientist,” or Dawid Ogrodnik playing a gay policeman, a character taken straight out of Chandler’s novel, who has to finish the case and confront himself with his own sexuality and family heritage. There are that little moments, which make us absorbed, but there aren’t too many of them. And this is a TV show, a medium so time-consuming, that we would rather change what we’re currently watching instead of giving it another chance.

Ultimately, you just cannot believe that there was someone, who has read the script, probably went through it a couple of times, re-read all those bizarre twists and turns and then decided this is a fantastic idea to green light it and say, “Yes, we’re doing that, it’s gonna be a hit!” You can’t be even angry at all those actors. To quote Harrison Ford, it’s money, and we have to make a living. But there are certain people, who have the power to choose some projects over others, while never telling the exact reasons why one script got a go when the other didn’t. 

Please, explain your reasoning, as this is probably one of a few Polish TV shows that cannot be defended at any point. It’s just a mess of a TV show, a product that tries to be everything at the same time, and this is why it has no identity, no apparent originality and a lack of good taste.

Photo: Canal+

2/5 stars

Author: Jan Tracz