2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
TV review: Amsterdam Narcos is one of the most enjoyable docs this year
Amsterdam Narcos (Sky Documentaries and NOW) is brilliant.
The three-part documentary rattles along, telling how Amsterdam became the corner-stone of the illegal drug trade in Europe, through the people who made it happen and people who tried to make it stop.
It would make at least three brilliant movies. The first episode is the story of an unlikely partnership that cornered the hashish market. He's Klaas Bruinsma, the grinning son of a wealthy businessman.
She's Thea Moear, a glamorous woman from the wrong side of the tracks. Thea does all the talking here, because Klaas was gunned down outside the Amsterdam Hilton at the height of his powers.
It's riveting because she acts as if they had cornered the tulip market in Amsterdam. So when Klaas went to the bad side and started cutting off his rival's lips before torturing them to death, Thea flashes her enigmatic smile and said he did what he had to do.
The support act is Manchester dealer Paul 'One Punch' Doyle. He didn't get his nickname from moderate drinking at the Christmas party. Paul was disappointed that Klaas took to cutting off people's lips, describing it as un-Christian. It's the funniest thing I've seen on telly for a while.
The second episode is the best movie idea. This time Johan and Brenda Toet end up making millions of ecstasy pills in the 1980s. They are both alive, magnetically good looking into their 60s.
They are caught red-handed in their drug factory, Johan takes the fall, signs a form agreeing to co-operate, gets released, and they disappear to Portugal and have a son. Johan changes his ways but is re-arrested and goes to jail.
There is something in the smiling, positive way they tell their story. And then we learn why. Johan found Jesus in jail, as did Brenda waiting for him outside. They started a ministry and now travel the world spreading the word. I love Johan and Brenda. I think maybe it's their white teeth.
Support act here is Ilja Reiman, a street kid who stole ecstasy from a group of eastern spiritualists and started Multigroove, a massive party night in Amsterdam. He's as magnetic as the other two.
That's the thing about Dutch people — they tell it like it is. There are a few British gangsters here too, but they have British reserve and sense of understatement. The Dutch make the best former drug-dealers. One of the most enjoyable docs I've seen this year.
