Cold Feet

To say that this series did not captivate me much during its Czech premiere in the fall of 2001 would be inaccurate. It simply caught me off guard at a time when relationship and life dramas spoke to me more from other subgenres, whether supernatural or teenage. And then the British nonchalance, dry humor, and a group of elegantly and animalistically played girls and football-admiring guys jumped in. It took me some time, but even during my own unpredictable puberty, I sensed life truths among them, crushing twists from the very first episodes that kept me awake at night. Although out of the characters involved I preferred Adam, I was fascinated by the seemingly heterogeneous dynamics of the group, which is strongest in difficult moments. However dry it may sound, the older I get, the more real and better the series feels to me, so I was even more joyful when, despite its original (albeit burdensome) finality, it returned to British screens thirteen years later. Amidst a wave of unwanted revivals, such a return made sense: while the six leads were more assertive in their partnership decisions at the turn of the millennium, they are now calmer, more thoughtful, and noticeably aged in their fifties. And perhaps precisely because I am at the age the main characters were in the original series, it feels like they have once again come a few years closer to me. Considering that the quiet and unexpected comeback received viewer success and four seasons as a result, it even led to an unusual phenomenon where the events from the sixth to the ninth season are almost equivalent to a standalone series, even though the memories of old times are, of course, much stronger. (2019.03.20)