I was waiting for them 42°C, her second fiction series Cosmote TV after his transfer The Other Self on the small screen, ever since filming began in Corfu in the summer of 2020. There were many reasons for this. First and foremost, the path that Cosmote TV appears to be charting with its fiction productions. It is the same path that once established the American network HBO in the late ’90s.
Of course, any direct comparison would be unreasonable. It would even be somewhat unfair to Greek producers, who operate in an industry with a different methodology. Usually without multiple screenwriters, without more than one director, and without the budget of The Sopranos. The formats may differ, but the central theme is as follows and is common to all: The stories on Cosmote TV, such as *42°C* and *The Other Me* before them, They have a beginning, middle, and end that have already been established as a guiding principle even before the cameras start rolling, and the creators have the freedom and support to bring them to life in accordance with their vision. In a nutshell, we’re talking about a cinematic narrative approach that, combined with the phenomenon of binge-watching—which has dramatically changed the game worldwide— as a provider, it wants to invest in narratives that will keep the audience glued to their screens, as well as in Greek talent and stories that wouldn’t necessarily find a place on free-to-air channels.
«42°C» is set in motion by a crime committed under the island’s scorching summer sun. The unexpected death of a teenage girl shakes the local community and her family to their core. The day of the girl’s death coincides with the return of her sister, Lena (Natalia Swift), who will be confronted with this tragic event: Her sister was found dead at the same location where her mother's body had been discovered six years earlier. Is this a coincidence or a deliberate act?;
As the Katerina Lechou During our meeting, the series «It concerns the breakdown of the Greek family structure and its underlying causes, that is, not to overanalyze things.» The actress’s character, one of Lena’s two aunts, belongs to the older generation of the family where the roots of these family pathologies lie, and her primary motivation is to whitewash and cover up the misdeeds of her family—a family that has fallen on hard times financially but remains prominent on the island.
The image of the Holy Family here is riddled with holes. Morbidity oozes through its cracks. The Kallia Papadaki, the winner of the European Prize for Literature for her book *Dendrites* in 2017, along with Sergio Konstantinidis who are co-writing the screenplay, creates a microcosm cut off from reality outside the family mansion and traps everyone inside it. Her involvement with the project was also one of the most promising signs that «42°C» could truly make a difference in the new television season. As is the case with her books or the screenplay she wrote for the 2013 film «September,» her characters’ inner journeys are primarily internal, and the sparse dialogue leaves room for viewers to fill in the blanks without holding their hands.
Everyone in the series has secrets, and no one ever tells the whole truth. This is a staple of neo-noir television, and usually—in shows of Nordic or British origin—it’s accompanied by a crime, a small, troubled community, and a flawed social system. In the case of 42°C, The system under fire is the traditional Greek family—which is anything but traditional—but the gloomy, cold atmosphere is replaced here by the Greek, sweaty Greek summer, which lends the series part of its Greek identity.
The award-winning Giorgos Papavasiliou, who is also currently working on the «Postcard» by Victoria Hislop For ERT, he directs “Summer in Greece” with vibrancy and subtle undertones, capturing the Mediterranean setting. You can easily picture his creation set in foreign markets, yet it doesn’t lack recognizable elements connected to our country. In other words, it’s a different kind of project compared to, say, an adaptation of a Harlan Coben mystery novel, where the setting in the original source is the United States, but in its television adaptations, it has been moved to Manchester (*The Stranger*) or Warsaw (*The Woods*) without changing anything essential to the story’s DNA.
The 42°C They have a local flavor, and it’s not just because of the cicadas you hear in many of their scenes.
This is where they differ from the The Other Self which operates in a universe of its own, featuring unrecognizable places—such as Greek prisons—or the interchangeable microcosm of the Silent Road, which could be cut out of the map and placed next to a Borderline or a Defending Jacob. It's closer to a Sharp Objects that brought the humidity of southeastern Missouri, or in a Mare of Easttown which captures the darkness of Philadelphia’s suburbs and the opioid crisis ravaging the area. Those residents recognized their neighborhood in these episodes, just as we do now with the 42°C When we see the female lead hosing herself off after a day at the beach and flooding the living room with water. When the matriarch of the family lights a candle while dressed in black. When Lena wakes up to the noise on the deck of the ferry. When Christos Loulis, playing the role of the police officer, hits the fan to get it started.
The series does not adapt its concept from the works of other producers that have inspired it. It incorporates it into a proven format with high production standards, creating a distinctly Greek identity. It was about time.
