An eccentric, colorful and lively sitcom that comes directly from South-East Asia and tells the story of five people who find themselves united by the pain of being left behind and therefore decide to found The club of broken hearts, to try to make each other stronger . From April 20 on Netflix.
A romantic breakup is never easy to get over, especially for those who have been dumped. Sometimes the end of a love affair can leave important aftermath, and others can have the symptoms of mourning in its famous five phases, but also of addiction. A toxic love that ultimately does us no good and makes us dangerously influenced by the other person, who has an unhealthy control over us even after the relationship is over. It’s all these nuances that, in a comedy sauce, we’ll try to explore in ours The Broken Hearts Club reviewthe new Indonesian series available from April 20 on Netflix. The success of Asian audiovisual production continues and this time it offers a sui generis product typical of Western canons, but inserted in the culture and context of the Eastern South-East.
(Don’t) joke about love
Eccentric, colorful, rhythmic: these are the main characteristics of The Heartbreak Club which, as you can guess from the title, focuses on five Indonesian characters (three boys and two girls) who decide to found a club for those who have been left behind and can’t get over their sentimental breakup. There are those who can’t get their ex’s voice out of their head because he is a singer-songwriter who often appears on the radio, there are those who have anger management issues with their ex’s current new boyfriend, those who are a real own human doormat ready to run to the ex whatever she needs, even if the relationship is over, who finally sees in every small gesture from the ex a will to get back together.
The protagonists are therefore all characterized as typical characters who have to face the daily challenges of living together while trying to forget their exes for good, be able to heal and learn to look forward. It’s all deliberately exaggerated in the acting and in the surreal situations that the protagonists find themselves experiencing, to which is added a holy man called by one of them to try and help them. Obviously the self-styled healer soon turns out to be a scoundrel who just wants to get paid and take advantage of the situation, but later he too will reserve various surprises.
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However, what is most striking about The Broken Hearts Club is the staging: that is, having taken verbatim the stylistic features of the classic sitcom: a few environments, possibly internal, such as the apartment and the bar, a place par excellence where to meet and in this case organize the meeting of the club. In this case it is a comedy single camera and not multi-camera, therefore without live audience and recorded laughter that testify to the audience’s involvement in the so-called punch lines. Yet the effect is exactly the same, almost as if we could hear the echo of laughter and applause in the studio just like the girl who continues to hear her ex’s voice in her head in the series. What is implemented by the creator Salman Aristo, also director of many episodes, is a series of classic embarrassing situations, comedies of misunderstandings, with a touch of romanticism that is al core of the show. A sort of choral serial romantic comedy. The series thus becomes a group therapy which, between laughter and another, also makes us reflect on how much of each of us the serial tells despite being set in South-East Asia. Reminding us how love and all its facets are universal and how we shouldn’t have prejudices about products of this just because they tell of a world (only apparently) far from ours.
Love and friendship
Two are therefore the feelings that guide the characters of Ex Addiction Club (the original title, while the international one is Ex-Addicts Clubto underline the characteristic of addiction at the center of the story): love and friendship. Two types of relationships that often mix and confuse, and it will also happen to our heartbroken heroes who want at all costs to learn to put the pieces back together. The key for them will be to understand when only one feeling or the other survives and if and when instead they can co-exist, starting with the protagonist whose voice-over accompanies us in each episode on what we are seeing on the screen. An innovative experiment more than anything else for where the story is set and which for the rest remains only a pleasant entertainment, even if sometimes too exaggerated.
Conclusions
We conclude the review of The Broken Hearts Club by reiterating that it is an old-fashioned comedy but modernized by the setting and location of the story being told. The protagonists are surreal and perhaps too over the top, with an extremely theatrical acting, but you can’t help but become attached and find yourself in their little big daily dramas and above all in reminding us that love (or the end of the same) is a universal feeling at whatever latitude you are.
Because we like it
- The protagonists are nice.
- A tribute to the classic sitcom dressed up as a modern comedy.
- The different setting and cultural structure and the colors of the staging.
What’s wrong
- It is a really simple comedy while making you think, indebted to many other series before her.
- The acting is often over the top.
