24/02/2024 - BERLINALE 2024: The panellists opined that TV audiences still need to be seduced by intriguing stories, and they’ve got to be hooked faster

l-r: Marike Muselaers, Jamie Lynn and Ran Tellem during the panel discussion

On 19 February, CinemaxX hosted the Berlinale Series Market event “Cold Cases and Hot Flashes – The Rise of Crime and Relationship Dramas in Challenging Times”. The session, moderated by Nordisk Film Production head of International Financing and Co-production Marike Muselaers, saw the participation of Helene Aurø (sales and marketing director, REinvent International Sales), Jemina Jokisalo (head of Drama, Solar Republic), Ran Tellem (international content development, The MediaPro Studio) and Jamie Lynn (head of Co-Productions and Distribution, Fremantle).

First, Lynn spoke about the 8x44-minute series Revenge, which he described as “a fresh take on the psychological thriller”. Created by Matti and Mari Kinnunen, and staged by Moskito Television, the story focuses on Jesse Halme, who has been ostracised by his family after attacking his brother as a child. Jesse uses his good looks, charm and talent for manipulation to go to his homeland and seek revenge on the family who took his former life from him. “We’re a writer-focused organisation, so everything starts with a great script,” said Lynn. “In the current climate, a lot of shows are getting made, and it’s harder to stand out. It’s depressing to say it, but when you speak to any platform, you have to hook them within the show’s first five minutes.”

Tellem introduced the third season of Paradise. The premise of the 6x50-minute series sees a young Spanish man found dead in Finland. The investigation leads a trio of police detectives to the Canary Islands, where they discover a dark world of illegal waste trafficking. A co-production between RealMedia, MediaPro Studios and Musketeers Studio, the show was born after the team met four people living in the Finnish district in Fuengirola. This allowed the creators to familiarise themselves with the microcosm depicted in the series, whereupon they realised it would make a great location for a show mixing “the cold of Finland and the warmth of Southern Spain”. The third season will be aired later this year, and it will be the trilogy’s final chapter.

Next, Aurø introduced two projects. The first is Seconds, which revolves around Marita Kalla, an accident investigator who is taken to solve the mysteries behind major disasters. The team billed the 6x50-minute show as “a disaster crime-drama”. “[We chose this label because] very often, it’s not just about saying ‘crime’; it’s much more than that,” she explains. Seconds will be out in April, and YLE has already sold it to a number of countries.

The second project is the 8x45-minute dramedy Hormones!, a light-hearted take on “post-fertile life and never-ending parenthood”. Similarly to the BBC’s Hot Flush, the Dionysos Films-produced series tackles a taboo topic: in this case, that of the andropause and the menopause.

Finally, Jokisalo showed off the bold opening of the 8x25-minute series Money Shot. The plot centres on 42-year-old washed-up porn actress Sari, who gets fired from her last role and has to find a new way to make a living. Ultimately, she teams up with an aspiring young director to produce feminist erotic films. Jokisalo admitted that the whole concept of the series “began as a joke” by someone who suggested “they start producing porn. […] But then it has to be feminist porn, at least,” she answered ironically. The comedy show will be out in Finland in early May.

During the final, open discussion, Lynn said: “We have to make things more approachable while retaining all of the complexity and rich character work. People want all of that; we just need to ‘catch’ them quicker.”

Tellem agreed and added: “It’s nothing new. We’ve always been doing that – opening up, creating hooks and making people curious. I think in TV – and this may sound like a cliché – any relationship has to start with a bang; you’ve got to be seduced. What has changed is the [level of] depth.

“I think the less money you have, the more innovative you are, but the less money you’ve got, the more time you’ll spend with your paper, trying to create stuff that is mind-blowing and twisted.”

“We don’t have to invest in shows; we choose to. If something isn’t interesting and doesn’t have the potential to reach an audience, we won’t invest in it. We’ve seen some great things here today that I’d be part of,” summed up Lynn, adding how the showcased projects prove how vibrant the market still is.