Name: High Tides
Director: Tom Goris
Released: 2023-12-07T13:30:00

High Tides (Knokke Off) follows a group of young people enjoying their summer in the town of Knokke with their wealthy, dysfunctional families. The series is streaming on Netflix.

Story

In the lavish town of Knokke, Alex, Louise, and their friends spend their days drinking and partying to keep their minds off the issues they go through at home despite their immense wealth.

Daan and his mother Melissa move to the nearby Cadzand for a summer vacation but Melissa has ulterior motives for this trip. Daan comes from a humble environment and gets pulled into the orbit of the rich kids.

However, it only leads to more trouble as Knokke is home to infidelity, drugs, elitism, and even murder.

Performances

Eliyha Altena plays Daan, the polite poor kid who mixes in with the rich folk and falls in love with a rich girl. Altenais is very convincing and his depiction of the naivety that a young man in his position would possess is authentic.

Willem De Schryver is very impressive Alex, a very complex character. De Schryver comes across as troubled and unpleasant in equal measure which means he tiptoes all over the morality scale.

Pommelien Thijs’ turn as Louise is heartrending and exceptional. Playing a character with bipolar disorder takes quite the effort and she accomplishes that with distinction.

The cast of the series puts great effort into their characters and the different family dynamics are represented wonderfully thanks to their portrayal

Positives

The story is intriguing as it focuses primarily on different relationships and weaves in a murder mystery aspect as an added hook. The balance in the story is great and the director deserves credit for that.

The depiction of complicated human emotions and different personalities is also welcomed as it adds emotional heft to the series. The tone is quite intense but it rarely goes beyond the realm of reality.

Negatives

The pacing of the series is slightly sluggish and that works against the narrative. Impressive performances do not rescue the episodes from feeling a little too slow at times.

There are parts of the story that could have been developed a little more or ignored altogether. The fact that Jan is gay and his wife knows is just existing within the space without having a significant bearing on the story apart from a reason for Louise to feel aggrieved.

Verdict

High Tides (Knokke Off) is a drama series with a strong story and good performances but there are certain drawbacks about it that affect the overall experience. Getting through the series is a task but once it is over, it does leave the audience with something to contemplate over.