We haven't seen so many effective performances on small screens for a long time: Judita Franković and Goran Navojec have the chemistry that is necessary for the relationship between their protagonists, but I don't think I'll be wrong if I single out Dragan Despot, Nina Violić and Anja Šovagović Despot. If they were in America, they would compete for the Emmy award, and this way they will have to settle for a few nominations for the Croatian Acting Award.

Without dilemma, "Rest in Peace" was the first full-blooded crime series in the history of Croatian television and a solid international success: who knows if there will ever be anything from this project, but Hollywood Lionsgate bought the format for the US market to adapt it there, thus for the global audience. Strangers were certainly attracted by the unusual dramatic structure, because in the story of forgotten graves in the former Vukovšćak prison, two narrative lines ran in parallel, in the first we followed the adventures of protagonists exploring a neglected cemetery, and in the second the fates of people who ended up in it. After a long struggle - HRT was going through one of the many editorial turbulences - it was finally broadcast in early 2013, well received in the media and solidly watched (despite the not overly attractive slot on Friday just before 10 PM), which was a sufficient incentive to accelerate preparations for the realization of the second season.

"Rest in Peace 2" will have its premiere next Monday, and HRT has meanwhile learned something about the placement strategy: we will watch ten episodes every day (except on weekends), as was done with the series "Black-White World", only this one will be on the program a little later, at 9 PM, because of some scenes of violence and sex. A wise decision, because in series with elements of detection, viewers sometimes forget what was going on last week.

Ring produkcija, the executive producer for HRT, did a great job again. The second season differs from the first in that the majority of the action takes place in the present time. There are a few flashbacks, and at first, you don't even know where to place the conversations led by Lucija Car (Judita Franković) and the assassin Mate Šušnjara ) in the prison room for visitors, however, these are just incidental ingredients. Already in the first episode, Lucija is on a new task, her boss Zora Agnezi (Jelena Miholjević) sent her to Istria to make a report on the alleged cult that sacrifices victims, but the politicized and socially self-confident journalist is much more intrigued by the case of asbestos poisoning in the Chemix factory.

There is a riot in the factory, the workers are pressuring the new CEO, the Hungarian Zsoltan Barath (Jernej Šugman), whose spokesman is Lucija's former boss, the corrupt Zdeslav Tokić (Boris Svrtan), there is a suicide, then murder, and an important role in all this plays Marija Križan (Anja Šovagović Despot), Lucija's temporary landlady and the head of the ancient cult, which really exists, but functions much differently than many assume. After being disappointed in her boyfriend, a politician in the first season (played by Ozren Grabarić), Lucija settled down with her colleague from the university, police spokesman Željko (Luka Dragić), but even that relationship will probably not last long, because, in Istria, she fell for police inspector Romano Soršak (Goran Navojec). She is also courted by the elderly Bruno Vilinski (Boris Cavazza), former director of Chemix (in socialism, before privatization it was the asbestos fiber factory ), who retired from work, arranged a beautiful house, and switched to winemaking. The series occasionally acts as a domestic version of CSI, the circumstances and details of the murder are explored in detail, the plot with the cult of Marija Križan is associated with fashionable stories about the supernatural, but as in the first season, dissecting our transition period is in the story's core. Occasionally it is not known who is bribing whom, the seemingly laudable moves of ministers are revealed as a selfish calculation, politicians cooperate with the police and the media when they should not - in short, all this is an inextricable set of interests that we witness every day in newspapers and online portals and television. It is especially interesting that an important role is played by veteran investigative journalism Ines Polić (Nina Violić), who is very freely modeled after our Jasna Babić (although we also find hints of Hanna Holm from the series "Borgen").

It is a great idea of the creators of the series (Dario Vince, Saša Podgorelec, Ivan Turković Krnjak) to place the majority of the plot in Istria, which has almost never existed for our television so far. The fictional town of Globin is made up of the locations of Gračišće, Draguć, and Plomin, and its natural beauties are in a strange discrepancy with the dark twists of the story.

Director Goran Dukić was well aware of this: after the cult short feature film "Mirta Learns Statistics", he went to America and this is his first serious and ambitious engagement in Croatia. He has directed all ten episodes and it is excellent, the moods change imperceptibly, the plot is easy to follow, the characters are recognizable, and he is especially good at working with actors. We haven't seen so many effective performances on small screens for a long time: Judita Franković and Goran Navojec have the chemistry that is necessary for the relationship between their protagonists, but I don't think I'll be wrong if I single out Dragan Despot, Nina Violić and Anja Šovagović Despot. If they were in America, they would compete for the Emmy award, and this way they will have to settle for a few nominations for the Croatian Acting Award.

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