Arcadia (TV series)

Arcadia is a Belgian-Dutch science fiction television series. After a catastrophic deluge, Flemish and Dutch people are living seemingly peacefully together in the utopian society called Arcadia, until corruption surfaces. The series is claimed to be the most expensive television project ever in the Low Countries.

Story
In a dystopian world, every resident of Arcadia is monitored via an implanted chip by the security agencies het Schild (English: the Shield) and het Vizier (English: the Oversight), making crime seem impossible. The nation of Arcadia is governed by the Lords of the Dome with the Guardian at its head. Faithful Arcadians can build a better future by earning citizen points.

When citizen score fraud is discovered in the family Hendriks, father Pieter is immediately banished to the perilous Outer World. His wife and four daughters are fined with penalty points on their citizen scores, causing their idyllic lives in Arcadia to fall apart and family relationships to suffer.

Regulator Simons of the Shield persists to investigate the family over the fraud. Revisor Harms of the Oversight pressures the family to help with her investigation into the resistance group de Ontrouwen (English: The Unfaithful) and a past terrorist attack on the Dome. The Unfaithful conduct their own investigation into the attack.

Cast and characters

 * Gene Bervoets as Pieter Hendriks, director of the Algorithm Service at Arcadia and grandson of the system's founder. He cheated with the algorithm of his daughters' citizen scores to give them a comfortable life but got caught and banned from the nation.
 * Monic Hendrickx as Cato Christiaans, a widow remarried to widower Pieter Hendriks. She tries to keep the family together after Pieter got banned.
 * Abigail Abraham as Milly Hendriks, eldest daughter of Pieter Hendriks and soldier at the Shield. She wants to find her father so she can help him to survive in the Outer World.
 * Lynn Van Royen as Luz Hendriks, second daughter of Pieter Hendriks. She has autism and has difficulties to settle into her new life world after her dad is gone.
 * Melody Klaver as Alex Jans, eldest daughter of Cato Christiaans and police cadet at the Shield. She's mad at her family that she got punished for the fraud while innocent.
 * Ellie de Lange as Hanna Jans, second daughter of Cato Christiaans and a nurse. She's frustrated that she cannot help some people in the hospital because their citizen score is too low.
 * Maarten Heijmans as Marco Simons, regulator at the Shield. He doesn't believe that Pieter Hendriks only knew of the score fraud so keeps on investigating the family.
 * Natali Broods as Lena Harms, revisor at the Oversight. She manipulates the bad situation of the family in order to convince Alex to spy on Jaak Philips, the father of her fiancée Gloria. Harms suspects Jaak Philips being a traitor and a terrorist.
 * Wim Opbrouck as Jaak Philips, director of the chip company and a Lord of the Dome in Arcadia. He's is not afraid to oppose the Guardian.

Episodes
Original air dates were simultaneous in Belgium and The Netherlands.

Financing
The fiction drama series Arcadia is a project of the Belgian production house Jonnydepony, specifically by screenwriter Philippe De Schepper and producer Helen Perquy. Production began in early 2019. Perquy found production partners in the Dutch production house Big Blue and in the public broadcasters VRT from Belgium and NPO 3 (KRO-NCRV) from the Netherlands. Further support came from the German public broadcasters WDR and SWR (ARD) and the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Each episode was provided with a budget of 1 million euros.

There were other interested co-financiers, but their demands were insurmountable for Perquy. For example, Netflix requested global broadcasting rights and the French public broadcaster wanted French actors to participate.

Script
Initially, the series was called Decimation, after the original idea of main screenwriter Philippe De Schepper to tell a story about a wretched society, caused by overpopulation, seeking refuge in inhuman solutions.

De Schepper and his co-screenwriter Bas Adriaensen found inspiration in the Chinese social credit system, a point system for privileges to for example travel abroad, and the Stasi, the secret service in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), which recruited plenty of its own citizens to spy on their neighbors, friends and family. Those elements combined, the main story became a controlled society where a trade-off system determines your social status. With input from other screenwriters, that society was named Arcadia and the story was focused around one family who face unpleasant times when it is discovered that they cheated in the trade-off system.

Decor
A 1980s retro-futuristic background style was chosen for the future setting rather than a world full of high-tech gadgets. A large set was built in the LITES studios in Vilvoorde, including the headquarters of the Shield and also shot at existing buildings with architectural brutalism, characterized by their block-like concrete structures. Visual effects on the buildings were used for such as adding additional floors. For cars, oldtimers were used, including a purchased Bentley, which were given a futuristic look.

Costumes
To save costs, the costume department adapted flight suits for the uniforms of the security agency the Shield instead of making new uniforms.

Filming
The six-month shooting period was during the corona pandemic, which caused a lot of logistical problems. It was unauthorized to use many extras, but that helped to create a desolate atmosphere in the world of Arcadia.

Indoor shooting took for the most part place at the LITES studios in Vilvoorde and outdoor shooting in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France.

Premiere
The first two episodes premiered at the Ostend Film Festival on 3 February 2023. The eight-part series were shown weekly on television channels VRT (Eén) and NPO 3 (KRO-NCRV) as from 19 March 2023. That same day, all episodes were put available on the Flemish public streaming service VRT MAX and the Dutch NPO Plus. On 17 August 2023 the first three episodes were put available on the German public streaming service ARD Mediathek and the remaining five episodes the next day. The series was aired on the German public-broadcasting television channel One on the weekend starting 18 August 2023 with three episodes airing on Friday and Saturday each and two episodes on Sunday. A second season is in production.