Familie

Familie (Dutch for Family) is a Flemish television soap opera set in Mechelen. Created by Herman Verbaet, Familie was first broadcast on 30 December 1991. It has been broadcast consistently for 5-6 evenings per week, with only 2-3 month hiatuses during summer. It is currently being produced by Banijay Belgium and running on VTM.

Premise
Pierre Van den Bossche and Anna Dierckx have raised three children. Their oldest son Guido is a bright student, eager to become a business mogul. His younger brother Jan and sister Rita are less gifted and often feel pushed back, but are nevertheless proud of their sibling. Once the children are starting their own family lives, shocking news arrives: Anna is pregnant again and Pierre has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Pierre dies weeks before the birth of his daughter Marleen. Anna is devastated, but decides to stay strong.

Start of the series
Anna still mourns her deceased husband Pierre, but as she is turning 65 years old she is also happy to see her children are all doing well. Marleen is now a young adult studying at a fashion academy. Guido has successfully founded the VDB Systems electronics company, is married to the eccentric Marie-Rose De Putter and has two children: Peter and Veronique. Jan also works for the company and married to Monique Stevens, he also has two children: Bart and Mieke. Rita has been struggling due to the death of her first son Paul, the illness of her second son Pierrot and the ongoing rivalry with her sister-in-law Marie-Rose, but manages to find happiness in her singing career and her husband Dirk Cockelaere.

Development of the main characters
Marleen marries school teacher Ben Van der Venne. When she turns out to be infertile, the couple enters a long adoption procedure. On the day little Lovely finally arrives, fate strikes as Marleen gets fatally hit by a car while crossing the street. Ben has a hard time raising Lovely as a single father, but gets close help of Anna and her new live companion Albert. Eventually, Ben signs on for a development project in Africa and takes Lovely with him, after which contact fades. Years later, grown up Lovely comes to spend a couple of years in Belgium and tells her family that Ben has died.

After losing another child, Rita starts suffering a severe alcohol addiction. Dirk leaves her while she is pregnant of their third child, causing Rita to have a mental breakdown and trying to murder Guido and Marie-Rose. Rita ends up in prison, where she gives birth to another son, which she calls Pierrot again. After being released, she marries fellow alcoholic Rob Gerrits, yet both help each other to get their lives back on track. The family embraces her again and keeps a close eye on her, but cannot prevent her from a handful returns to drinking, such as the one following her divorce from Rob. She eventually revives her music career by signing on as a singer and animator on sea cruises. Pierrot grows up to be a very socially committed young man. After a failed career as a street worker, he moves to South America as a development aid.

Guido is a successful and well-respected businessman who founded the family business; VDB Electroonics. Unfortunately his personal life takes quite a few hits, such as his divorce from the adulterous Marie-Rose and the alleged death of their son Peter. Guido survives multiple murder attempts by his professional enemy Didier De Kunst, yet one of those makes him end up in a wheelchair for many years to follow. Luck seems to get back to his side when Peter turns out to be alive, but shortly after this joyful event, Guido dies following a stabbing incident. Peter rises as his father's successor, while Veronique establishes a fashion company. Years after, the two companies merge into a holding in which both siblings maintain management positions. Workaholic Veronique is having a troubled relationship with her son Cedric, who blames her for having neglected him his whole life. Peter's daughter Louise leaves for a sabbatical in Australia before deciding how to start adulthood. Both Peter and Veronique have been married several times. In 2021, Peter becomes father for the second time when his son Victor got born. Unfortunately Victor's mother, Iris Massant, died in a car crash right before Victor was born. In March 2022 both Peter and Marie-Rose die in a house fire and Victor is now being raised by family friends Mathias Moelaert and Vanessa Mariën.

Jan gets married two more times, with Nele Van Winckel and Linda Desmedt, which leads to three more children: Maarten, Leen and Guido Jr, the latter named after Jan's deceased brother. His professional life highlights when he gets appointed mayor, yet after his return to VDB he keeps getting downgraded until he decides to quit and take over the local café. Bart becomes an engineer and has a long run at VDB, while marrying Brenda Vermeir and getting two children: Hannah, who grows up to be a fashion designer for VDB, and Jelle, who wants to become a professional soccer player. After Brenda dies in a car accident, Bart starts a relationship with Peter's ex-wife Trudy Tack de Rixart de Waremme. The couple moves to Dubai, where Bart is pursuing a new career. Mieke spends her first years of adulthood doing development aid in Africa and South America. Back in Belgium, she marries Marc De Waele and gets a son Lennert, but father and son eventually die in a car crash. During her next marriage with Wim Veugelen, she has a miscarriage and becomes infertile. When she starts working as a nurse in the local hospital, she has an affair with one of the doctors, leading to her divorce. Eventually she enters a surprising but successful marriage with the younger Niko Schuurmans. After an accident, she suffers a change in personality, leading her to quit welfare and start a business career at VDB. Maarten becomes a chef and gets his own restaurant, managed by VDB. After the death of his girlfriend Roos, he joins a development program in Asia. Leen becomes a doctor and works in the local hospital for a while, after which she decides to become a general practitioner. A medical suspension after having committed a flight crime, leads her to join a development program in Africa. She takes her son Arthur and boyfriend Faroud Kir with her. Leen is killed in 2024 by family archenemy Bert Van den Bossche. Guido Jr becomes a car mechanic and owns a garage together with one of his former classmates. He and his girlfriend Emma Verdonck get a daughter Mila. Later on, it is revealed that she was switched with another child right after birth, and that a girl named Milou is their real daughter. Guido and Emma meet the girl's father and they agree to co-parent. In 2018 Emma cheats on Guido with the father and they break up.

Back in 2002, Anna discovered that her late husband cheated on her with a German woman during World War II and had fathered a child; Georges Van den Bossche. When Jan goes to Germany to learn more about Georges, he finds out that he died not too long ago and that he also has a child; the shy and introverted Bert Van den Bossche. Jan takes Bert back to Belgium, so he can spend time with his family. In the beginning Anna has trouble accepting Bert as part of the family but eventually welcomes him as well. A few years later, Bert moves to China but comes back to Belgium in 2006. By then, he had turned into a tough and confident business man and later he also starts working for the family business. Though he's very competent, it becomes clear that he doesn't always have the best intentions. He also starts plotting against Peter with the enemy of the family; Xavier Latour. In 2011, Bert gets fired by Peter and by then had already lost much respect with the rest of the family. Bert wants revenge and sets the business on fire during a party, with the intention of killing Peter and the other major shareholders. While everyone survived the fire itself, Bert was caught by Rob and was forced to murder him. Later, Peter discovers that Bert was the arsonist and the one that killed Rob and Bert gets arrested. Anna visits him in prison and tells him he's not longer considered part of the family. This seemingly breaks Bert and tries to commit suicide in his cell, but he doesn't succeed in doing so. In 2013, Bert is still in jail and is out for revenge on the family and Peter in particular. He kills an inmate, steals his identity and manages to escape, but gets arrested again just as he arrives at Peter's apartment. In 2015, Bert escapes jail yet again but this time with the help of Peter's ex June and Bert's henchman Stan Lauwers. Bert wants to flee to Asia, undergo plastic surgery there and then come back as someone else in order to start his big revenge plan. Stan manages to get him on board of a containership to Asia, where he can stay in a container with enough provisions to last the entire trip. Unknowingly to Bert however, Stan double crosses him by making a deal with the captain to dump the container in the ocean. The rest of the family is unaware of this and assumes that Bert has fled to Asia, never to return to Belgium again. In 2021 it was revealed in the Familie spin-off book 'Alter Ego' that Bert turned out to have survived his ordeal on the containership and that he had gone to South-Africa instead to undergo plastic surgery and take on a completely new identity. After having undergone plastic surgery, Bert returns to the family's environment in 2024 under his new identity "Joris Nuyens". By starting to work again for what used to be the family business, Bert slowly comes back into contact with most of his family members that are still living in Belgium, though they are completely unaware that "Joris" is actually Bert. Bert starts his revenge plan and wants to take out all the Van den Bossches one by one. It's also revealed that it was he who was responsible for the deaths of Peter and Marie-Rose two years prior. He hires a sniper to kill Bart Van den Bossche who lives in Dubai, but his plan fails as Bart only sustains a graze wound. Bert reconsiders his plan. He starts a relationship with Mieke, who's still unaware of his intentions and true identity, and suggests to organize a big family reunion. In reality, the reunion is part of his revenge plan. He wants to bring the whole family together in one place so he can kill them all at once by detonating two bombs. A few days prior to the reunion, his plan was almost foiled by Leen, who had discovered his true idenity. Bert manages to kill her before she can warn the family and hides her body. In the meantime, Bert has developped a fatherly bond with Peter's daughter Louise and desperately tries to keep her from going to the reunion. He seemingly succeeds but just as he is about to detonate the bombs, Louise arrives anyway and he is forced to cancel the detonation. Instead, he proposes to Mieke and seemingly plans to try his plan again at their wedding in January 2025.