Za sklom (transl. Behind the Glass) is a Slovak police procedural television series created by a program director of TV JOJ Roland Kubina and produced by DNA Production. Series, which is inspired by real life, debuted on 28 September 2016 and tells the story of two elite cops who eventually find themselves on the opposite side of the law.
On 13 January 2017, JOJ confirmed the second season, which premiered on November 8, 2017. On 17 July 2018 it was announced that the series was renewed for the third and final season, which was inspired by the murder of reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancé Martina Kušnírová. The third season premiered on 1 October 2019. The series ended on 12 November 2019.
Contents
Cast and characters
Recurring
Adam Jančina as Praporshchik Karol "Lajťák" Svetlý, police IT officer
Tibor Vokoun as medical examiner (seasons 1 & 2: recurring; season three: guest)
Žofia Martišová as Mrs. Maxovská, Maxo's grandmother (seasons 1 & 2)
Jaroslav Mottl as Andrej "Rohan" Roháč, SIS agent
Barbora Andrešičová as Patrícia Brunovská, reporter
Juraj Rašla as Roman Malec, an investigator from the Bureau of the Inspection Service of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic. In the second season, he became the temporary head of the NAKA investigation team and during the third season he became the new president of the Police Force of the Slovak Republic.
Ľuboš Kostelný as mafioso Marián "Tajson" Blánka, Slovak mafia boss (season one)
Oliver Hrubý as Daniel "Danko" Antol, son of Lena Antolová (seasons 1 & 2)
Martin "Mako" Hindy as Tajson's and Slančík's bodyguard (seasons 1 & 2)
Noël Czuczor as Riky, Slančík's right hand and Mossad agent (season two)
Jevgenij Libezňuk as Česlav "Ear" Kupko, Ukrainian mafia boss (season two)
Milan Kňažko as Milan Solan, retired member of Interpol and former Zora Ballová's boss (season two)
Ján Jackuliak as Peter Drapák, mafioso and arms dealer (season two)
The similarity of the characters to real people
Officially, the similarities of the characters to real people are purely coincidental, but viewers have noticed that some of the characters, mostly politicians, are very familiar:
Milan Ondrík - Juraj "Bongy" Bongrád reminds mafioso Peter Čongrády;
Gejza Benkő - Jozef "Fistman" Mazurek as extremist reminds the member of National Council of the Slovak Republic for the People's Party Milan Mazurek;
Maroš Kramár - Marián "Belly" Vozner as businessman and mafioso reminds Marián Kočner;
Peter Vaco - Pavol Poliak as businessman reminds Pavol Rusko;
Roman Luknár - Chief as chairman of the Government Party and Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, who lost his post after the journalist's murder, reminds Robert Fico;
Gregor Hološka - Fúzatý as the Minister of the Interior, who lost his post after the journalist's murder, reminds Robert Kaliňák;
Zuzana Mauréry - Jana "Orca" Balogová as new Minister of the Interior of the Slovak Republic reminds Denisa Saková;
Jozef Vajda - Slavo "Grandpa" Kučera as owner of the security service with links to the government reminds of the Nitra oligarch Miroslav Bödör;
Martin Mňahončák - Libor Haspra as president of the Police Force of the Slovak Republic reminds Tibor Gašpar;
Juraj Rašla - Roman Malec with his villa in Florida and his appointment as president of the Police Force of the Slovak Republic reminds Milan Lučanský;
Production
The series for JOJ was shot by DNA Production, which in the past produced the TV series Dr. Ludsky and Dr. Dokonalý. Due to the many action and stunt scenes, the actors underwent special trainings. Róbert Šveda is one of the directors of the series. The series is so far the most time-consuming series of JOJ, due to filming on film cameras. Many scenes were also shot using drones. Scenes such as explosions, chases and gunfights are handled with special effects. According to Marcel Grega, general director of TV JOJ, the series is "the best criminal in Slovakia so far". The second season was shot in the summer of 2017. The third season was shot in the summer of 2019.
Theme song
Theme song has the same title as the series itself. The song "Za sklom" is on the third ("Banská Bystrica") and fourth album ("Kam ideme") of the Bratislava band Korben Dallas.
Sanction
On 23 March 2017, the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission imposed a fine of €5000 on JOJ for the first part of the series for the first episode of the series which was to be "due to the content of vulgar and obscene expression and depiction of erotic aids marked as inappropriate for minors under 18", that would mean postponing broadcast until 22:00.
Broadcasting
After airing of the first episode of the second season, TV series pulled off the broadcast. They justified this by low viewership due to unattractive airtime. There have been suspicions that external political pressures are behind the TV series pulled off the broadcast, whereas the series highlights political causes, tax fraud, corruption, the linking of politicians and the mafia, or the intervention of the Minister of the Interior and the President in the investigation. JOJ refused any external interference with the broadcast. The second season returned to air on 2 May 2018.