Sto Para Pente

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Sto Para Pente (Στο παρά 5)

Promotional photograph
Format Comedy-drama, Mystery, Adventure
Created by Giorgos Kapoutzidis
Antonis Aggelopoulos
Starring See Cast and characters below
Country of origin Greece
No. of episodes 49
Production
Running time 42–58 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Mega Channel
Original run September 27, 2005June 18, 2007
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

Sto Para Pente (original title "Στο παρά 5", as the number 5 is pronounced pente in Greek), was a popular Greek comedy-drama television series, that was broadcast on Mega Channel for two seasons, from September 27, 2005 until June 18, 2007.

The script was written by Giorgos Kapoutzidis, who has also written yet another successful Greek TV series, Savvatogenimenes, that aired on that same network in the 2003-2004 season. The director was Antonis Aggelopoulos. Being an instant critical and popular success, Sto Para Pente was the biggest television hit of both the 2005-2006 and the 2006-2007 seasons and it is regarded as one of the most famed and successful shows in Greek television history. The series was originally supposed to have only one season (26 episodes, each lasting approximately 45 mins) but its immense popularity resulted to a second season consisting of 23 more episodes. The first episode of Season 2 aired on October 2, 2006. Despite early, widespread calls for the creation of a third season, Kapoutzidis made it clear that the second would be the last season of the show. The highly anticipated series finale attracted an audience of nearly 3 million viewers (a rating of 66.0%), making this 70-minute-long special episode the third most watched episode of any television series ever in Greece since ratings began. Also, Sto Para Pente met great success and in United States, Europe, Cyprus, Australia and New Zealand, where Greek immigrants live.

The story was about five seemingly unrelated people who happened to be present at the death of a former minister in a malfunctioning elevator of a luxurious hotel in central Athens. The dying minister begged them in his final words to find out who did this to him by researching a forgotten crime that took place decades before in Thessaloniki. The five of them soon discovered that the minister was actually poisoned. Without a clue on what course of action to follow, they decide to team up, which leads them to a long series of incredible adventures. What they were unaware of at the beginning, however, was that they were actually dealing with some of the most powerful criminals in Greece. What is more, after a short while an alarming number of outstanding coincidences made them realize that nothing had happened as randomly as it seemed to in the beginning.

Contents

[edit] Title

The title 'Sto para pente' is literally translated as "At five [minutes] to" and is a Greek expression that means "In the nick of time".

The title is significant in that the protagonists are five, fighting a team of five villains, and the heroes always manage to escape from their predicaments at the very last moment.

[edit] Season 1 (2005-2006) summary

Thirty years before the events of the series take place, a mysterious group (which, as we later find out, is comprised of five men who went on to become wealthy and powerful) murdered a young woman after attempting to rape her. The murderers managed to get away with it by manipulating events so that a scapegoat was imprisoned instead. They went on to eliminate anyone who tried to uncover the truth. One of these people was former Minister Evaggelos Stavrianidis, who is eventually murdered after attending a reception at a luxurious hotel in central Athens.

The goal was to murder Stavrianidis by slow-acting poison, the effects of which resemble those of a heart attack, so that Stavrianidis would die alone in his house. This plan is foiled when Stavrianidis dies inside the broken-down elevator of the hotel, with five unrelated people bearing witness to his final words.

These five people soon get to know each other and they all decide to go after the people that murdered Stavrianidis and solve the case, because all lost once someone close to them and believe that bringing justice on this murder will help avenge their loved ones' tragic deaths. However, they soon discover that they all lost the people close to them in the same airplane disaster, 14 years ago.

Later on, the five discover that the late Minister was, in his youth, the prosecutor in the trial of the man falsely accused of the young woman's murder. After the man's conviction, Stavrianidis came to realise the prisoner's innocence and set out to undo his false judgement. Not being able to expose the crime to the authorities (30 years had since passed and no one would pay attention), Stavrianidis attempted to capture the real culprits by exposing an economic scandal regarding an off-shore company that the murderers used for money laundering.

The leader of the bad guys, who seems to be a powerful and influential figure, is soon on to the five. Though he doesn't know their identities or motives, he feels he is in danger of being exposed. Even more frustrated, however, is the leader's chief henchman, who is determined to eliminate them, and who is simply known as "the bad guy" or "the guy in black". The five always manage to escape his traps in the nick of time (a reference to the show's title) in a way that he never seems able to predict.

The first episode begins with the five tied to the railroad tracks trying to escape just as soon as a train comes hurling down the tracks and towards them. They are saved "at the nick of time" by the mysterious and beautiful Amalia, who has pulled the passengers emergency train brake, thinking that her luggage has just fallen off the window. Just after the opening credits in this episode, the story begins and we are informed that the whole story takes place 12 months before the train scene.

At the end of the first season, the mysterious leader of the bad guys is revealed to be the leader of a major (fictional) political party that has narrowly won the parliamentary elections, making him the prime minister of Greece. During the whole season his face was never shown on camera and viewers knew him only by his raspy, menacing voice.

[edit] Season 2 (2006-2007) summary

The five move from clue to clue, with the men in black constantly on their heels. A fact-finding trip to Mykonos directs them to a reporter that covered the murder case and had expressed his doubts on the court's ruling. Unfortunately, the men in black have him abducted and an imposter lures the five into a trap. Three of them are captured and the other two manage to rescue their friends when they happen to capture themselves the man in black's assistant. The journalist goes into hiding, but not before divulging them the identity of one of the five murderers: a mogul in charge of a successful media network, Dimosthenis Politis. More evidence lead to the mastermind behind the entire case: the new prime minister of Greece, Aris Pavrinos. After the five finally confront Politis and more overwhelming evidence comes to light (from Politis's father), Politis dies of a heart attack in Dalia's mansion.

As the five try to find clues that will reveal the identity of the remaining two murderers, they get help from an old familiar face, who tells them that the person they are looking for is one of Athens' most powerful lawyers, Yiannis Delikaris. They get Aggela to pose as a law graduate looking for work experience, in order to get access to Delikaris's office. However, Delikaris, knows their identities and intentions and sets his own trap. Spyros' instinct makes him realize that the five are in danger and convinces the others to confront Delikaris. They follow him from his house, but unfortunately have a high speed crash in their car, that results in all of them being in a coma. In the meantime, Delikaris with help from Pavrinos, manages to escape to South America.

The five, while in a coma, have a near-death experience in which they visit a place between Heaven and Earth and see some of their dead loved ones. Zoumboulia's husband, Aggela's father, Fotis' mother and Spyros' parents are there and give them some insight on why they were brought together. Dalia is the only one not to have a loved one there and to be ignored by the people on the 'other side'.

When the five come round, their relatives decide to split them up in order to keep them safe, hoping that after a while the situation will cool off and they will give up on their investigations. Eventually they are allowed to go to the cinema together, but while there they bump into Delikaris's secretary who reveals to them the name of the fifth murderer. He is called Dimitris or Takis for short. She also provides them with another clue: the murdered girl from Thessaloniki had a sister who currently lives in Athens.

The five decide that in order to proceed in their investigations they need to somehow eliminate the man in black and his friend/assistant. They manage that with an ingenious plan devised by Fotis with the help of Sophia and Theopoula. At the same time, Alexis at a meeting with Aggela, Zoumboulia, Fotis and Spyros, reveals to them that Dalia's late father, Mr Hatzialexandrou, was behind the plane crash that killed their loved ones and that he also orchestrated several other similar plane crashes with the view to acquire the plane companies involved. Alexis does however swears Dalia's friends to secrecy since he believes that these news will crush her.

[edit] Cast and Characters

  • The "Five":
    • Smaragda Karydi as Dalia, a fabulously wealthy heiress
    • Elisavet Konstantinidi as Zoumboulia, a simple villagewoman in a big city
    • Giorgos Kapoutzidis as Spyros, a geek
    • Argiris Aggelou as Fotis, a McGyver wannabe
    • Aggeliki Labri as Aggela, a tomboy
  • Zeta Makripoulia as Amalia (and narrator), a blonde who likes to play dumb
  • Irene Koumarianou as Sophia, Spyros' grandmother
  • Efi Papatheodorou as Theopoula, a not-so-senile old lady and Sophia's best friend
  • Michalis Marinos as Alexis, Dalia's passepartout
  • Popi Christodoulou as Martha and Ritsa, Dalia's identical twin maids
  • Pavlos Orkopoulos as Thomas, Fotis' father
  • Melina Kyriakopoulou as Frida Papaparaskeva, Fotis' cousin
  • Eleni Krita as Marilena ("Marinella") Dorkofiki, Zoumboulia's snobbish kinswoman
  • Katerina Theochari as Garoufalia, Theopoula's short daughter-in-law
  • Dimitris Petropoulos as Aris Pavrinos, the evil prime minister
  • Gerasimos Michelis as Andreas Kalogirou, "the man in black" bad guy
  • Patrikios Kostis as Nikos, "the tall" bad guy

[edit] The "Five" character summaries

Midway through the first season, it becomes apparent that the five have all lost loved ones on the same fatal plane crash. This brings the revelation that the five may be tied together by a higher force trying to make things right. They were also together in an old newspaper photograph at the airport after the tragedy.

[edit] Dalia Hatzialexandrou

(Smaragda Karidi): The sole surviving heiress of an extremely wealthy family, she lost her chauffeur and lover at the plane disaster. This resulted in her suffering from depression and she ended up living for many years in her opulent, isolated mansion in Ekali, one of Athens' wealthiest suburbs, watching telenovelas and soap operas all day long. Her long-time isolation has cut her off the outside world and has rendered her totally incapable of comprehending basic aspects of everyday life (such as colloquial expressions and the mere value of money.) She carries huge amounts of large-denomination Euro banknotes and gold bars in her purse, to which she dismissingly refers as the purple ones, the yellow ones or, rarely, the green ones, and attempts to use them to buy chewing gum, dog food or cookies, with little success since she is unacquainted with the concept of change. The only positive outcome of this is that she thinks of the "five"'s mission as a fun game, rather than a very dangerous affair that could cost them their lives. Her lover's son, Alexis, is secretly in love with her. He is an economist and as her personal assistant he successfully manages the vast inheritance that Dalia would otherwise be unable to manage herself.

[edit] Zoumboulia "Zoumbi" Abatzidou

(Elisavet Konstantinidi): Coming from a village in Northern Greece, the widow Zoumboulia lost her husband, Charalambos, at the disaster. Her physician daughter got married to the son of a wealthy and snob Athenian, Marilena Dorkofiki (Zoumboulia cannot pronounce her name correctly; she calls her "Marinella" after the famous Greek singer) and Zoumboulia moved to Athens to take care of her baby grandson, since her daughter and son in-law have temporarily moved to Boston. She often gets into serious confrontations with Marilena, who feels anything but delighted with Zoumboulia's presence. Her weird name is a cause of many misunderstandings and makes other people call her simply "Lia" or "Zoumbie". When in danger, she often resorts to religion and when agitated, she emits a high-pitched "iiiii" sound, slaps her lap and sometimes faints. Like Dalia, Zoumboulia's name comes from a flower, zoumbouli being a colloquial Greek name for the hyacinth.

[edit] Spyros Deloglou

(Giorgos Kapoutzidis): A geeky college student with no social life. He lost his parents at the disaster and lives with his grandmother Sophia. Sophia has become best friends with Theopoula, their wacky and extremely weird neighbor. Theopoula and Sophia share the same passion for adventure and new experiences (including learning to play the drums and wanting to take part in a bungee jumping contest). All this madness drives the already neurotic Spyros almost crazy.

[edit] Fotis Voulinos

(Argyris Aggelou): An aspiring journalist at TeleBOAS, a two-bit TV station (a parody of real Greek local TV channels) owned by his father, Thomas. He lost his mother and sister at the disaster and along with his long time rival, his conceited cousin Frida, presents pretty much all of the channel's pathetic shows. He styles himself as the McGyver of the group. He has a distinctive hairstyle similar to that of Tintin and tends to engage in imaginary detective work that usually bears little relationship with reality.

[edit] Angeliki "Aggela" Ioakeimidou

(Aggeliki Labri): A brash tomboy who lost her father at the disaster, Aggela came to Athens in search of a job and an independent life far from her native countryside. She is the boldest of the five and carries a major chip on her shoulder. She has a kind heart, but her attitude and tendency to speak her mind has a side-effect: she can never keep friends or jobs for long and usually her first day on a job is also her last. When not hunting down bad guys (her favorite activity), she brings out her artistic nature by attending acting classes at a downtown theater, with controversial results.

[edit] Other significant characters

  • Sophia (Irene Koumarianou): Spyros' grandmother, a septuagenarian with a vitality, open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity that belies her age. She has lovingly brought up her grandson after his parents were killed, and now that he is an adult, she is determined to live all the life experiences that were denied to her before.
  • Theopoula (Efi Papatheodorou): Grandma Sophia's neighbor and closest friend. Apparently suffering from senile dementia, she has flashes of astounding insight and lucidity and is willing to follow Sophia in learning French, go to evening school, vacation in Paris and Mykonos, befriend transvestites and flirt young, attractive men. She hates her daughter-in-law for being short and dreams of getting rid of her so that her (very short and acne-scarred) son can finally marry a tall woman.
  • Amalia (Zeta Makripoulia): The angelic, seemingly dumb blonde who often knows far too much for her apparent naivete and is capable of superhuman feats that appear to be inexplicable. She sports a heavy provincial accent that contrasts with her beautiful, model-like appearance. The startling truth about her identity is revealed in the series finale.
  • Marilena (Eleni Krita): A rich, snobbish woman of aristocratic descent, who had been married five times previously and spends her days buying expensive clothes, discussing fashion and interior decoration, and gossiping with her equally snob friends. When her son and his wife, Zoumboulia's daughter, have to move to Boston for a few months on business, Zoumboulia moves into her house so that the two of them can take care of their baby grandson together. Predictably, Zoumboulia's no-nonsense country manners and speech clash with Marilena's haughty big-city ways. Over time their mutual antipathy turns to fondness and finally, although their children divorce amicably, they decide that they are best friends and decide to live close by and take part in their grandson's upbringing.

[edit] Style of the series

The series is based on a "punchline quotes" structure. While the main plot is unveiled, the characters tend to say funny and original quotes, each one characterizing their personality. At the beginning, the series was mostly comedic in mood but in the latter episodes it became increasingly dramatic, adventurous and suspenseful. Most episodes ended in dramatic cliffhangers.

It was the first Greek series in history to present characteristics of cult television shows: An enormous and dedicated fanbase of youngsters and adults alike have created fan sites and forums discussing the punchlines, mysteries and spectacular plot twists of the show.

[edit] Awards and nominations

At the Greek television awards "Prosopa" (Faces) for seasons 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 the show was nominated for 30 categories and received 14 awards (being the highest award-winning series in Greek television ever).

Awards
Favourite Comedy series 2006
Favourite Comedy series (Sotiris Moustakas award) 2007
Best Comedy series 2006
Best Comedy series 2007
Best Direction (Antonis Aggelopoulos) 2007
Best original screenplay for a comedy seies (Giorgos Kapoutzidis)2006
Best original screenplay for a comedy series (Giorgos Kapoutzidis) 2007
Best Leading Actress (Smaragda Karidi)2006
Best Leading Actress (Smaragda Karidi)2007
Best Supporting Actress (Efi Papatheodorou)2006
Best Supporting Actress (Efi Papatheodorou) 2007
Favourite Actor (Giorgos Kapoutzidis) 2006
Favourite Actress (Smaragda Karidi) 2006
Favourite Actress (Smaragda Karidi) 2007
Nominations
Best direction (Antonis Aggelopoulos) 2006
Best Leading Actor (Giorgos Kapoutzidis) 2006 and 2007
Best Production 2006 and 2007
Best Leading Actress (Elisavet Konstandinidou) 2006 and 2007
Best Supporting Actress (Zeta Makripoulia)2006
Best Supporting Actress (Irini Koumarianou) 2007
Best Supporting Actor (Michalis Marinos) 2007
Favourite Actress (Elisavet Konstandinidou) 2006 and 2007
Favourite Actor (Giorgos Kapoutzidis) 2007
Best Visual montage 2006
Best Costume Design 2006 and 2007

[edit] Soundtrack

The opening credits song "Imoun Aggelos tou Charlie" ("I used to be one of Charlie's Angels") was originally written in the early 80's by Dimitris Iatropoulos and Renato Favilli, and was performed by Danae Favilli. After the show's success, it became a hit and was re-released as a soundtrack. An English language version of the song ("My Uncle's name was Charlie") played only once in the opening credits of the first episode of season 2.

[edit] Commercials

The characters of the show appeared in many commercials, most popular those of TIM and Carrefour.The "5" appeared in two major TIM commercials. The two grannies Theopoula and Sofia appeared in a couple of Carrefour commercials as well as Smaragda Karidi's character Dalia along with her two maidservants Martha and Ritsa. Smaragda Karidi also appeared in a few Hellenic Seaways spots not as Dalia (although there are references to her popular character) but as Herself.

[edit] Trivia

Giorgos Kapoutzidis wrote, the first time, the role of Dahlia for Katia Dandoulaki, but then he changed his mind and made the character in younger age for Smaragda Karydi.

When Smaragda Karydi took the script at her hands, she read only the first 15 pages. Then, she called her mother and said to her I want to do this. I want to play Dahlia. And she did.

It has been said that Dahlia's house in the series was, in reality, Smaragda Karydi's house.

When Giorgos Kapoutzidis sent the script to MEGA Channel, they weren't sure about accepting it or not and they brought and another scriptwriter to tell them his opinion.

The title Sto Para Pente was proposed by Argiris Aggelou, while he was sitting on the couch of his home. The originally title was meant to be The Golden Kids.

[edit] External links