I can't seem to find a better explanation why veliki Perica, now a grown up man, still has a mental and emotional capacity of a 9 year old mali Perica
Let's go back to the original movie, the one that served as inspiration for Dnevnik velikog Perica (that's basically a sequel), also the same one that is probably the best Croatian comedy of all times. Although very simple, with only 5 characters and based on a plot that's everything but complicated, this lighthearted and breezy story managed to capture hearts of the viewers and become a timeless classic. Why? Because it was real.
It captured all the nuances of character and temperament of its protagonistis, with all their flaws and virtues. The plot is basic, but it sets the stage for our heroes to shine and make us laugh - as we can recognise ourselves and our own friends and family members in them.
The words of mali Perica are funny - because those are the words of a literal child, the one who can't fully understand the adult world. He's cute and naive and this is what ads the spice to a story told thousands of times before, the one of marital infidelity.
But 30 years later nothing seems to have changed - Perica is a man now, and he stil doesn't understand anything. But this time it's not funny. He was supposed to grow up, and somehow he didn't. He used to be spunky, observant and outgoing little guy - now he's a boring, spineless, self-centred and completely oblivious about the world around him. He has no character, personality or wittiness. His sentences sound like a school essay of 3rd grader (and nobody talks like that). If we never saw mali Perica, the best explanation would be he's on the spectrum (but nothing like brilliant Forrest Gump). Since we know better than that, one can only assume he fell on his head sometime in between the two diaries. And it''s a shame - because he's the main character (with no character).
Funny enough, all the other characters have more life and wittines - and that's what makes this series at least barely watchable. The other thing I really appreciate is the music - if nothing else, bringing back the forgotten classics is a treat I wasn't expecting (especially today when the music in Croatia is in the worse state than film, and that was a challenging task).
It was very brave of the authors to make a sequel (and in the form of series, no les) - knowing their work will be compared to a title that has become a class of its own. The fact that they did well at the end may be attributed to the popularity of the original and the viewers' nostalgia, but also to the sad state of our video production and chronic lack of any content unrelated to war, poverty and violence - predominantly in a rural setting.
All in all, worse than Tko pjeva zlo ne misli, better than Pod lipom and Nasa mala klinika. And thank you for the music!
