At first glance, Caroline van der Plas and Juric Scholten (Lil Klein) don’t have much in common. He is a successful artist who was temporarily “cancelled” after photos of him abusing his girlfriend Jamie Weiss were leaked; She is a successful politician who has risen like a comet with a promise to “act normal.” However, there are definitely similarities between the two, as both became very big in a short time, and since then have never been able to escape constant media attention.
For documentary filmmakers, this kind of much-discussed character is of course a boon, so this weekend we’re treated to two new documentary series: Caroline (Videoland, about the lead-up to the recent House of Representatives elections) and Yorick (Prime Video, about the “Scholten Cancellation Period”). We’ve been seeing these types of documentaries more and more in recent years: portraits of (new) media phenomena, which often operate in the twilight zone between a PR attack and the ‘honest, raw picture’ (often sold as such). In fact, “raw” images often reinforce the image we already know.
And also in two parts Caroline (Written by Jaïr Ferwerda) We learn little new about Van der Plas, also because we certainly haven’t shied away from “Caroline content” in recent years. However, Verwerda boarded Caroline’s campaign train just in time. In the run-up to the House of Representatives elections, the BBB is falling in the polls, and the media cycle is slowly getting worse.
She remains the darling of talk show creators in the Netherlands, but criticism is increasingly mounting, especially from her former ally Johan Derksen. Even for someone who continues to share as much of his private life as possible in order to “show the person behind the politician,” it eventually becomes too much: especially in the second part, van der Plas is increasingly burdened by excessive media attention.
in Yorick In Scholten we see that emotional openness is first and foremost a must in the process of “cancellation,” in which there must also be room for repentance and self-reflection. In Scholten’s case, the latter essentially boils down to a kind of “yes, but…thinking.” No, of course he should never have hurt Weiss, but it was also a really toxic relationship, and she didn’t want to know what she said that night, and in a relationship like theirs something like that could happen.
where Caroline It reinforces the (well-educated) image of the “average woman” who pays the price for all this attention Yorick Especially the image of the cheeky kid who grew up, but never grew up. In recent years, Scholten said he was “Lil Klein” 90 percent of the time, and only 10 percent “Yorek.” Now is the time to be “More Juric”. The “raw and honest picture” in his documentaries shows that there is still a long way to go.
“Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Freelance organizer. Avid analyst. Friendly troublemaker. Bacon junkie.”