All In - First Episode

In All In, two families end up together in a Spanish hotel, experiencing hilarious situations. We meet the Maenhout and Emmer families on the bus taking them from the airport to their hotel. What should be a pleasant vacation for both families goes wrong upon their arrival at the hotel. The Dutch Emmer family doesn't wait to check in and immediately claims some sun loungers on the beach. The Maenhout family faces a double booking and ends up in a double room where they all must stay. The Emmers face the same situation, but with characteristic Dutch boldness, the hotel manager backs down and they get their booked rooms. When the two families end up on a terrace together and Mrs. Maenhout hears about this, she rushes to the hotel desk and demands her two rooms as well. Meanwhile, the two fathers go on a drinking spree, during which Mr. Emmer slightly underestimates the Antwerp Tripel.



You can already tell that All In is not a high-flyer, but that's not the intention of this story. A fun, relaxing fiction series can be quite enjoyable to watch. Writer, director, and hotel manager Luc Wyns is no stranger to creating impactful series. Think of De Familie Backeljau, Crimi Clowns, or Knokke off. With All In, the tone is lighter, focusing primarily on the differences between the Dutch and Flemish on vacation. The two families have also brought along a couple of teenagers, but they don't play a significant role in the first episode. We know this will change after seeing the teaser for the second episode, and we can already draw a strong connection to the robbery at a jeweler's that occurred while the vacationers were still on the bus.

Wyns is also adept at casting the right actors and actresses for his series. For the Maenhout family, he enlisted Barbara Sarafian and Robby Cleiren. Katja Schuurman and Diederik Ebbinge take on the roles of Mama and Papa Emmer. Additionally, daughter Nana Wyns and son Sasja Wyns make their first steps in their acting careers. However, the biggest surprise in the cast is Paul Maes. Maes played Franky Backeljau in De Familie Backeljau and largely disappeared from screens after the series ended, except for a few sporadic minor roles.



Based on the first episode, it seems that All In is a typical comedic series where each episode provides half an hour of carefree television viewing, repeatedly bringing a smile to your face. But with comedic series, you never know what they might ultimately deliver in the future. There are plenty of examples of comedic series where the first episode wasn't an immediate hit but later grew into globally renowned shows.