“Alternatywy 4” in America

Bringing a TV show from my old home to my new one

Alternatywy 4 was a nine-episode Polish TV show, finished in 1983, but cleared by censorship only in 1986. It was a cutting satire on late-stage communism, a chronicle of a dozen fictional families moving into a new apartment building, and their struggles: crappy workmanship, bureaucracy, casual corruption, food shortages, power outages, and last — but you bet not least — political aspirations of the always-conniving building manager.

The show was populated by top-notch actors, instantly well-loved by audiences, and thirty years later remains a classic in my homeland.

It has also never made an impression anywhere outside of it.