Konstantinou Kai Elenis (literally "...of Constantine and Helen") is a comedy series about the stories of two completely different people trying to live together. Konstantinos is a lecturer of Bysantinology in the University of Athens and Eleni is a waitress in a bar located in Exarcheia. After Konstantinos's uncle dies, he leaves two wills for his neo-classic house in Marousi; one leaving the house to his nephew and another leaving the house to his gardener's daughter, whom he regarded as his family. Unable to determine the time each will was written, the two completely different characters decide to live together and bare with each other's lives and quirks until the law and justice determines which will is valid.
The series ran for two seasons in the period of 1999-2000, in the channel Ant1, with standalone and sometimes two-part episodes. It involves the various stories of the main characters' lives as housemates, usually featuring other characters including Matina, their childhood neighbour with an obsession over marriage, Peggy, Eleni's friend and colleague and aspiring theatre actress, Manthos, Peggy's rich playboy boyfriend and Konstantinos's childhood friend and Nikolas, bartender on the bar that Eleni and Peggy work in.
It is (in)famous for being one of the (if not The) longest re-run domestic series on Greek television, with out-of-order reruns to this day on afternoon hours. It was briefly replaced with tabloid news for a limited period of time in 2012, but was recovered on the program's schedule. In 2021, Harrys Romas revealed that the series entered the guiness world record book for its constant rerun span of over 20 years.
Konstantinou kai Elenis contains examples of:
- '90s Hair:
- From the girls' side, we have Eleni's Boyish Short Hair and Peggy and Matina's long hair.
- From the boys' side, we have Nikos' hairstyle.
- Abusive Parents: In To Rok Kai To Pourok, we learned that Konstantinos' father imposed his son to hear only classical music. When he found out that Konstantinos had a disc of Dakis, he grabbed it and torn it apart.
- Actor Allusion: In I Vendetta. When Konstantinos learns that Lakis, the supposed threatening vengeful man he was hiding from is an effeminate gay man he met the previous day, he returns furious at the house and yells at Eleni that he would not be afraid of the likeness of Maya the Bee. Spiros Mpimpilas, the actor portraying Lakis, is one of the most iconic greek voice actors even to this day, and voiced various characters in greek cartoons of that era.
- Affectionate Parody: Aponi Zoi parodies dramatic movie plots from the old Greek cinema movies. Same goes for the characters portrayed by the main cast. (Eleni Rantou parodies the characters of Martha Vourtsi, Vasilis Koukouras the flamboyant guy characters etc.)
- All for Nothing: The final episodes reveal that the two housemates never had to have the "two wills" case taken to court in the first place, as there was a third and final will in video format. A much calmer, offscreen, version of the trial is implied to have taken place shortly before the final episode, with both parties peacefully settling on a half-half ownership. To put it simply, the entirety of the first season could have been avoided.
- All Just a Dream: The new year's eve episode turns out to be Matina's nightmare about the world coming to an end. Justified, as it was aired in the final days of 1999, when the problem of year 2000 was relevant as a conspiracy theory.
- Alliterative Name:
- Konstantinos Katakouzinos.
- Matina Mantarinaki.
- All Men Are Perverts: In Tis Metarmophoseos, the three girls (Eleni, Matina, Peggy) undergo plastic surgery and bust their chests. After that, all the men (including the religious and pure Konstantinos) fawn over them.
- All Women Are Lustful: A justifiable case in Agrio Thiliko, where Eleni finds out a box of chocolates said to sexually arouse their eater. After Eleni eats them, she starts to sexually harass the men around her (with the most common victim being Konstantinos), until the effects stop. Later, Peggy and Matina eat one and attack Konstantinos as well.
- Aristocrats Are Evil:
- Konstantinos comes from a rich family and is quite religious, but often uses questionable methods to drive Eleni out of the house or take advantage of Manthos's playboy tendencies.
- Same goes to Manthos, son of a rich manufacturer. We wouldn't call him "Evil" per say, but he isn't the best boyfriend (and friend) to have around.
- Attention Whore:
- Matina has tried (unsuccessfully) to get the attention of the men around her, particularly with Konstantinos and Nikolas.
- Anna in Aponi Zoe. Being the star of various greek films and the most famous greek actress, she gets extremely angry whenever the focus isn't on her.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Peggy, and how! She tends to read her lines in an over-the-top and exaggerated manner that annoys even her best friend.
- Bait-and-Switch: In universe example: In the vendetta episode, Eleni goes to the butcher shop owned by the cretan whose family had beef with Kostantinos's. She initially mistakes another muscular butcher for him, until the real, flamboyant gay one shows up.
- Beta Couple: Interesting enough, the two protagonists at the end of the series to Manthos and Peggy, something that doesn't usually happen with main characters!
- Biting-the-Hand Humour: Meta example: in the end of Vaskanias to Anagnosma after finally getting insured by a bad-luck insurance agent, they give her a list that among others includes a person named Giannis Latsios (named after the owner of the channel network).
- Bilingual Bonus: In the mafia episode, Eleni teaches Konstantinos "Italian" to greet Nino formally, leading to this golden exchange (in italian):Konstantinos: Good evening, Good evening! You asshole!Nino: Asshole?! What are you saying?Konstantinos: Asshole, sir! Asshole! Asshole!Nino: Bastard! You called me asshole!
- and the followup after Silvana clears up the situation
Konstantinos: Sir Nino! Up you ass!*cue Nino punching him in the gut*- Tatianna from Romania says some of her lines in fluent romanian. Going with the episode's theme, they are read as vulgar speech by the rest of the cast because of her accent (Romania is read "Romuneea", munee being greek slang for cunt)
- Blatant Lies: Manthos' lies in order to get away from one girlfriend (and visit the other) are so ridiculous and over-the-top (he has to go on a long trip, his father wants him to the factory) that one wonders how his girlfriends believe him.
- Black Comedy Rape: Almost invoked to hilarious effect in "Agrio thiliko" whenever Eleni is left alone with Kostantinos and eats a piece of chocolate.
- Camp Gay:
- Andreas, an actor in the episode Aponi Zoe. He speaks and behaves in the stereotypical manner and has shown great interest in men, to the point that he crosses the line harassing them. The producers try to hide this fact, since their primary goal is to make him popular with the ladies.
- Played straight in a vendetta episode with a flamboyant, openly gay Cretan butcher.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Konstantinos and Eleni can't stand each other, for how different they are. However, in "O Hartopaiktes", where Konstantinos beats Eleni in a batch of papers, Eleni is forced to leave the house, since, before the game, they made a bet where the loser would have to give their part of the house to the winner. Eleni, as the loser, starts packing but, at the last moment, Konstantinos changes his mind and tells her, with a calm voice, that she can stay.
- The Casanova: Manthos fits perfectly this trope. Rich, hot, has multiple girlfriends… what more to ask?!
- Casanova Wannabe: Nikolas believes he's a lady-killer (like Manthos), because he rides a motorcycle.
- Catchphrase:
- "A na haseis!" (literally, "get lost!"), used by Eleni whenever she's angry (mainly with Konstantinos)
- "Tamala" (ancient greek for "Very much") by Konstantinos.
- Manthos refers to each one of his girlfriends as "monadiki mou agapi" (literally, "my one and only love").
- Whenever someone greets Matina, she usually replies: "I'm so glad that you noticed me, because no one notices me. I'm a little lowly chamomile".
- She also refers to herself as "tapeino hamomilaki" (literally, "little lowly chamomile") and "asimanto mirmighaki" (literally, "insignificant little ant").
- Character Development: Konstantinos is shown to hate animals in an episode where Eleni turns her part of the house into an animal hotel. In the series finale he says he grew to like animals.
- Matina's confidence builds up rapidly after Nikolas proposes to her. Not only she starts to Really Gets Around, she changes her whole image, puts on contact lenses, talks with a much calmer voice and adopts a new-hippie lifestyle.
- Chekhov S Gun: Matina works as a public servant and spends the whole series saving up money for her dowry, believing it will make her search for a groom easier. She ends up using the money she saved up to buy the ownership of the bar that Eleni, Nikolas and Peggy work at, after learning that it was going to close due to poor business.
- Comically Missing the Point: One of the most common Running Gags of the series is Konstantinos not understanding the modern phrases his friends use.
- In Glykia mou Exadelfi, Eleni prepares dinner for her friends (actually, she ordered from a catering) and when Nikolas sees the table, he goes "I can't believe my eyes!" (in reality, "I got deaf!"), to which Konstantinos replies "I know a good opthalmologist" (in reality, "I know a good otolaryngologist").
- In H Kali Samareites, Peggy introduces herself to Theodora like this "I'm Peggy. You probably know me from the napkin". Konstantinos doesn't understand what Peggy means, so Eleni explains to him that she refers to Peggy's advertisement about napkins.
- In To Rok Kai To Pourok, Eleni, seeing him so obsessed with Sakis (a Real Life pop-star in Greece), asks him "Where do you think you are?", to which he replies "At Marousi". She asks him the same question again and he says "At Athens".
- Cure Your Gays: Matina's intentions with Lakis, the gay butcher, when he agrees to go on a date.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both Konstantinos and Eleni can be this. Konstantinos to Manthos, regarding his playboy tendecies, and Eleni to Matina, when the latter complains about being single.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: A male example, in Moro mou, moro mou esi. Konstantinos initially hates the fact that Eleni's friends left their infant daughter in Eleni's care because the troubles of taking care a baby will distract him from his research. Eventually when he is forced to babysit her, he actually grows very fond of her and is even more motivated to write his paper while keeping her company in his office.
- The Ditz: No matter how exaggerated Manthos' excuses are whenever Peggy finds him flirting with another woman, she always believes him.
- Dream Sequence: Eleni has one in Sta Mathinatika Sou Ta Biblia, where she sees a nightmare where a TV presenter announces to all Greece that Eleni hasn't graduated from high school.
- Dirty Old Man: Kostantinos's uncle is revealed to have shades of this, as the two housemates find VHS tapes with porn movies along with his video will in the TV table.
- Disguised in Drag: Lakis the butcher. After meeting Konstantinos in his karate gym program, he visits Eleni's bar in full drag just in case he bumps into Konstantinos again. Surprisingly enough for an old TV series, it works and nobody recognizes him until he introduces himself.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Konstantinos' desire to recreate the Byzantine Empire (a Golden Age for Greece) via his political party in Konstantinos o Politeuomenos sounds pretty familiar to another politician, who also tried (and failed) to recreate a specific empire for his country.
- Double Entendre: Paradosi katoikon anohis. WAY too many to count. The episode is filled with misunderstandings because of this.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Played straight in the infamous sexual harassment episode: Eleni is harassed at her new secretary job by the doctor who runs the office, and the case is taken very seriously, even consulting her lawyer. Konstantinos on the other hand is harassed by a female student who plays the victim when he rejects her, making everyone turn against him, as they cannot believe female on male harassment can happen. Averted before the episode climax, where Eleni figures out said student is not as innocent as it seems and sets her up with Konstantinos while she eavesdrops their conversation.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: An early episode shows Kostantinos being able to drive. Him and Eleni not having drive permits and being terrible drivers in general becomes a plot point for two later episodes.
- Fan Boy: Konstantinos in "To Rok Kai To Pourok'' becomes a huge fan of Sakis after he sees a video clip of him. He listens to all his songs, goes to his concerts and collects posters of him. By the end of the episode, this passion has died down and he forms a new obsession for another greek singer.
- Fiery Redhead: Eleni.
- Flanderization: Anagnostou, Konstantinos's student. On his first appearance he was introduced as a quiet, shy introvert who developed a crush on Eleni the moment he saw her, dressed formally and visited her with a bouquet of flowers to ask her out. In all his later appearances, his crush on Eleni is pretty much his whole character and his personality is more loud and cartoony.
- Foil:
- Konstantinos to Eleni. Konstantinos is a highly religious man, who is very fond of the Good Old Ways, is educated, teaches at a university, looks down on others, talks in a pretty formal way and would never have sex with a woman if they aren't married. Eleni, on the other hand, wears revealing clothes, has gone with multiple men, is uneducated (one episode shows that she hasn't even graduated from high school), swears at every moment and works at a bar. Despite their differences, both show hidden attraction for each other, something that leads to these two getting married.
- Again, to Manthos. Manthos is the son of rich manufacturer, is lazy, immature, goes with different girlfriends the week and has never worked in his entire life.
- Foreshadowing: Various hints about Konstantinos and Eleni's wedding at the final episode can be found throughout the series:
- In The "Konstantinos and Eleni's" Show, there's a producer who wants to turn Konstantinos and Eleni's daily life into a Reality Show, without their permission or them knowing, and plans on marrying them.
- In Me tin Theia Den Einai Amartia, uncle Aggelos says to Konstantinos this:
Aggelos: You desire her [Eleni], you desire her very much. If you didn't desire her, you would ignore her.- In Agrio Thiliko, Eleni visits a psychiatrist who is convinced from the get go that she has underlying feelings for Konstantinos.
- In the second part of To mwro tis Rosemary when Rosemary leaves after living with them for a few days, both of them are so overjoyed that they hug and start dancing.
- When the court date is finally set, both housemates are briefly startled on the realization that they won't be living together anymore after their case is settled, before their lawyers quickly snap them out of it.
- In Glykia Mou Exadelfi, Elenis is glad to receive a bouquet of flowers and a card calling her "the most beautiful being of the entire world", even if it is by Konstantinos (actually, Konstantinos wanted to send them to another woman he was in love with).
- Freudian Excuse: Konstantinos' love for Sakis in "To Rok Kai To Pourok'' comes from a traumatic experience from his childhood. When he was a kid, his father imposed him to hear only classical music. He had a disc of Takis (gift from his cousin), which he listened when he was alone. One day, his father discovered this and tore it to pieces.
- Funny Background Event: In I Vendetta after Lakis visits Eleni's bar disguised, Nikolas can be clearly seen laughing in the background.
- Fun with Subtitles: "I laidi kai i Alitra" whenever one of the female characters speak in english.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: The radar never existed in the first place. The creators were given so much creative freedom because they thought the series would be cut short in its first season. Notable examples include:
- An italian being associalted with the mafia named "Nino Putso"note .
- Eleni's(and other characters') very unfiltered swearing. Special mention to Silvana for mouthing "Αι Γαμησου"(fuck you) very clearly.
- Two instances of strippers performing and one instance of a bare chested dancer.
- Confirmed homosexual guest characters (Lakis the butcher, Matina's cousin, Miss Mavrea).
- Many instances of the characters unambigously having sex offscreen.
- Giftedly Bad: Peggy has great confidence in her acting skills and can't understand why her friends believe that she will never get a main role.
- Graceful Loser: Konstantinos in the end of Ta mathitika sou vivlia. At first he is grumpy that he lost the bet with Eleni and has to walk around the city wearing donkey ears, but when the rest of the cast offers him a drink, he admits defeat and happily joins them in Eleni's celebrations.
- Gratuitous French: Rosemary's accent, who is from France.
- He-Man Woman Hater: After Rosemary announces to him that she is pregnant, Konstantinos hopes that they will have a boy. Rosemary tells him not to get attached to this idea, since the baby might be a girl, to which Konstantinos isn't very glad to hear.Konstantinos: You entangled me in this nightmare and you will have a daughter?! Jamais!
- Here We Go Again!: In the end of Agrio Thiliko, Konstantinos eats one of the aphrodisiac chocolates, gets aroused and starts behaving the same way Eleni did throughout the episode.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners:
- Eleni with Peggy, her best friend.
- Konstantinos with Manthos, his best (and only) friend.
- Historical In-Joke: In Konstantinos o Politeuomenos, Manthos makes fun of Matina's political party, saying that it's only there to serve the parties that are truly in power, like PASOK. A decade and half later, Matina's party, SYRIZA, is now more powerful than Manthos'.
- Hypocrite:
- Manthos isn't loyal to Peggy, he constantly cheats on her (behind her back) and has multiple girlfriends besides her. However, the few times he falsely assumed that she had affairs behind his back, he got angry and tried to beat up the assumed boyfriends.
- Konstantinos prides himself for being a religious and logical person, but, just like Eleni, he has his fair share of moments where he uses questionable methods to get the house.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Popi in Paradosi kat oikon anoxis. While she doesn't actually enjoy her job, she has a very positive mindset and considers it as therapy for those with a troubled sex life. She is even very vocally against businesses who are exploiting sex workers and immigrant women.
- Insane Troll Logic: After mixing up two of his other fiancees' name in front of her, Manthos convinces Peggy that the names "Tatiana" and "Fiona" are derivatives of each other because both of them can be shortnened to "Noula" in Greek. The icing on the cake of hilarity is that Peggy comes to that conclusion on her own!!
- Irony:
- Peggy believes that Manthos is loyal to her and that she is his "only true love" (as he calls her). The audience knows otherwise…
- Eleni has flirted with a good size of men throughout the series, but Konstantinos (the most religious out of the two) has fallen in love more times than her.
- Despite Konstantinos being a massive Neat Freak who is Terrified of Germs (he is often seen using wipes to answer the phone and washing his hands with betaine every time he shakes hands with others), he has written "The Drainage System of Byzantium", a book about, well… Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Konstantinos might be extremely religious, but (just like Eleni), he uses questionable methods to get the house.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Konstantinos isn't exactly a saint, as the Aristocrats Are Evil entry states, but he has a fair share of moments where he appears sympathetic to the audience. A good example would be in "O Hartopaiktes", where he beats Eleni in a batch of papers. Before the game, they made a bet, where the loser would have to give their part of the house to the winner. Eleni, as the loser, starts packing but, at the last moment, Konstantinos changes his mind and tells her, with a calm voice, that she can stay. Even Eleni (who usually mocks him) is moved by his action!
- In Paradosi Kat Oikon Anohis, when he confronts Eleni for opening an deli business with her friends without the appropriate legal documentation, she tells him she knows he is going to report them. He replies calmly that he wasn't going to in the first place, and won't do it so long as they shut it down in the next days.
- Eleni has shades of this as well; she may intentionally go off Konstantinos's limits to tease him, but will immediately try to make up for her behavior should it go too far for him.
- Large Ham: Peggy and how! She often recites in front of her friends parts of plays she never ends up participating (because she is untalented) and in The "Konstantinos and Eleni" Show, she appeared wearing over-the-top glamorous dresses.
- Manipulative Bitch: In "Seismoi, Loimoi kai Katakouzinoi", Eleni puts Antonis Raftopoulos to masquerade himself as a seismologist, who lies to Konstantinos about a forthcoming earthquake, in order for him to leave the house for good. The plan blackfires, as Konstantinos eventually hears about the whole scheme, as told by Nikolas.
- Mr. Fanservice: Manthos is pretty tall and buff, has a baritone voice and shows his muscular body to every single one of his girlfriends.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Eleni is a Fiery Redhead who mostly wears revealing clothes.
- Matina turned out to have a nice body after she started showing it off.
- Misanthropy: Konstantinos has been characterized as a misanthrope.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Eleni will regret her behavior should it drive Konstantinos beyond his limits. She will always try to make up for it.
- Nice Girl: For how annoying she might be, Matina is a shy girl who just wants to find someone to marry and have kids with.
- Only Friend: Manthos is this to Konstantinos.
- Opposites Attract:
- The setup to the series conclusion. Said almost verbatim by Konstantinos's uncle in his video will.
- A platonic example, Konstantinos and Manthos. Despite them being polar opposite characters and having a very rocky friendship at times, they always stick with each other and have each other's back. They are friends since childhood, after all.
- Parody Sue: Matina's cousin Marina.
- Phone Call from the Dead: Konstantinos's uncle left his final will on a VHS tape, which is discover by the housemates in the final episodes.
- Running Gag: The most common is Konstantinos misinterpreting various modern phrases his friends use.
- Shrinking Violet: Matina has low self-esteem, wears glasses and modest clothes (in comparison to Eleni and Peggy) and refers to herself as "tapeino hamomilaki" (literally, "little lowly chamomile") and "asimanto mirmighaki" (literally, "insignificant little ant").
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: One episode is literally named after one of William Shakespeare's plays, Love's Labour's Lost (in greek, Agape Agonas Agonos).
- Status Quo Is God: Up until the last few episodes of the series and apart from some two parter and of course the piolt you can see the series in any order you want and it would be fine anything that happened in the previous episode no matter how serious will be forgotten and almost never brought up again.
- Shared Universe: Implied in the episode H farma ton zhon. One of the guests starts mentions Dionyssis Dangas, harris romas character from one of his other comedy series, and in a later series called Lifting Konstatinos appears and much confusion happened because he looks identical to the protagonist of that series.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A particularly harsh example in Den plirono, Den Plirono. Eleni is hit hard by the reality of a low payed waitress having to pay big amounts of money to maintain her part of the house's ownership. To make matters worse, Konstantinos manipulates everyone around her and deliberately damages parts of the house, leaving her with no extra money, no heating in her parts of the house, no telephone, nor friends to help her financially or share food with her. She resorts to feeding on nuts from the bar for almost a month and walking around the house like an Eskimo.
- Take That!: Konstantinos' character (as well as many other roles of Harry Roma, like Periander Popotas from To Kafe Tis Haras) was built entirely to make fun of modern conservative Greeks who look back at the past with admiration. This is obvious in the episode Konstantinos o Politeuomenos, where Konstantinos founds a political party called Byz.An. (Byzantine Recreation), with the intention of recreating the Byzantine Empire.
- Token Religious Teammate: Konstantinos.
- Write Who You Know: In-universe example: When Kostantinos is persuaded by his publisher to write a novel companion to his research paper, he starts writing "Fonos sto Vizantio" (The Byzantium Murder), which is basically the series set in the Byzantium Era. Doubles as actor allusion, as Kostantinos is portrayed by Harris Romas, the series creator.
- Whole-Plot Reference: I Lady kai i Alitra is basically an extended version of the first act of Ena Asteio Koritsi, a greek In Name Only film adaption of Funny Girl. Lampshaded by both Peggy and Eleni.
