Series / La Bloc

La Bloc is a 2002 Romanian sitcom about (as the title suggests) the lives of people who live in a bloc in Bucharest, Romania.

The show's main character is a taxi driver named Nelu Curcă (Mihai Coadă) who lives in an apartment alongside his wife Suzana (Luminița Erga) and their teenage daughter Mimi (Dana Rogoz). They are neighbors with the Jurcă family — Costel (Dragoș Moștenescu), Nelu's best friend; Lili (Mariana Dănescu), his wife and Suzana's sister; and Miăiță, their young son.

Other neighbors, introduced as time passes, include:

• Sebastian Popa ("Nea Popa"), an old man who specializes in repairing television sets, later Americanu's butler.
• Nea Gigi, an old man with poor eyesight.
• Grațiela, a beautiful woman.
• Adina and Roxana, a pair of students who befriend Mimi, who later moves in with them.
• An American businessman of Romanian origin, known only as "Americanu", who moves into Grațiela's old apartment when she moves out.
• Bela, one of Americanu's girlfriends, who is the bloc's resident psychologist.
• Jean, an orphan boy who gets adopted by the Curcă family
• Naomi, a cocktail waitress named Naomi, whom Americanu feels protective toward.
• Bianca, Americanu's ex-girlfriend, who works at the city hall.
• Fane Oxford, a manele singer who graduated from Oxford.
• Bobby and JR Tănase, brothers who moved into the new bloc.
• Felix, a nostalgic communist who wants to bring communism back to Romania, and his daughter Gina.
• Nae Ceaușu, a fellow communist who works with Felix to achieve their goals.
• George, a wealthy young man.
• Alin and Sever, a gay couple who live in the bloc.

Aside from the classical sitcom formula, La Bloc also featured a comedy/variety show in its 2003 and 2004 New Years specials, as well as special "American Radio" episodes (named for Americanu's radio station).

The show ended on December 1, 2013, in a one-hour special that reunited the old cast.

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La Bloc contains examples of:

• Addictive Foreign Soap Opera: Lili and Suzana really love them. So much so that Lili wanted to name her child "Juan".
• The Alcoholic: Costel and Nea. Popa both like to drink.
• Bears Are Bad News:
  • In one episode, Americanu brags about being a great bear hunter to a girl who listens to his show. Later, one of his business partners (who overheard their conversation) invites him to join a Bear Hunt. However, he can't go because he is actually afraid of bears after one attacked him and his friends on a camping trip.
  • Costel got a job at the circus as a bear tamer, which frightens him, so Nelu decides to help by dressing up as a bear and entering the arena with him. Americanu steals the bear suit and tries to scare Popa, who says he isn't afraid of bears. However, this simple prank goes south when Popa panics and brutally beats up Americanu.
  • When the gang goes camping, Americanu and Mimi scare them by telling them that bears will come for them. Then Americanu dresses up in a bear suit and scares the shit out of them, all while Mimi is filming it.
• Big Eater:
  • Popa. In the 2003 Christmas special, he eats everything (except for a bowl of gravy) at the Christmas dinner, and is shown to love food in general. Costel even describes him in a rap song as a "Big Eater".
  • Nelu and Costel are also big eaters. If there's a party, they will go there as long as it has food. Costel is probably the bigger eater out of them.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Adina (blonde), Mimi (brunette) and Roxana (redhead).
• Boxing Episode: In one episode, Nelu turns Costel into a boxer and makes him fight in a boxing match in order to win some money.
• Butt-Monkey: Popa.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: One episode has Nelu tell a joke that fails to make anyone laugh:
  Nelu: An Englishman is walking through the jungle. A lion appears before him and says "Rawr, I'm gonna eat you!" The Englishman exclaims "how rude!" — to which the lion says, "Okay, I'll eat you, but i promise not to burp".
• Chummy Commies: Although he usually falls into Dirty Commie, Felix can also be quite a nice guy sometimes.
• Cure Your Gays: Played for Laughs in one episode. Everyone assumes that Gabi, Lili's friend, is a woman; however, it is revealed that he is in fact male. Costel is initially jealous, but Gabi explains him that he doesn't have to be since Gabi is gay. After finding out, Costel asks Gabi how he could "turn down the beautiful body of a woman for the rough body of another man". When Lili comes home one day, she mentions that Gabi kissed her, which enrages Costel. He asks Gabi why he kissed his wife; Gabi replies that Costel's comment made him "change" his sexual orientation. Costel tries the same logic by trying to make a man's body more appealing, hoping it will make him gay again, but it fails.
• Dinner with the Boss: In one of the Christmas Specials, Nelu and Costel invite their bosses over for dinner to get a better reputation when they return to work.
• Dirty Commies: Felix falls into this trope most of the time. He supports murderous leaders like Stalin, overreacts when someone messes with his pigeons, and goes to extreme measures to spread communism or simply solve his own problems.
• Dirty Old Man: Popa can be this sometimes. Like in "The Chat" when he and Americanu try to find Costel a date and all the questions he can think about involve sex.
• Does Not Like Spam:
  • According to Lili, Costel doesn't like pizza.
  • Lili doesn't like savarins.
  • According to Americanu, Nelu dislikes fish, although he is shown eating and enjoying fish in an earlier episode.
• Expy: Nelu and Suzana are expies of Al and Peg from Married... with Children. This was even lampshaded in an episode were the famous (at the time) television personality Teo Trandafir remarked how similar Nelu and Suzana are to Al and Peg and even invited them to her show as the 2 characters.
• Fatand Skinny: Costel (fat) to Nelu (skinny); Popa (fat) to Americanu (skinny).
• Faux Yay: In an episode Adina and Roxana pretended that they are in a 3 way lesbian relationship with Mimi in order to get rid of her new boyfriend.
  • In their first appearance, Bobby and JR pretend to be gay in order to see Adina and Roxana naked.
  • Alin and Sever are also pretending to be gay in order to get back at the girlfriends who dumped them.
• Gold Digger:
  • Americanu dates a girl who hesitates to have sex with him and insists on doing it only after the wedding. In the same episode, Popa gets hooked on psychology and uses his knowledge to find out that the girl is a gold digger.
    • Americanu repeatedly finds himself victim of them; the third time is with with Bianca. Much like Popa with Liza, his friends try to warn him.
  • Popa himself falls victim to one; at one point in the series, he works as a mailman and delivers fake mail to a rich old woman named Otilia. When Otilia dies, Popa inherits all of her wealth, which makes Otilia's lawyer Liza take interest in Popa. His friends try in vain to convince him that Liza is a gold digger, but he doesn't believe them and accuses them of jealousy. The fact that Liza was a chess master doesn't help. In the end, she leaves Popa the day they were supposed marry and even taunts him on the phone about it. In fact, both Liza and Americanu's girlfriend were part of a Gold Digger's club.
• Happily Adopted: Jean. His real parents sent him to an orphanage because they couldn't afford to raise him. He ends up adopted by the the Curcă family and he is happy with, although they're not his real parents.
• Hollywood Blanks: One episode features Mimi firing blanks. The gun works exactly as you'd expect: it shoots, but it can't hurt anyone.
• Hypocritical Humor: In one episode Nelu was watching Married... with Children and commented on "what an idiot Al is". The same gag was done in another episode when Suzana was commenting on Peg.
  • In another episode Nelu asked his daughter Mimi if she wants to go for a walk in the park with him.She however turns him down and complains about the cold weather. Then her boyfriend Alex also asked her for a walk in the park but this time she gladly accepts.
• Karma Houdini: Liza. She played with Popa's feelings, snuffed out everyone who went against her, manipulated the judge and the police to help her, cheated on Popa, and finally stole all his money, leaving him and taunting him over the phone. And yet she gets off scot-free with no punishment whatsoever.
• Kids Are Cruel: Some things done by Jean make him fall into this.
• Local Hangout: The Bar, which was replaced by the Club in later seasons.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Americanu is revealed to be Naomi's father. He conceived her while he was working as a gardener for a Brazilian couple, at one point developing a sexual relationship with his master's wife.
• The Mafiya:
  • In one episode, Popa must deliver a package to a Russian mobster named Alexey Vitalye. Because the package was too heavy, he gave it to Nelu and Costel to transport it with their van. When they arrived, Vitalye opened the package and noticed his Samovar was missing (because the CHO stole it), so he took Costel hostage and sent Nelu to retrieve the samovar, threatening to kill Costel otherwise.
  • In another episode, Nelu and Costel meet up with a Russian mobster named Boris. Much like Vitalye, Boris takes Costel hostage and sends Nelu to his master Francezu. Americanu and Nelu go to Boris and try to save Costel; however, Americanu turns out to be friends with Boris, who is actually an undercover cop trying to catch Francezu. Costel was actually in a witness protection program.
• Manipulative Bitch: Liza and Bianca.
• Mistaken for Gay:
  • Nelu and Costel receive some fliers for a club party in one episode. It turns out that the club was a gay bar, and that the girls thought Nelu and Costel were a gay couple. They make the same assumption when they spot Americanu and Popa.
  • In another episode, Americanu and Popa win a vacation to Thailand. When they return home, Americanu is asked if he had sex with Asian chicks; he replies that he didn't because Popa was super clingy. As they didn't understand the language and had nobody else to talk to, everyone taught they were a gay couple.
  • Invoked by Popa when Americanu gets a new girlfriend. She does all of Popa's chores, so Americanu fires him. Popa later makes Americanu a tea mixed with sleeping pills. When he falls asleep, Popa takes off their clothes, puts Americanu in bed, and climbs into bed near Americanu in order to fool his girlfriend into thinking they are a gay couple.
  • In another episode, Lili and Bela were mistaken for a lesbian couple and given fliers to a gay bar.
• Misidentified Weapons: An American Radio episode has a sketch were Mimi, Adina and Roxana play The Three Musketeers. At one point however, they wrongly claim that their swords are called Muskets.
• Notin Front Of The Parrot:
  • One episode features Nelu and Costel having to deliver a parrot to his owner in Snagov. However, since they didn't pay the Vignette they couldn't travel outside Bucharest, so they had to carry the parrot around. This naturally gets them in a lot of trouble, as they call Popa stupid and the parrot repeats it in front of him. When they talk about how hot the girls at the bar are, the parrot repeats it on front of their wives. They also say some bad things about Americanu to Popa, and the Parrot once again repeats it when Americanu is about to give them money.
  • Later, Mimi and Roxana make the same mistake by saying they plan to fool Adina into thinking the parrot is a gift for her, so that Adina will let them into her party. Naturally, the parrot repeats this in front of Adina.
• Not Whatit Looks Like:
  • In one episode, Nelu finds his old drum set and won't stop playing it, so Costel steals his drumsticks. Nelu chases him around the apartment and finally catches him on the couch, but accidentally pulls off his pants in the process. Roxana enters the apartment and assumes that they were having sex.
  • In another episode, Alin, Sever and Nelu try to catch a mouse that Sever accidentally brought home. However, they end up piled up on one another and Mimi assumes that her Dad was gay, until he explained the situation.
• Orphaned Punchline: Costel once tells Bela a joke who's punchline is

  Costel: And then the Fox says "I'm sorry bunny! I thought you were the hedgehog."

• Papa Wolf: Nelu and Americanu are very protective of Mimi and Naomi, respectively.
• Prison Rape: One episode is about Costel going to jail undercover in order to get some news from a mobster about a drug transport.The mobster tried to rape him both in the cell and in the shower.
  • Discussed In an episode when Nelu, Costel and Popa all go to jail. Popa had a new golden ring he stole from Americanu however Nelu and Costel warned him not to wear it because he would be too attractive for the inmates.Later Americanu showed up and pretended to be his new cellmate that wants to rape him.
• Really Gets Around:
  • Americanu. He has had countless girlfriends, lovers, and one-night stands.
  • One episode features two nymphomaniac Swedish girls who have sex with every man in the Bloc.
• Regional Riff: Katyusha was playing in the background when Vitalye first appeared.
• Sexy Scandinavian:
  • Nelu falls in love with an Icelandic girl in one episode.
  • In another episode, his customers are two Swedish girls. Nelu falls in love with one of them and believes they are virgins. Big mistake — turns out they are nymphomaniacs.
• The Taxi: Nelu was a taxi driver for most of the series up until he got fired and became a delivery man (and later cop) alongside Costel.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Popa loves fish, turkey, and mutton.
  • Americanu's favorite food is Cordon Bleu.
  • All the main characters really love beer. Especially Costel.

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