Series / Undercover 2011

"You aren't born a criminal. You die as one."

Undercover (original title: Под прикритие [pod [pri'kritie]) is a Bulgarian TV Action Series thai originally aired from 2011 to 2016.

Police inspector Emil Popov has concocted a plan to finally bust his long-standing enemy, Peter "Djaro" Tudjarov. He plants into his gang a young cop he has trained from a child, Martin "Scoundrel" Hristov. Martin has to navigate the complicated and dangerous environment of Djaro's organization, while Popov has plenty on his own hands.

Tropes in the series:

• Characters Dropping Like Flies: The Bulgarian underworld is portrayed as extremely brutal and people, including important characters, die almost every episode. Only the toughest survive and it's not because no one tries to do them in.
• Cluster F-Bomb: A lot of characters, especially crimimals.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: At one of Ivo's parties, two prostitutes go down on each other on a table in full view of everyone.
• Hookers and Blow: Par for the course for the bad guys. Also several times Ivo hosts some event with a number of hookers present.
• The Infiltration: The basic premise.
• It's Personal: Popov is obsessed with putting Djaro behind bars.
  Tudjarov: Nothing personal.
  Popov: With you, it's always personal.
• I'll Kill You!: Usually that doesn't need to be said, but there's Ivo's line to Djaro after he gloats about his mother's murder:
  Ivo: I will crush you.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • When Commissar Popov and his Evil Former Friend Djaro wind up captured together:
  Djaro: Popov.
  Popov: Commissar Popov.
  • Ivo Andonov, a mafia boss, is approached by a lowly gangster who addresses him by first name, as is customary, to ask for reprieve. Ivo cuts him off with "To you, I'm Mr. Andonov."
  • When Ivo gets impatient with the elderly General Penev, he gets a curt reminder to keep using formal "you"s.
• The Mafiya: The series focuses on a fictional counterpart of the Bulgarian underworld, which has almost all elements of stereotypical Eastern European mafia. Djaro's gang is more Westernized, but the rest of the mob bosses look like they come straight out of The '90s (the Eastern European nineties) with their tacky gold chains, tracksuits or ridiculous sunglasses. Later it becomes every bit as brutal and savage as the 90s when Ivo takes over. One police inspector even lampshades this, saying that "it's as if we're back in the 90s".
• Mob War: There are constantly some shootouts between gangsters, but in Season 2 it starts erupting into a war, such as there was in real life during the 90s and 00s - mob bosses get shot dead or blown up in their cars in broad daylight.
• Police Procedural/Criminal Procedural: The series is as much from the point of view of Martin and Popov as it is from that of Djaro and his henchmen.
• Pyrrhic Victory: For Popov, ultimately. He manages to see Djaro and Ivo dead and root out their criminal groups, but it costs him his job, his family, and the lives of his daughter, two deep cover agents who were like his sons, and numerous other colleagues.
• Tempting Fate: In the beginning, Popov tells Martin that unlike in the 90s, the underworld doesn't have a common core and instead various small groups operate in different places in the country. By Season 4, Ivo has centralised the mafia and rules as an undisputed "Godfather" like the bosses in the 90s.
• Word, Schmord!: One of the series' most notorious lines:
  Hook: No Djaro, no Maro! There's one boss on the street and his name is Ivo!