Series / The Numbers

I have a little crocodile
Inside my house...^note Left to right:Thanassis, Danae, Foivos, Kirby, Harry, and Alex.

The Numbers is a 2022-2023 Greek musical comedy series airing on Greek state channel ERT 1 based on an idea by Foivos Delivorias.

Foivos Delivorias stars as a less succesful version of his real life self, with his only real hit in the last ten years, a children's song called The Little Crocodile, being more of an embarrassment to him rather than a joy. When a mysterious producer gives him the opportunity to remake the famous variety show of the 1930s, Attik's Mantra (which means Yard), he will have to balance his temperamental acts and his money-hungry boss with his vision.

The show is in essence a Spiritual Successor to Foivos' Terrace, and was initially pitched as a TV adaptation of the show. Foivos' Terrace was a live variety show that performed from 2017 to 2022 (with COVID breaks) that shared much of the cast in The Numbers, and the loose format of a variety show with a different guest each week.

To get ahead of something: In Greek, any sort of performer is called a Number, often in a derogatory tone.

The series has run for one season with 24 episodes and production is in talks for the second one.

By law, all the episodes are available to watch in Greece on state streaming site ERTFLIX.

---

The Numbers contains examples of:

• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: With A Little Help From My Friends is about a talent competition. If the Mantra troupe wins, they get their theater back. If they lose, they lose everything they own.
• Age-Gap Romance: Danae is a good twenty years younger than Foivos. Foivos admits Attik's relationship with the other Danae was also problematic due to the age difference but he doesn't see any connection with his situation. They do break up soon after, though, and he's very much over it later on.
• Age Lift: For no clear reason, Foivos is stated to be 45 in the pilot. In real life, he was 49 at the time, which he confirms in The Circle. It's very likely that this is something left from earlier drafts.
• Allohistorical Allusion: A staple of the show. Your World stands out in particular, since both guests are playing characters. Nefeli helps create a song she sings in our universe, while Jorge keeps getting pitched shows he has written.
• Alternate Universe: The show is based on the premise the Foivos never performed The Little Elephant in 2005, which caused his career to stagnate and fall into obscurity. More than that, other celebrites have different personalities, careers, or even nationalities.
• All for Nothing: On occasion.
  • In Disarray, Memas simply holds Danae hostage to force his takeover.
  • Music Lesson is all about finding a replacement Eurovision contestant after the first choice goes rogue and decides to represent Gibraltar. By the end, he falls in love with the Greek ambasador in Gibraltar and comes home.
• Always a Bigger Fish: How Memas gets defeated. His boss got so annoyed with his obsession over an overall insignificant piece of land, and decided to retire from entertainment.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: In-Universe, Jonathan has serious doubts about the profitability of the Mantra and nearly pulls the plug to turn it into an escape room. Somehow, the show sells out every week, despite often bringing in what are (in their universe) nobodies to sing.
• Book Ends: In the pilot, the concert at the University of Philosphy in 1998 is mentioned, and is often refrenced throughout the series. The last song performed, Ekeini (Her), is the song Foivos famously performed at that concert.
• Bottle Episode: This Is The Journey, excluding three shots, takes place entirely in the TV studio.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Very often, but not enough to qualify as No Fourth Wall. Generally, fourth wall breaks are reserved for comedic reasons and are generally done by the main characters. The Circle is the exception, as the whole plot of the episode is that the characters have wrapped up the season (called a "circle" in Greek), and are lamenting that it didn't go how they hoped.
• Central Theme: A little nostalgia is fine, but at the end of the day, our lives are in the present. Chloe spells it out in a meta way at the last episode.
  Chloe:Enjoy this party while you can. If there's no second season, this will be the last.
• Creator Backlash: In-Universe, Foivos hates being assosiacted with The Little Crocodile. As he points out, he didn't even write it.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If Danae was at the Mantra at the beginning of I'm Counting Errors, she would have recognized her brother and resolved his grudge way quicker.
• Different World, Different Songs: Since Nefeli Fasouli doesn't exist in this universe, Foivos wrote her songs slightly wrong and Danae sings them instead. Of course, Danae is voiced by Fasouli, so it loops back around.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The Little Crocodile doubles as the title sequence theme.
• Different in Every Episode: Thanassis' obsessions. Elsa lampshades this:
  Elsa: Thanassis' Lunacy: Episode 16.
• Double-Meaning Title: As Jonathan puts it:
  Jonathan: In all my life, I have been haunted by numbers. Old comedians, spoiled divas. [...] You may not get my numbers, the figures, but those are the only numbers that make sense. Do what you want with your numbers, as long as mine work.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: While not exactly villains, Foivos and Jonathan openly share their dislike for each other. Despite that, they apparently do escape rooms together.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most episodes are names after one of the guest's songs.
• Imagine Spot: Half the songs in the show are visualised with surrealist music videos, with the characters in costume and makeup. The other half do that as well, but those actually happen In-Universe.
• Lost in Translation: Ignoring every single reference to Greek culture that gets lost to foreign viewers, a character's name doesn't translate. Harry emphasizes that his last name is Kickass with two s's. The swear word in the original (Γαμάτος) is written with one μ, which is why he always reminds people that his name is written with two μ. The English equivalent would be "Kickasss with three s's".
• Love Dodecahedron: Nearly all of the main characters become tangled in a confusing mess of break-ups, make-ups, and past flames. It gets thoroughly mocked In-Universe by observants.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The stage itself gets upgraded mid season.
• Putting the Band Back Together: The Golden-Wooled Ram is about this, as the troupe slowly find each other and decide to strike back.
• Set Behind the Scenes: The first two acts usually deal with the troubles of each week's show, and the show itself is the third act.
• Sleeping with the Boss: Danae. With both of them at the same time.
• The Bus Came Back: Look at the crowd in The Circle, you may spot some familiar faces from previous episodes.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Danae and Harry never share a scene. They closest they get is when he talks to her during the four person emergency meeting in I'm Counting Errors. Justified in that they have entirely separate acts and no common traits.
• The Stinger: Every episode has an after credits scene, usually of the crew out of character singing a song.
• The Show Must Go Wrong: Suprisingly averted most of the time, and even the occasional fumble gets saved by someone else.
• Unexpectedly Real Magic: Alex straight up knows magic. He can teleport, read the future, make multiples of himself, and more. Despite this, all he does on stage are parlor tricks or backup dancing for some other act. Of course, his magic runs on Rule of Funny and can't resolve plot points early.