FireSin (Latvian: UgunsGrēks)[1] is a Latvian daytime soap opera that was broadcast on TV3 Latvia from 2009 until 2017. It was one of the longest-running scripted television programs in Latvia, airing nearly every weekday from March 15, 2009. It last aired on 19 May 2017. UgunsGrēks is the sequel to the LTV1 show The Cost of Frenzy (Latvian: Neprāta cena).[2] After a 5-year hiatus, the show got unexpectedly renewed for another season. It was confirmed by an article[3] on April 11, 2022. The show has been available to stream on the platform Go3 since October 10, 2022, and was aired on February 13, 2023, on TV3, but the project was short-lived because the director Inta Gorodecka died on May 5, 2023, at age 65.[4]
The show was created by Inta Gorodecka and Baiba Saleniece.[5] The show's storylines were written by Inta Bernova and Gunta Kalniņa.[6] The program featured an ensemble cast, headed by its longest-serving actors Ģirts Ķesteris as Leons Timmermanis, Jakovs Rafalsons as Vadims Felzenbahers, Zane Daudziņa as Helene Felzenbahere, Ilze Vazdika as Milda Upīte, Egīls Melnbārdis as Gunārs Liepiņš, Uldis Dumpis as Aivars Pētersons and Regīna Devīte as Zenta Upīte.[7] In 2014, the show was the most-watched soap opera in Latvia, with an audience of an estimated 1 762 000 viewers.[2] The series ended in May 2017 and was replaced by Svešā seja as a new day time soap opera, which was produced by the same creative team.[8]
Premise
Set in a seaside town, the series follows the daily lives of a luxurious hotel's (after Season 9, two hotels) staff and guests.
Seasons
Season
Episodes
Originally aired
Viewers (average)
First aired
Last aired
1
55
March 15, 2009
June 16, 2009
210 800
2
83
August 24, 2009
January 13, 2010
213 700
3
72
February 8, 2010
June 10, 2010
245 300
4
73
August 22, 2010
December 23, 2010
226 700
5
93
February 13, 2011
June 22, 2011
236 200
6
82
August 21, 2011
December 23, 2011
215 600
7
71
February 13, 2012
June 14, 2012
221 500
8
60
September 10, 2012
December 20, 2012
213 800
9
68
February 18, 2013
June 20, 2013
194 700
10
60
September 9, 2013
December 19, 2013
185 500
11
69
January 20, 2014
May 29, 2014
164 900
12
68
September 15, 2014
December 19, 2014
184 200
13
80
January 19, 2015
June 8, 2015
190 000
14
60
September 7, 2015
December 17, 2015
190 032
15
64
February 1, 2016
May 19, 2016
193 393
16
70
September 19, 2016
December 30, 2016
154 500
17
76
January 30, 2017
May 19, 2017
183 200
History
The storyline began in 2006 with a series called The Cost of Frenzy (Latvian: Neprāta cena).[9] In March 2009 only ten days before the expected series premiere, TV3 Latvia came out with a disclaimer that The Cost of Frenzy would no longer be broadcast on the LTV1 network and would now be shown on TV3 Latvia with its new name UgunsGrēks.[10][11][12] The new series brought new characters and multiple storylines over the years.
UgunsGrēks ended on May 19, 2017. After 17 seasons, the show's running channel decided to cancel the show.[13][14]UgunsGrēks final episode was an hour long and TV3 Latvia showed a special live broadcast with the casts after party with actors from all the seasons.[15] The creative team began to work on a new daily soap opera called Svešā seja, which premiered on September 18, 2017, in the same time slot that UgunsGrēks had aired. Svešā seja did not receive the same success that UgunsGrēks had, and was cancelled less than a year later on May 17, 2018, only ever airing 2 seasons.[16]
Storyline
When UgunsGrēks[1] premiered in 2009, the TV series revolved around the tragedies and triumphs of the Pētersons family, their friends and enemies in little city near the sea where the Pētersons family-owned a hotel. Storylines in the show followed the lives of residents of the Peterson hotel with the usual threads of love, marriage, divorce, family life, and the intrigue of the resort's ownership.[17]
Over time, new families with their own hotels were brought to the show to interact with the Peterson family and serve as competitors for more dramatic storylines. One of the longest-running storylines involved a doctor named Leon, his love life and happiness.[18][19] From the beginning until the 9th season of the series Leon was the main leading male character in Ugunsgrēks. This plot-line was made even more complex when the love of his life Marta Peterson played by Dita Lūriņa was killed in the bomb explosion.[20] After this accident, Leon was left blind and alone.[21] The 9th Season he finally found his true love and married his love interest for 4 seasons – Elizabete Ziemele played by Maija Doveika. After this, Leon went to Germany and his storyline ended.[22]
With Leon's storyline ending, the viewers were reintroduced with Leons daughter Ieva Timmermane now played by Inga Tropa.[23] Ieva became even more involved in the storyline as the series showed the audience Āboltiņi family who had built a new hotel Mare SPA near the Peterson resort.[24][25] A love triangle between Ieva, a son from the Āboliņi family and Viesturs, Aivars friend and his firm bought the hotel after Dana stole it from Ieva, in order to save the son she had to choose between. Their love triangle lasted for 3 seasons. The story-line ended in the 14th season when Aivars offered Ieva to go back to England and she did, so in result, she chose none of them.[26][27]
Cast
When UgunsGrēks debuted, the cast consisted of six main characters (Leons Timmermanis, Marta Pētersone, Aivars Pētersons, Oto Pētersons, Elza Timmermane, Rihards Baumanis). As the show continued, the cast increased to 12 actors,[28] and more over the next years. Throughout the show's run, there were over 200 actors that had a role in the TV series.[2] Ģirts Ķesteris is seen in most of the episodes, because he has been in the show from the beginning.[2][29]
Original cast member Mārtiņs Freimanis, who played Oto Pētersons, remained on contract with Ugunsgrēks until his sudden death on 27 January 2011.[30][31] In the series, Martiņš Freimanis' character Oto moved to England and was never heard from again.[32]
Cast member Ģirts Ķesteris holds the record for appearing in the most episodes since the beginning of the series.[2][29] The actor played two roles: Leons Timmernanis, the hotel doctor, and the role of his long lost twin brother Fēlikss Seņkovs from Russia.[33]
In the final years of UgunsGrēks the casting director hired many new cast members to appeal to their younger viewers. The new cast members were Vanda Saulīte (Dārta Daneviča), Signe Kļaviņa (Anta Aizupe), Sandija (Marija Linarte) Olafs Birznieks, (Gints Andžāns).[34][35][7]
The first long-term head writer- Gunta Kalniņa, Inta Bernova and Vilnis Bīriņš[39]
Domestic broadcast
According to MTG TV LATVIA, UgunsGrēks was the most widely distributed soap opera and TV show in Latvia[2] with episodes not just broadcast via TV3 Latvia, but also via Kanals2 and as of June 2012, episodes were offered via TV3play.[17][40]
Related shows
The Cost of Frenzy
This series aired four days of the week and consisted of 5 main characters (Aurēlija Anužīte as Anna Pētersone, Juris Žagarsas Roberts, Ģirts Ķesteris as Leons Timmermanis, Kristīne Nevarauska as Līga, Jakovs Rafalsons as Vadims Felzenbahers.
Zenta's holidays
This mini-series sitcom was shown on TV3 from August to October 2013. The series follows a character from UgunsGrēks, the hotel's maid Zenta Upīte, on her holidays. The cast consisted of Indra Burkovska (Dainuvīte), Baiba Neja (Dace), Ivars Kļavinskis (Zigis), Andris Bērziņš (Gastons) and Sergejs Čerņikovs (policeman).[41][42]
Christmas special
At Christmas 2015, the cast of UgunsGrēks surprised their fans by releasing a Christmas special event. This special featured all of the major characters from the 14th season - Aivars, Milda, Lidija, Krista, Dāvids, Jezups, Magda, Intars, Sandija, Gunārs, Helēna, Fēlikss, Jevgēņija, Dana and Gatis. All the characters participated in Christmas activities – baking gingerbread, decorating a Christmas tree and performing. The special aired (repeatedly in 2016) at 8.00 pm on TV3 Latvia.[43]
Opening title sequences and theme song
The opening title sequences were different nearly every season from the show's debut in 2009, however there have been only 3 theme songs. The first title sequence of UgunsGrēks featured all characters from season one and the Martiņš Freimanis song "Mans neatklātais super NLO." The second season started with a different sequence, but the same theme song by Martiņš Freimanis. In the next years, the characters changed but the concept of the opening titles stayed the same, although the theme songs were different. From the third season to the ninth, the theme song "Tici vai nē" was performed by Kārlis Būmeisters. For the next five seasons the opening song Divi vēji was written and performed by Gunārs Kalniņš. In the last two UgunsGrēks had their theme song written and performed by Latvian pop singer Dons.[44]
