Hem till Midgård

You can't really say that "Hem till Midgård" contains high quality humor. At best, it can serve as pastime if you have nothing better to do.

However the series, despite taking place in the Viking age, actually reflects today's Swedish society in some interesting ways, and what makes Sweden contrast to the rest of Europe. For example:

* The episode Stripporna ("Strippers", season 1, episode 7), where Lill-Snorre hires some decadent Eastern European women as strippers, to make his pub more attractive. But it all ends with Lill-Snorre and his male friends, as poetic justice, being forced to striptease themselves instead.

* The episode Tyskarna ("The Germans", season 2, episode 4) where a wealthy German family visits Lill-Snorres village Midgård. The Germans, however, turn out to be swingers. It all ends with the morally outraged Midgård village people beating up the supposed, dirty German pigs.

These things would be unthinkable in a Danish or other European sitcom. This is far from the 1970's image of Swedes as "liberated" people, and has more in common with American puritan culture.

So despite being bad entertainment, I find "Hem till Midgård" to be a funny contemporary document of Sweden in the 2000's.