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Reviews
Ragnarok (2020)
Hated the last episode? Watch it again
I'm giving this series a nine because I think it was such gripping story-telling. It kept us so riveted that we did a binge-fest with it. Contrary to many reviewers, I do not think the last episode wrecked the series. I think it worked, and I did not find it ambiguous at all.
I view the 17 episodes leading up to the finale as a "reality". Granted, it is a fantasy world, but it plays by its own rules, and they are consistent, which is crucial for this kind of story-telling. My impression is that many people think that the 18th episode makes everything preceding it a dream or psychotic episode. I think that interpretation works ONLY if Magne is a witness to all, or at least most of the events shown. But the fact is that he is not present for very many scenes.
How could he imagine or fantasize the episodes in the Giants' house, for example. Can he possibly have dreamed Fjor and Ran's humiliation and slavery of Saxa? Or Wotan busted for drug use? Can he really imagine Ran in the school psychologist's office, telling him that "Magne killed Vidar, and the heart-attack was a ruse for public consumption"? There are so many factors that take place outside of Magne's ken, so I cannot see all of them invalidated as some sort of psychotic episode.
Which takes us to the finale. After many vicissitudes, Peace has been achieved. The Giants and the Gods have laid down their weapons. Saxa takes over the family business. Fjor dates his secretary. The school shrink almost asks Ran for a date, but backs down. Magne passes his final exam and can graduate.
At his graduation party, the ever-dense mom, Turid, gives this interminable speech about how Magne has managed to succeed in spite of all his mental difficulties. And we then see him with all his old Thor comic books. Here is where the writers are playing with us, throwing doubt on everything preceding.
Cut to the graduation ceremony, with Magne looking ever more apprehensive. Hod looses the arrow that kills Jens, thereby setting off the Final War, Ragnarök. Huge bloody battle ensues, everybody dies, including Thor who has his last encounter with the serpent Jörmungandr.
Then. Cut back to graduation. No arrow, no war, no killing. Magne gets his degree, makes up with Signy, and has a drink with his friends. And all us viewers freak out.
Well, FWIW, this is my theory. When the Gods and Giants made peace, this for Magne/Thor is an anti-climax. His story, with all that momentum, is not complete, and so he has to work it out in his own mind, hence the Final Battle absolutely must take place. It is by no means a psychotic break, for such would leave him incapacitated and most likely hospitalized. But that does not happen: he has his vision in which everybody dies and the serpent kills him. However, it negates nothing that has gone before. In fact, he remains sane, as shown in the sort-of epilogue.
I loved it, was perfectly comfortable with the last mind-game, and highly recommend it as compelling story-telling and a wonderful modern-day depiction of the Old Norse Saga.
RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) (2022)
Brutal violence turned us off
Because of all the highly positive commentary, we started to watch RRR last night. We got through about five or six minutes, and bagged it. Yeah the English were horrible, we get it. But the sickening violence was more than we wanted to see or handle. Taking this extreme cruelty into one's consciousness is neither 'entertaining', uplifting, nor 'educational'. Perhaps it was 'realistic' but it struck us as a perverse wallow.
After her child is brutally stolen: "Don't waste a one pound sterling on a bullet for that bereaved mother!" Right, just club her to death. And then we switch to a very lengthy scene wherein a native in the employ of the Brits, savagely beats up on his protesting countrymen. At that point we said enough.
Face à face (2021)
Mismatch = misfire
I really hate to give this series a negative review, because I have seen Claire Borotra in a few other series and liked her very much. In this series, however, she plays a character - a Judge! - who is massively judgmental - no pun intended.
The situation is that her father had a daughter from an adulterous liaison. He kept this a secret from his family. Nevertheless, he did the honorable thing, supported his mistress and her child, and divided his estate between the two daughters.
When he dies, the Judge finds out about her half-sister, and explodes in quite unreasonable fury, blaming the young woman for her father's adultery. Talk about blaming the victim - or in this case, the innocent result of an affair. She consequently does everything she can to 'get back' at her half-sister.
By the fourth episode, there was no indication that her attitude would soften, or that she might wake up as to how illogically nasty her actions are. I suppose it is an odd kind of tribute to Claire Borotra that she succeeds in making her character so thoroughly dis-likeable. But that is precisely the problem for me, and I stopped watching.
(Edited to correct typos)
Alexandra Ehle (2018)
Poor writing
The first episode wasn't bad. The second episode brought in a rather smarmy character who was supposed, I guess, to be comically villainous, but the writing let him down. On the off-chance that things might improve, we watched the third episode, but bagged it half-way through. Tedious, not to say utterly far-fetched, doesn't begin to describe it!
The lead character, played by Julie Depardieu, is meant to be endearingly quirky, yet committed to justice for the murder victims she autopsies. She is endowed with a [cliché alert] clueless assistant, and an equally clueless cop brother. 'Quirky' can work, but these characters are OTT.
In sum, this show had some potential, but the writing is labored, the dialogue is forced, and it seems that it doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy, or a routine procedural. Straddling the line, the show fails on both counts.
Aber Bergen (2016)
Complex, literate series
This is by far one of the best series we have ever seen on TV. The story concerns a married couple, Erik and Elea, who are partners in a high-end law firm. To say their relationship is complex is a vast understatement, and over the course of the series they encounter many tests which reveal both characters' strengths and weaknesses. Anybody who claims there is no 'character development' simply wasn't watching!
The writing is subtle, highly intelligent, and frequently extremely funny! As to that, we appreciate how an episode could veer from humour to tense dark drama in two seconds. One does have to be alert, because the dialogue can have two sentences in one episode which lay the foundation for a dramatic development later on in the series. There is an over-reaching mystery-story line which is played out over the 30 episodes. Within which, each individual chapter also features one or more subsidiary plots involving the other members of the law firm.
The ensemble cast is a joy to watch. We come to know each character, who they are, and bit by bit learn each person's back-story. Production values are high, not to say luxurious-those offices are ultra-chic. And BTW, it rains in Bergen. A lot. That's water on the windows. Photography must have been extremely tricky in order to cope with all the glass partitions between the offices.
We binge-watched the 30 episodes, and hated to see it end. We'll be on the look-out for other shows by these writers. A word about sub-titles: we don't know a word of Norwegian, but are fluent in French, and have a smattering of German. We note that sub-titles in those shows are idiomatic, rather than literal, so we assume that the same criteria hold for the Scandinavian series.