arushapumpkin Reviews

Vigil (2021– )

Promising start, but falls flat.

[3/10 · 13 November 2021]

It started off a little promising in the first half, but I found it to fall rather flat.

I found the acting was stiff and wooden, which is strange, seeing as these are all accomplished actors.

The whole political aspect of the storyline was interesting, and could have been developed more, and better.

I thought the main love-story between the two detectives lacked chemistry and depth.

And to me, the last episode is just ridiculous.

So all in all, I would consider Vigil another series which wastes a lot of acting & cinematographic talent because of a poorly written script.

The Sister (2020)

A total waste of acting & cinematographic talent.

[2/10 · 3 November 2021]

A real pity to waste good actors and talented filming, lighting and editing crew, on such an insipid series.

It's badly written, the dialogue is meh, and by the end of Episode 2, I was starting to wonder if this was a spoof.

It's a shame, because all the ingredients are gathered to create something good : an atmospheric sense of space, a small cast which would give us opportunities to delve into the characters' world and persona (this doesn't), the back-and-forthing through time, which when used well makes for a riveting watch, but here it's just a gimmick.

Pørni (2021– )

A great series !

[9/10 · 1 October 2021]

There seems to be a current trend for small-scale Nordic family drama series, and Pörni is yet another great one.

The opening scenes are brilliant!

It is easy to watch and follow, without being superficial; the characters have depth and as is often the case in Nordic drama, the older characters are allowed to be their age and show it, and still get to enjoy life and romance.

Beautiful.

There's the usual tropes of this kind of drama-series format : parent/child relationship, the challenges of parenting, romance in the mature years, living with grief.

Pörni does it all very well, effortlessly moving between heartfelt drama, everyday life and comic moments. Something the Nordics are amazing at.

The series is also brilliant at bringing together the particular mindsets and worldviews of three generations of characters.

Of course, we get to laugh at the teenagers and how impossible they are, but we also get to love them.

I have some reservation about the way the father is depicted: the usual trope of the well-meaning, charming but unreliable and ultimately inadequate father...I feel this has become a recurring character-type in many contemporary series, not just Nordic, and I don't think it's always necessary to have a crap father-character in order to showcase how brilliant the mother is.

As a character, Pörni is a great, competent, loving mother, and she would still be all of that, even if the father of her kids was a great father as well.

I absolutely love that Pörni enjoys the occasional joint with her father, and it's presented as something cosy and relaxed.

When will this happen in a Swedish family-drama ?!

And it is also a pleasure to see a mature daughter-father relationship that is loving, supportive and driving some of the comedy in the series.

I loved that it ended in a way that does credit to the entire series, and I very much look forward to Season 2.