michael_ruth-551-214909
First I'd like to note that I'm generally a fan of Scandinavian TV shows. I enjoy watching crime shows, thrillers, and shows that delve into the supernatural.So, when 'Jordskott', a Swedish mystery show, was announced to be aired on Arte, one of my favorite TV channels, known for quality productions and 'insider tips', I was full of expectations.Consequently, I wasn't discouraged, when I felt that the first two or three episodes were mostly boring and way too long for what actually happened. I was hoping it would eventually get better, especially once a few of the 'mysteries' were explained.Unfortunately, it didn't.This is a show in which little is said, less explained, and nothing shown. It seems that none of the characters are curious, suspicious, or even much interested in what's going on. Obvious supernatural phenomena are taken for granted without anyone wondering about them. When the female protagonist's daughter shows up after having gone missing over seven years ago, she's infected by a 'parasite' that nobody has ever seen. Nobody at the hospital has any clue about it, and besides a half-hearted idea about removing it surgically, nobody appears to be interested in finding out more about it. The police are apparently completely incompetent and investigations into the apparent kidnapping, which serves as the initial hook for the show, go nowhere until the protagonist, lead by clues gained from strange visions and seemingly unrelated incidents starts to help them.There's a bunch of odd characters with nebulous motivations, all apparently knowing more than they admit.I don't know if it's for reasons of a low budget or artistic choice, but despite a growing population of 'non-human' beings, the viewer is never shown more than a glimpse, if anything at all. There's a teenager with glowing eyes, some screeching thing in a bath tub, and plenty of completely human-looking beings that are either carriers of the before-mentioned parasite (this is actually the 'Jordskkott') or something else (which is never explained) with vestigial tails. The biggest let-down is that the apparent villain, purportedly, the only survivor of a mythical race never makes an appearance, while the real villain turns out to be a secretary(!) trying to make sure her mentally retarded son will enjoy a good life after her imminent death (she has cancer) by bequeathing a silver treasure to him.So, yeah, this was a complete waste of my time. What little there is of the flimsy storyline could have easily been told in a double-length episode of the X-Files.
robingx
Anyone who has walked in Swedish forests get the feeling of the raw power of nature. Wild wolves, Moose (bigger than horses), Bears, but also the sheer dimensions. You can find forests where there is no road for 40km.... deadly, mysterious and beautiful... seas of trees.In other words, walk though a fores in the brecon beacons or Scotland, and you know you can find your way out. Try that in Sweden and you will probably die. Swedish forests can be scarily big; and mysterious.I was told about this show by the gf, to keep my Swedish going. I am so glad I started watching this. Starts off as a police drama, but pretty soon, things get strange. You have to pay attention to it. Clues are littered from the start pointing at the dark under-plot.Excellent work. och tack att jag kunde ova min svenska!
Ciro Alves
This series feels like a child wrote it while playing "Thieves". Story holes everywhere, continuation mess ups and bad acting. I'm used to great series by Swedish writers, this one is not one of them. Save yourself some time and don't watch this.The series had great potential considering all the mystical and somewhat paranormal background it's based on but the writing just didn't cut it. Nor did the cast for that matter. I was hoping for something in the quality of the Millennium trilogy but this is not one of the series that can even dream to reach such heights. I hope there's someone that can take this concept and re-write it in a way that makes it possible to watch without laughing all the way through it. Maybe that's the thing, this is a comedy and I didn't understand that.
pinewizer371
I had very high expectations on this show as I was really intrigued by the synopsis and its potentially nail-biting mystery. A woman who's daughter inexplicably vanishes in the woods never to be found and then 7 years later a boy goes missing under the same circumstances in the same woods? Come on! It could be one hell of an interesting story!But as so many times before regarding Swedish television shows it seems like disappointment is once again looking my way.First of all the script has some very hard to disregard types of holes. For example the female main character is a cop...but keeps asking people for the address of a man who's name she knows. Has she been living under a rock for the past 20-30 years? Not knowing how easy it is nowadays to just go online and look somebody up? Nobody taught her this during her police-training?Another thing, during the first episode the same character crashes her car trying to avoid hitting a person that suddenly shows up in the middle of the road. It turns out this person is a young girl in a state of chock and can't respond to her surroundings. Now, the community is focused on finding a missing boy, and the local cops are aware of the main characters belief that there might be a link between the unsolved case of her own missing daughter and the recently vanished boy... But not a single cop in the first episode thinks it's worth while to take a little look in the surrounding woods where this girl was discovered by the main character? Not even a little glance? Na, it's just not worth it I guess...I admit, the main character takes a little look and sure enough she stumbles upon something interesting! Who would have thought! Not the local cops or anyone els I guess...You know when I watch a really good police show... I don't feel smarter then the cops. The mystery is as mysterious to me as it is to the characters in the show. (True Detective is a great example of this)In this show not only do I feel smarter than the cops, I laugh at their stupidity.In another scene the main characters daughter shows up in a dream sequence, I guess, and asks her mother why she gave up looking for her and I cringed during the entire scene. It just seemed so unnecessary, almost like the creators are begging the audience to find them creative and imaginative. Everything about that scene was forced and repetitive. We already know the main character is suffering, we know she feels guilty for not finding her daughter and solving the case. If they really wanted to push that point they could have done it in another way that actually would have been creative instead of just slow and boring.But Swedish television shows seems to love those to ingredients, slow and boring.This show has hyped itself as a mysterious one, but if you kind of know what is going on after the very first episode...is it really that mysterious? I say this, there is something very wrong with Swedish television shows and movies, I have a strong feeling they could not only be so much better but that something in the very fabric or infrastructure of Swedish creative storytelling and movie-making is hindering it, always keeping it slow, boring, and predictable.