Lykkeland

Being of fan of 'Local Hero' (a film about an American oil exec visiting a remote Scottish village to develop the North Sea Oil Fields in the 1980s) I've always wondered if the idea had legs to be a series now the Norwegians have given us the answer - impressive, well designed and enthralling

The discovery of oil in the North Sea brought sudden and unexpected wealth to a previously rural part of Norway; 'State of Happiness' follows both the history of the birth of the Norwegian oil industry, and the period of societal change. While some of the story feels generic, there were two details I liked. Firstly, the portrait of the canny Norwegian politicians who figured out how to make sure that their country, and not just the multinationals, made money out of oil. As a Briton, I got the idea that the founding of the State Oil company may play an analagous role in contemporary Norwegian mytholgy to the founding of the N.H.S. does in my country's. The other thing I liked is the way that the social transformation allows a number of the younger characters (two of them women) to find and value themselves; this plotline is well telegraphed throughout but still nicely executed. As an aside, although everyone is constantly bewailing the Stavanger weather, the story is filmed in generally much more clement conditions than we see in Scandinavian crime thrillers. And it's much more interesting than many of those.

Although I didn't get to Stavanger until 1985 this reminds me so much of my life. The city, the people, the language - and of course fiskeboller! I even windsurfed off Sola beach.

Not only that but it's a great drama with great acting, production and direction.

I watched this wonderful Norwegian TV series on BBC. We decided to look at the first episode with my wife. That was it. We couldn't stop watching the rest. Since dialogues are a little crowded and in Norwegian, we had to to watch some scenes twice. I am looking forward to another season. Those who say this is a soap or disappointing are probably depressed people. I find a little difficult not to enjoy this TV series.

Strongly recommended. Watch it at least for lovely Ana.

Yalcin

An intelligent and watchable series from Norway. Educational too. Impressed by the attention to small details, such as geologists sighting down along paper seismic sections at a low angle looking for subtle changes in geology when looking for oil. This is exactly how it used to be done before the advent of the Personal Computer. Not sure, but I think there is a brief allusion to the Moller-Maersk company (Maersk Oil - sadly now defunct , having been gobbled up by Total SA) when discussing Danish 'Social Democracy' allowing the North Sea to be invested in by a 'family-run' business. I think the ethos of Nordic 'Jante Law' (nowadays increasingly derided in Scandinavia), with its conservative socio-religious demands of obligation of self to the wider community, has prevented Norway from 'squandering' its North Sea Oil wealth. It now has the biggest Sovereign Wealth fund in the world ! A good reason to be Hygge !