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

This series is set in the Norwegian city of Stavanger in the late 1960s. As the story starts it is a fairly quiet fishing town with a reputation for being rather religious. There are Americans in town looking for oil in the North Sea but it looks as though they are about to wind up their operation... then a massive oil field is discovered; this will affect the lives of our various protagonists. Throughout the series we see events through the experiences of a group of characters; most importantly Anna Hellevik, a young woman who works as a secretary to those making the decisions. Her fiancé is a diver working for an oil company; his father owns a struggling fishing company; she catches the eye of an American initially tasked with shutting down their Norwegian operation; and one of her friends is pregnant by an American working for another company.

I really enjoyed this Norwegian series; it made a refreshing change from the, admittedly excellent, 'Scandi-nior' we've been treated to over the last few years. The way Anna was involved with people from so many different groups may seem contrived but it was an effective way of showing us how the changes were effecting the various parts of the community. The story proved to be gripping even though most viewers will know, or at least guess, which city will ultimately be selected to be Norway's 'Oil Capital'; there are enough unknowns to maintain the viewers' interest. The cast does a fine job making the characters feel real. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to people looking for something a little different.

These comments are based on watching the series in Norwegian with English subtitles.

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 !

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

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.