Playa del Sol

I watched the DVD version of "Playa del Sol" yesterday and 'though I'd heard good things about it, I was surprised of how good it was.

First off - the cast. The only ones of the actors I knew who they were, was Henrik Hjelt and Mikael Tornving, both I knew from stand-up-comedy-type-shows like "Parlamentet". I knew they're both funny, and have an excellent 'stone face' when delivering their lines. I'd almost never seen them in a real movie or series and didn't really know what to expect. It's obvious that they're comedians before actors, but they both handle the acting quite good in this series. The three other actors - Saga Gärde, Richard Ulfsäter and Josephine Bornebusch - I'd never heard of before, but they handle the acting excellent. I also think that this is one of the things that makes the series so good, that the acting is up to par. Bad acting can spoil a good script faster than you can say Steven Seagal...

The main character Mårten (Henrik Hjelt) has the perfect life. He and his girlfriend are about to get married and he has the good job at 'Shine', a travel agency/organizer, and is about to join the board of directors. That's when the fact that he's never actually worked as a travel guide is disclosed, and instead he's sent to Gran Canaria to gain his mandatory experience at one of their hotels. The people working at the hotel are the beautiful Sandra (Saga Gärde), the kooky Linn (Josephine Bornebusch), the not so bright Steffen (Richard Ulfsäter) and their boss Tommy (Mikael Tornving).

What makes the series so good are two things. First and foremost - the characters. All the characters are well written and while Mårten and Sandra are somewhat "normal", the other three are weird and funny. Yet they are believable and consistent, which, at least in my book, is really important. The minor characters, unfortunately, isn't really at the same standard. But it doesn't damage the series that much due to the good acting of the main cast. And Richard Ulfsäter is nothing but fabulous as his character, which is very similar to Joey in the series "Friends" and "Joey", and he actually steals the show from Henrik and Mikael.

Secondly, the script is pretty good. Due to the fact that the entire series is set in a hotel it's easy to relate to "Fawlty Towers", but of course the script isn't this good. It's pretty easy to find flaws and the credibility isn't always what I'd like. But the fact remains that it is better than most TV series. You can find elements similar to "Coupling", which, at least until the first three seasons, I believe to be the best TV series scripts ever written.

So, if you like "Friends", "Coupling" and/or "Fawlty Towers", I would recommend you to see this.

I was really disappointed when I watched this. (I have watched the first four episodes only.) Because, there is a wonderful Swedish comedy called "Sällskapsresan" ("The charter trip"), which is about the same thing. A holiday resort with reps and guests. And that is great fun - ALL the time you recognize some situation from when you were yourself a guest at one of these places.

But in "Playa del Sol" there is none of that - which is incredible, as there are so many things in the business that you COULD make a joke out of. But they do not use these. Instead there is a lot of internal squabbling between the reps and their boss, that could be from ANY business. And it is not very interesting either.

The jokes fall short of the mark at all times, and the actors are dull and uninteresting.

I'm a big fan of Henrik Hjelt and Mikael Tornving so I was kinda excited when I heard about this show. But I must say after seeing four episodes that this is pure crap. The script is laughable and most of the actors in the show are so bad that you feel sorry for them. Since the show started it haven't given me one single laugh. The jokes and punch lines are so old and overused in Swedish comedy! Sometimes I wonder if the script even got reviewed before they started shooting this crap.

Well the good news is that the show wont last very long and hopefully it will be replaced with something worth watching. Henrik Hjelt and Mikael Tornving deserves a better script to work with. You can smell Peter Settman in every dialogue and that cant be good in any way.