Jordskott

I gotta say this little Swedish gem worked for me on so many levels. The acting was really good as well as the directing. The show had a really cool creepy vibe to it (especially on season 1) that really built on top of the uniquely intriguing plot. The mystery surrounding the town and its inhabitants is expertly delivered throughout the first season. The twists and reveals blew my mind, there's no way you can get 3 episodes in and give up. This show makes true blood and Grim look like garbage. Jordskott's modern take on fairy tales is like nothing I've ever seen... It's dark and mysterious and I was as hooked on this show as some of the characters in jordskott are on their black sludge they drink to survive.

I was very pleasantly surprised when I watched this. I was expecting a Swedish crime drama like The Killing, but got so much more. This is a type of science fiction and I love science fiction. In some ways it resembles Pan's Labyrinth (from Spain I think), and if you love Earth Spirit Mythology then this show will please you. It has plenty of characters up to no good, for noble or selfish reasons, is full of surprises that eventually make sense and, though not big on special effects, what is needed is done well. There are tense moments and a beautiful tension throughout that keep the viewer interested. The story is sufficiently plausible to keep this work at an A-plus rather than a B-movie standard. The photography and place is very beautiful and creates atmosphere. This is a work that has done a lot with very little. Other reviewers have called this clever and they are very correct. The acting is easily good enough for mono speakers like me to forget the subtitles. I loved it.

Disclaimer - I bailed after 4 episodes. Why did I grow to dislike Jordskott (Swedish for George Scott, famous American actor of yesteryear) after investing 4 hours? Two things really,,,,First the series comes across as a missing person detective show but by episode 3 it becomes a fantasy, or introduces a supernatural element, so I feel a little duped, not that I wouldn't have started it anyway had I known.

Secondly I didn't like the main character at all. She was suppose to be some highly capably police officer/negotiator but she came across as utterly incompetent and didn't seem to know the slightest thing about policing or investigating a crime. I mean who screams shoot me over and over to a deranged hostage taker in a hostage situation. Utter nonsense. There were a few other nitpicky things like the head investigator in the disappearance recruiting a NEGOTIATOR with an emotional connection to help investigate a missing child case. The head guy also irritated. He didn't do anything in 4 episodes except walk around looking smug. The local police investigator was at least likeable and seemed to be actually doing things.

There's too many other (hopefully better) things to watch.

When i started seeing the film, I expected a crime. Strange things happened in the first episode, that almost made me stop watching. Luckily i continued watching, and realized that this was a fairy tale. We have wonderful fairy tales in Norway, and i hoped that somebody would try to apply the new animation techniques to retell the fairy tales. Jordskott seems to be a modernized fairy tale . I know of a few Norwegian films that also put the fairy tale into modern times. These are Trolljegeren, Thale, and Gåten Ragnarok. Jordskott is the first series i see with this telling technique, and the best try on a modern Nordic fairy tale so far.

This is the kind of show I've been waiting for! It mixes suspense, physiological drama and the occult in a way that never has been done before in Swedish television. I must admit that I was a little bit skeptical during the first episode, like " oh let's see where this is going", but soon I realized that I was about to binge watch the whole series in one night!! The writers have managed to create a story that never slacks and characters that are really fascinating, while at the same time following a plot that keeps the audience in a firm grip with new twists and turns in every episode. It's like "Oh my gosh, i didn't see that one coming!!" I have always been a little bit vary about dialogue in Swedish film and television. There has been a tendency to write "on the nose" dialogue, " sometimes unbearable to listen to like in many cop series, but in "Jordskott" the writers have had great success in writing lines that lift the characters AND drive the plot forward. The cast is excellent. If Moa Gammel won't be our next export to Hollywood I would be really surprised. And Happy Jankell is truly a rising star! Last, when it comes to the work of the camera crew: Never before has the dark forests, the small deep lakes and the inherent mystery of the Swedish countryside been better shown. If I worked for Swedish tourism I would very pleased right now. Maybe we will see "Jordskott" tourism in the near future.