The Restaurant

Just binged watched seasons 1, 2, and 3. Loved the entire series. Great cast, writing, acting. Such a wonderful love story, too. Really enjoyed watching the history of post war through civil rights and protest era. Watching fashions change over time was spot on, too. Loved loved loved this series!!!!

I have not finished this series, but one thing I do not appreciate about it is that after 25+ years, the characters look EXACTLY the same as they did in the beggining.... they never age..... not even a little.

The main takeaway of this show is that not all Swedes are blonde!

I am enjoying this, although I admit that being from The Netherlands, I partly watch to compare Swedish to Dutch. Interesting. The other day I heard them sing a Dutch happy birthday tune in Swedish, I had no idea that had the same song.

Yes, it's predictable and slightly soap-like at times, and some characters have become caricatures (although, interestingly enough, there's two people who have switched, one being the good guy changing into the bad guy, and vice versa). It follows the success recipe of romantic storylines, ongoing family trouble and always one lighter, funny storyline per episode.

What I really like is the big jumps in time, where in other shows certain storyline would have ben spelled out till the very end, here it suddenly stops and we are 5 years down the line, and what happened before is explained in a brief conversation or a shot of something. I like that, because often it would have been obvious.

But what is up with that filter? It's as if they're in a permanent dust cloud!

This series starts with the end of WWII in Sweden, We meet a family of two brothers, a sister and mother who run the formal restaurant and follow them and others thru divorces, betrayals, triumphs and scandals involving a cast of characters not quite as large as "Downton Abbey" but equally as engaging.

The cinematography beautifullly captures the vintage post WWII era similar to "The Godfather II" with very careful framing, lighting and camera movement. The production quality as well as acting is on par with any top notch Masterpiece Theatre production. It's plotting isn't as crass as "Dallas" but it's very much a family drama with triangulation conflicts every which way you can imagine. The pacing is a tad slow and languid but that gives you time to admire the sets, costumes and lighting as well as marvel at where they got all the 1950's era cars they pack the streets with during outdoor scenes.

I'm astonished I'm writing the first review of this show on this site. One month of Sundance Now is only 5 bucks and it's the best money you'll spend to watch this series. This is a very high quality show I'm going to regret finishing. I pray it goes to season 3.

Very good atmosphere top notch acting and great utterly believable yet dramatic story lines. Characters are complex and not one dimensial, like good and bad guys. For me the best experience since Breaking Bad and Better call Saul.