Le Syndrome d'Helsinki

Stockholm syndrome threatens to move to another Scandinavian country in this hostage-taking thriller. A Finnish banking crisis in the 1990s caused thousands to lose their homes and businesses with no consequences for the bankers who recklessly lent them more than their assets could justify, knowing the government would protect the lenders, no matter how devasted the naïvely trusting borrowers were when inevitable massive defaults occurred. This is set in the present post-Covid era, with many still suffering from those losses and remaining debts. Hundreds of lawsuits all failed to get compensation because what the banks did was technically legal, according to the courts.

One frustrated victim, Elias (Peter Franzen) decides to finally get to the truth, holding several journalists hostage to force them to ferret out the perceived conspiracy for the benefit of all who suffered such unfair outcomes. That included his father, who'd committed suicide from the shame of losing the family business and saddling his son with the remaining debt. We gradually learn that Elias trained and planned rigorously for the siege for many months. The "curriculum" included explosives to keep the cops out of the office, firearms and hand-to-hand fighting in case things go awry, and conditioning himself for many days without much sleep. He brought in boxes of food and water, plus many boxes of documents for his captives to wade through, hoping they'd find a "smoking gun" that would reverse the tide.

The eight 50-minute episodes cover about the same number of days, switching among the central office, to the police trying to negotiate a surrender or send in SWAT, to a bunch of others who are questioned or otherwise connected to the players and the transactions. The scripts from the four credited writers keep multiple suspense balls in the air throughout, with some surprises along the way. Many characters have arcs that change them from the way they started.

Production values are first-rate, including some large, crowded exterior scenes. Performances are solid all around. As hostage productions go, it's nowhere near as sexy or action-packed as the wildly successful Spanish series Money Heist. Nor is it as light and fast-paced as the 2018 movie, Stockholm, which fictionalized the 1973 bank-hostage situation from which the term Stockholm Syndrome was coined. Even so, it's still intriguing as a more cerebral and less visceral package. Bingeing is advisable, since there are so many participants, locations, financial complexities, political machinations and flashbacks to keep in order. It's written as a miniseries, so no need to worry about having to wait for closure.

Well done production and excellent character development, integrating the experiences of one man's family's crushing fate at the mercy of greedy banks and corrupt government officials, and his mission to set things right, not just for himself but for so many other people suffering from the same fate.

It's a complex story, viewed from several angles, fleshed out little by little as the story progresses, adding to the suspense.

You get to know the lead characters, and can empathize with each of their situations, which can even fluctuate at various times as the story progresses.

The storyline also centers around real-life events which enables viewers to connect to some they may have even experienced in their own lives.

I would definitely recommend watching.

This is a most excellent series. At no point will you be bored.

There are two seasons. Season one is by far the best. Season two is a little more flat, a little more subdued, a little more peaceful Scandinavia vibe, even in the middle of all the shenanigans it will feel pretty subdued to people in other countries.

At the start of the series, it shows that it is based on events which are more or less accurate.

But then again, it says that none of the people or characters mentioned there were real, they were fictional. So we do not truly know how much of this story is real. It seems they basically weaved a tale into events which did take place in the early 1990s, when the Finnish state, it suggests here, told the banks to target businesses to try and recoup some money so they could be ready to join the EU, something of that nature (Finland officially joined the European Union (EU) on January 1, 1995, along with Austria and Sweden.

).

... not actually looked into it in detail, but it is intimated broadly that billions and billions of euros were basically siphoned off semi-illegally from small businesses and homeowners in order to make the state extremely solvent when it went and join the EU.

I am not sure of the detail here.

But anyway, the way this is done here, the main three or four actors make it really happen.

Helsinki looks quite elegant in this as well. And it doesn't take anything away. It rather adds to it all.

This is really, as the title, my title here indicated, Robinhood on steroids, Robinhood with the internet, Robinhood with cryptocurrency, Robinhood with technological tools that the forest of Sherwood did not have available at the time.

So it is really an updated tale of the little people fighting against the powerful and the moneyed classes.

Anybody who enjoys that kind of story will really like this one here.

Season one was absolutely excellent all the way through to the denouement.

Season two starts straight away on a much more feeble lower pulse.

And it doesn't really get back to the heights of the first series. I think looking at the last episode, episode six of series two, the makers were probably hoping to get yet another season.

But quite frankly, it was not given to them and it would have been probably even more weak.

The last episode of the second series shows not a cliffhanger, but something that could be used to carry on to the trial and whatever. But this never happened.

So really, I would enjoin people to watch season one and maybe forego season two, although it will be pretty difficult for any viewer who has seen season one to not want to carry on.

Great viewing. Not sure about the historical accuracy or near accuracy of this story, but it doesn't really matter.

It is a timeless tale about the little people fighting back against the masters. Fun!

PS Also in some aspects echoes of La casa de papel (2017) an excellent Spanish series.