Valkyrien

Do you remember how much time we spent watching Walter White cleaning his meth-lab equipment to perfection?

Or how long does it take for the average sci-fi blockbuster to introduce you to the concept of time-travelling?

If you do, you will probably understand what I mean by hasty.

In recent years what most American series lack in original and clever script, Scandinavian-northern productions seem to have plenty. They may miss the hits due to bad marketing, low international appeal, small letdowns or whatever prevents their values to strive (hits which - by the way - often get in the hands of various remakes). Still, this is the sign of cultures that nurture intelligence VERSUS beauty contests, popularity ratings and political correctness. But this is an entirely different topic.

The story in Valkyrien is so open and complex that it could last 10 seasons (but it does it all in 8, 45 minutes episodes). A lot of topics rarely seen otherwise are dealt with: the power of bureaucracy, ethics and bio-ethics, sustainability, ecology, unavoidability of society, conspiracy theories. Given the number of productions around it's awesome finding something so fresh and interesting.

Yet some lows can be spotted in the superficiality which we are provided here and there for action's or drama's sake (forget scientific or even procedurals' accuracy) and in some "too unlikely" scenes. And here is imho the major weakness of the show: to make people care you need them to believe in what they see. And to achieve this, spending a proper amount of time and details to allow the disbelief to be suspended is critical. I'm not suggesting that indulging in artificial lengthening (like in soaps, or even successful series like Lost) is the right solution. I'm stating that by abusing the simplistic pace of action movies, your audience forgets about depth. Which shouldn't be your objective if you focus your plot on complex, nerdy, not-popular and potentially-boring topics.

Anyway: if you enjoy originality and well written cross genre stuff give it a try. But it would need a longer polished remake for the ideas to properly shine.

On the heels of the Swedes and the Danes, the Norwegians have vigorously stepped into the world of Scandi Noir, usually successfully. The synopsis of Valkyrien was intriguing as well, but as the events progressed I began to realise that it was too much a medical drama (which I tend to avoid) and much less crime-and-noir. The pace appeared to be slow and some characters did not provide additional value to the series (e.g. Teo´s and Leif´s families), but both Teo and Leif (Pål Sverre Hagen is the most versatile type in this series) produce lots of giggling and wtf! moments, breaking otherwise mostly static run of events. Sven Nordin as Ravn Eikanger is good, but nothing special, and the rest did not impress me too much. The moral ideas remained somewhat wishy-washy and the ending was too trivial as well.

So, Valkyrien is more like Det Tredje Øyet or Mammon, rather than Okkupert or Frikjent, for example. No, it is not a bad work, but additional smoothness and less scientific character could have made this series more interesting to me.

I added the «comedy» tag to this series. Originally the description read «drama», but it's so much more than that: if you watch this series, you'll (hopefully) notice how funny, smart and unpredictably original its dialogue is. Generally, I'm not a fan of any actor, I rather believe in good casting. Yet I need to mention that Pal Sverre Hagen does (again) a magnificent job. He appeared on my radar while watching «Kraftidioten» (English: «In order of disappearance»), a movie in which he plays a psychopathic drug dealer in an incredibly humoristic fashion. The story of Valkyrien may be a little farfetched, personally I think it's exceptionally original in its writing. It is very off beat, unpredictable, even philosophical. In short: very smart and funny. All actors are very well cast and do a marvelous job. Superb writing and a must see if you're in for something original.

If you are looking for playful and exciting entertainment but don't care about medical or scientific impossibilities, then you can manage to get through this series. I guess the creators of the series thought that if the show is entertaining enough, people wont focus on the medical impossibilities that litter the show e.g operating on people with anesthesia, two doctors who seem to specialize in everything under the sun etc. You also have to put up with the usual moralizing about global events (climate change, pharmaceutical companies, health care)that is fairly common in Danish and Norwegian movies, and to a lesser extent in Swedish series. So, if you can ignore the scientific silliness and just go on a crazy roller coaster ride for the entertainment, this series is for you. If there's a second season, I'll probably watch it but after a while I fear that the sheer impossibility of the plot events may just cause me to lose interest.

I was hesitant about starting this series because the teaser didn't make it sound interesting. But I got hooked and found it was entertaining. If you're a stickler for believability you will probably have some issues with the story. But the characters are likeable and plot twists will keep your attention.