Næturvaktin

Perfect and perfect and more perfect and even more perfect.

This comedy about about 2 typically Icelandic characters and their Swedish caricature of a boss(complete with Leninesque hairstyle and nicely portrayed by Jón Gnarr) is the first of its kind to be made on Iceland. It's not the first Icelandic sitcom as such but it's definitely the first funny one and is even awaiting a sequel that's being filmed in a country hotel. It has a sort of embarrassing humor(like Extras but not as painfully embarrassing) and could be enjoyed by all even though some jokes will be lost on non-Icelandic viewers since they often involve cameos by real Icelandic celebrities playing themselves.

Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon does a great interpretation of a pathetic wannabe manager that will probably be stuck in a dead end job for the rest of his life.

Jón Gnarr steals every scene he is in as th evil loudmouth communist boss that has 5 university degrees but still works the night shift at a gas station. Jón should be careful not to be typecast as angry old men though. I liked him better when he was typecast as a nerd.

The star of the show is without a doubt the painfully realistic portrayal of a typical Icelandic youth by Jörundur Ragnarsson. This young man has proved himself to be the next big star in Icelandic cinema.

The young boy who plays Georgs son is also brilliant.

And I am also tremendously great as the young, Swedish hippie in the last episode and have yet to receive a call regarding a spin-off :(

Funny stuff.

Like the previous commentator, I saw this programme when BBC4 presented it as part of their Iceland season. The first couple of episodes I liked, but I was a bit lost. Once I got to know the characters, though, I loved it more and more. The characters are beautifully drawn and magnificently played: you don't think of it as acting, you feel you're seeing a window into someone's life. I also thought Daníel should have paid more attention to Ylfa, starting with telling her she looked nice in episode 11, but life isn't perfect. Ólafur, for me, is the finest achievement: on the one hand, he's the perpetual underdog, so that you can't help feeling sorry for him, but on the other hand, he is forever doing something stupid. My favourite episode is the eleventh, where Georg tries to teach his embarrassed and uninterested pubescent son the Facts of Life with the help of a copy of Hustler ("The man has a penis, the woman doesn't have a penis. Well, that one does, but she's deformed.") and a white-board for vocabulary and diagrams. I was quite relieved when that one was over, because I was laughing so much it hurt. I shall certainly buy the DVD, which I am pleased to find is available with English subtitles.

Iceland remains a magic place. People like Björk and Sigur Ros have shown the world that the Icelandic can make beautiful and unconventional music, but what is still rather unknown is that they can also produce great films and TV series. This comedy-drama series about the staff of a Shell gas station in Reykjavik is the funniest and most charming sitcom I've seen in years and can absolutely compete with sitcoms from "traditional" sitcom nations like the USA and UK. When you watch the first couple of episodes, you may at first find it rather tedious and just another bland variation of The Office, but if you stick with it, you will find out that the characters are very well written and beautifully nuanced and superbly acted, and the gags get better and more black and lead to some very funny laugh-out-loud moments like you don't see them that often in most of today's comedy series. Jon Gnarr as the manic night shift boss is terrific, probably the best "bad boss" since David Brent, but Olafur and Daniel are very strong and believable characters as well. There is no English dubbing, but if you watch it with English subtitles, you will have absolutely no problem understanding it, as the dialogue is very simple and doesn't rely on wordplay.

It should be difficult to believe that, from such a small country by population like Iceland, produces this master piece. This shows perfectly well that it does not need a huge crew and writers when one team can be called more than talented. Simply clever from the start.

The characters are built so well that you either want to see them or not at all. The setting is absolutely amasing - nothing much but yet, everything.

One simply recognise these people involved, be them main characters or punters that you can only hope this will never see an American version. Do not touch this Hollywood, this is not for you - please let people look like people and feel like one.