Arvingerne - The Legacy

Signe Larsen, a young woman from relatively modest stock--working in a flower shop--discovers she was adopted and that her real family is a rich and decadent lot, fighting over the titular legacy of her recently deceased mother.

This sounds like a terribly worn out premise, but the writers actually succeed in transfiguring it by carefully avoiding the vulgar clichés we might expect: this is 'Dallas' alright, but 'Dallas' for the XXist century. The dead mother was not an oil magnate but a conceptual artist, the brothers and sisters are curators, lawyers and beach bums, all rather bohemian in their own privileged way. In place of gold watches and sports cars, we have conspicuous displays of cultural capitals (art books, white cubes and subdued designer dresses.) Behind this urbane and cultured façade, however, J. R. has nothing on any of them: Gro the curator dress her self-interest as selfless dedication to her mother's memory, Emil's devil-may-care altruism is fueled by privilege and self-indulgence, Thomas is perpetually escaping from his responsibility, and Frederik alone wears his stony heart on his sleeve.

The result is a populist Cinderella: Signe stands for honest work and common sense. Her decadent siblings, with their high-falutin modern culture and high-minded hypocrisy, are the fabled 'cosmopolitan elite'. But Avringerne is not *genuinely* populist: it is too well written, too well acted, too tastefully produced to appeal to the little man. Signe, pure as a lamb, perpetually turning the other cheek, is also the least compelling of the characters. This is a populist tale not for the little man but for the self-hating cosmopolitan elite.

The result is compelling: acutely observed, well cast, restrained and mostly credible. It does suffer from the failings of its soap opera model: as the episode count rises, the accumulation of peripeteia inevitably becomes less and less believable, so that by the end of the first season the viewer is already hard-pressed to suspend disbelief. By the end of the second, it has all become quite strained and repetitive. One wishes the writers had spread out their episode in time, avoiding thereby the artificiality of perpetual emergency and giving their characters time to grow.

Ignore some critics like boomeran......they may not read subtitles. ...or ...well just missed it.

Nice to see known danish actors draw on their skills for variety of characters. Story moves along and some sneaks up on you. Wish there were some more seasons. There are a few other danish and Swedish shows with similar family turmoil. Some of the shots seem to remind me of the great Susanne Beir winners. Expressions can tell us so much.

I liked the whole story but especially the odd folks. Tryne was great...seen her in about 8 other movies and she was perfect in this one. Someone mentioned criticizing it as a train wreck. Well yeah the family is....a fast moving cone at that. Have fun.

Do see this! For all of the millions of people out there whose entire lives have been molded by selfish parents who lost their common sense somewhere between a kiss and the diamond ring, here's a soap opera for you. The two main female roles are portrayed very convincingly, notably Trine Dyrholm as "Gro Grønnegaard" and Marie Bach Hansen as "Signe Larsen". The plot quickly thickens as the question of inheritance brings out the weasel in just about everyone. Psychologically, anyone who has ever dealt with inheritance issues will recognize several themes and reflect on their own personal stories and reactions. As a result maybe this defining drama can pave the way for deeper family dialogs among the lucky viewers who have the guts to speak up.

It is difficult to not give this series a 10, but one always imagines something can be better. In this story, set in Funen, the island of Hans Christian Anderson, a family encounters itself in all its complex, passionate, devious depths. The writer Maya Ilsøe is superb -- fascinating concerns with truth and lie, with nature and art, with the truth about fathers and mothers, and the deviations of children who have to live with their lies.

The tale is sensitively brought to our eyes by intelligent actors and producers. I have long been a fan of Danish TV, and this lives up to the best of it. Hoping for a strong 3rd season, which I understand will be the last.

I really enjoyed the Danish drama series, "The Legacy". It features more self-absorbed, narcissistic, self-destructive characters than I have seen in a long time. I'm not sure there are any likable main characters - it's more a case of degrees of difference in their selfishness. This show really reinforces the expression "Monkey can't buy you happiness." It traces the lives of a family thrown into turmoil after receiving news of their inheritance. The acting is superb - enough to make you despise, loathe, pity or feel contempt for this family and their behaviour. Recommended.