Nikolaj og Julie

Funnily enough this isn't what I personally would call great art..however it has "it" which makes it relevant to almost anyone, at least any Dane. Its portraiting the life of a couple, Nicolaj & Julie, and their very daily-life problems, it hardly could be shown in a better way since exactly the daily-life is the kind of life most anyone can recognize. No fancy jobs, cars or luxury but simple and pure life as liven by most people in Denmark 2002/2003.

It's never boring and you never totally know what will happen:as well as it has it moments of utter love and happiness we're also shown angst and sadness. Themes, to mention a few, include: love, seperation, parenthood,infidelity, desire i.e. whatever is part of most peoples lives of today - of course on a more or less frequent basis.

Last but not least there's plenty of humour in the series too and when shown (it has now summer 2003 a "holiday") the streets were empty as we've only seen a few times before (e.g. when Rejseholdet and Matador were on TV) and surely the coffeebreak subject on the following day was Nicolaj & Julie.

A cosy (hyggelig) series that could "risk" to become a rather important part of danish tv history and absolutely worthwhile viewing.

I this supposed to be a joke?? 1,5 million Danes are glued to the screen every Sunday night in prime time to watch something that seems better suited for the day-time soap slot!!!: "The series about YOU AND ME that deals with the joys and problems of a normal danish life in the year 2003?" Please!! If they wanted to opt for realism maybe the writers shouldn't have INSISTED on making EVERY SCENE A BLATANT SETUP FOR THE NEXT in order to lecture the viewer on life in the most patronizing way!!!! Show a troubled boy with a pet rat in scene 12. Show his estranged stepfather taking him to visit the Copenhagen Aquarium to watch piranhas in scene 15 and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the rat will fall prey to the fish in order to carry on the narrative drama of father and son! If it fits the story purpose of telling us the "sad story of relatives being alcoholics" rational characters suddenly become raging alcoholics out of the blue!?? AND IT IS LIKE THAT ALL THE WAY!!!! Totally unrealistic setups upon setups!!! I mean come on, and this is considered "hip" in Denmark? Am I really the one who isn't blown away by this travesty?? How this has now been nominated for an Emmy is beyond me! Please don't be fooled by this series danish origin. Danish television CAN be great as was the case with last years Emmy winner "Rejseholdet". To even consider nominating "Nikolaj og Julie" is an insult to the former.

I'd say, along with Frederic Raphael's "The Glittering Prizes," that "Nikolaj og Julie" is one of the most brilliant things ever written for television. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles. Sofie Gråbøl is brilliant. There are a lot of actors that international viewers will be familiar with from other Danish productions including: "Anna Pihl," "Rita," "Borgen," "The Killing." The acting is superb. High production values. And more than anything else, it is what is so rarely seen on TV, at least stateside, stories about what happens after boy gets girl, or girl gets boy. The reality of making marriages and relationships work. Of course the Scandinavian countries are so interesting because equality is considerably more advanced, even if very far from perfect. Adam Price, the creator of "Borgen" and main writer for "Anna Pihl," is the creator of "Nikolaj og Julie." I just think it is rare to find intelligence anywhere on TV , this 22 episode series is incredible. It has a lot of drama, but is also humorous, and is very well paced. Highly recommended.

The first season of "Nikolaj & Julie" was extremely good, well written and acted. The in the second season something went wrong. The story line became mediocre and foreseeable and the acting went the same way. Suddenly this was not about mid-thirties people trying to cope and handle each others problems in a serious, and most of all, realistic way, but about a group of very selfish and egocentric persons not caring about anything but their own agenda. On top of that, as mentioned, the story became secondhand and seemingly all inspiration has come from daytime soaps, only being a tad better do to better acting. New characters were introduced and written off as quickly as possible, and the whole socio demographic area that this show takes it place in, was broken up. The third season has begun, and it doesn't look better. Again new characters has been written in, apparently one of the lead acts has a retarded brother of whom we haven't heard of before, and Julie boyfriend apparently has have a drinking problem, which is reawakened by her when she offers him a snaps. Small problems a boosted to be the end of the world, and the big issues are forgotten form episode to episode, and it do not give one hope that it will improve at any point, it will only become worse.

At the moment of writing this, "Nikolaj & Julie" is the top most seen show on TV in Denmark, but then again other things that are not hard on the mind and ones intellect has been the highest rated shows before, Robinson (danish "survivor"), Popstars, Popstar, Big Brother and so on. The only thing that "Nikolaj & Julie" has that those shows do not is real actors, otherwise it's sometimes hard to see the difference, but then again art do reflect reality.

This little TV-series is a masterpiece, could never ever have been done in Sweden. It is calm. You follow easily, and the characters are carefully drawn.

Lots of relations plays up in front of you, and makes you think about life in general.