State of Happiness

An intelligent and watchable series from Norway. Educational too. Impressed by the attention to small details, such as geologists sighting down along paper seismic sections at a low angle looking for subtle changes in geology when looking for oil. This is exactly how it used to be done before the advent of the Personal Computer. Not sure, but I think there is a brief allusion to the Moller-Maersk company (Maersk Oil - sadly now defunct , having been gobbled up by Total SA) when discussing Danish 'Social Democracy' allowing the North Sea to be invested in by a 'family-run' business. I think the ethos of Nordic 'Jante Law' (nowadays increasingly derided in Scandinavia), with its conservative socio-religious demands of obligation of self to the wider community, has prevented Norway from 'squandering' its North Sea Oil wealth. It now has the biggest Sovereign Wealth fund in the world ! A good reason to be Hygge !

I came across this series when searching for something to watch during the lockdown. The story of the beginning of the Norwegian oil industry doesn't sound too exciting a subject, and it isn't if you're expecting loads of action in the North Sea. Yes, there's some good tension in the diving scenes, but its really more about the personalities and how the discovery of oil effects them and their town, that's the thing that draws you in,

The acting is first superb from all the cast, but I have to say that the beautiful actresses playing Anna and Toril, are in a class of their own. The production standards of this series are first class, the attention to detail is superb, the Sixties are captured just fine to this eye (the Norwegian audience will have its own take on this), none more so than the Glasgow Rangers team picture which briefly features in episode 2: that's the personal clincher for me.

I do hope there's a second series being planned, it deserves nothing less.

Although I didn't get to Stavanger until 1985 this reminds me so much of my life. The city, the people, the language - and of course fiskeboller! I even windsurfed off Sola beach.

Not only that but it's a great drama with great acting, production and direction.

As someone else said "scandi without the noir!" I haven't finished it yet but at episode #5 I'm really enjoying this series and fail to understand the people who can dismiss it as a soap opera? Some beautiful locations, an interesting story and most of the cast members are very easy on the eye ... and of course they can all act! The female lead 'Anna' in particular is superb ... her character with her slight quirkiness and do all attitude. Just great.

The discovery of oil in the North Sea brought sudden and unexpected wealth to a previously rural part of Norway; 'State of Happiness' follows both the history of the birth of the Norwegian oil industry, and the period of societal change. While some of the story feels generic, there were two details I liked. Firstly, the portrait of the canny Norwegian politicians who figured out how to make sure that their country, and not just the multinationals, made money out of oil. As a Briton, I got the idea that the founding of the State Oil company may play an analagous role in contemporary Norwegian mytholgy to the founding of the N.H.S. does in my country's. The other thing I liked is the way that the social transformation allows a number of the younger characters (two of them women) to find and value themselves; this plotline is well telegraphed throughout but still nicely executed. As an aside, although everyone is constantly bewailing the Stavanger weather, the story is filmed in generally much more clement conditions than we see in Scandinavian crime thrillers. And it's much more interesting than many of those.