Snöänglar

This was a hard watch: a poor struggling family, cynical cops, overwhelmed social services, abandoned children. Yikes!

Doesn't sound like much of recommendation but if you have the stomach for it, it is a powerful and human story dramatized and made all the more real by some truly superb acting. You fluctuate one moment from deeply disliking some of the characters to their breaking your heart in the next, from everyone seeming guilty to everyone's just a tragic victim.

The actor who plays Samir, the baby's dad, gave one of the most incredible performances I've ever seen, and the actor who played Jenni, his wife, as well.

Like I said, it's a hard story to watch, but the performances alone pull you in and make it worth it.

As this six-part Swedish series opens Nicole, a young deaf girl, returns home on Christmas Eve and wakes her mother. It soon becomes apparent that her five year old baby brother is missing. She calls the police. At first it is assumed he is with her taxi driving husband but when he returns it is clear that isn't the case. When the police return to the apartment husband Salle flees. The following two episodes show the events running up to the disappearences, focusing on this family, Alice and Maria, a postnatal nurse who had been concerned about the boy. Once back to the present various truths emerge.

This is not a cheerful series but it is well worth watching. The central mystery is gripping but it is much a character study as a whodunit... or more precisely a what-was-dun. The series really captures the feeling of cold with subdued tones and dark, sometimes a little too dark, scenes. The cast does a fine job making the varied characters believable and interesting. Without giving details I will say that the explanation does not seem obvious. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of grittier Euro-drama.

These comments are based on watching the series in Swedish with English subtitles.

It's quite realistic in the sense that so many families are struggling like this. Poor, drug abuse, mental health issues, etc. The one I feel most sorry for is Nicole!

None of the characters are very likeable but I think that's on purpose. Good acting and interesting story, even if a little predictable.

This is one of the few Scandinavian series when viewers can see that so-called native local people can also live in poverty and misery (usually this is visible when depicting post-1990 immigrants). The situations are both tragic and somber, and intertwining 3 cases and multiple characters provides additional value to the series. True, the potential wrongdoer as to the baby is somewhat revealed too soon (in spite of somewhat artificial distractions), but the real circumstances remain mystery up to the end. All the scenes are accentuated by harsh weather conditions and gray winter sky = climate is a strong supporting cast here.

The performances are also okay, with many faces not visible in every Swedish-Danish series :) Well, Eva Melander is a kind of star in Scandinavia, but Maria Rossing was a pleasant surprise, previously unknown to me.

Thus, Snöanglar is a solid series, yet not Innan vi dör or Bron/Broen, and with certain triviality in depicting police officers, particularly headstrong ones...

Stunning drama and so much originality.... Just loved the acting, the storyline.... Would recommend this drama to anyone. It makes you think beyond the issues you think you are dwelling on. Just brilliant writing and acting.