User reviews

There was the Kierkegaard quote on the leap of faith but this series remained stuck in the aesthetic phase fair and square. Upper middle class families tumble down the wheel of fortune to expose how bad we are with refugees and how awful the Poles are. At the same time the protagonists lack a realistic sense of self-preservation and resilience, in other words: quite dumb. In its attempt to be a morality play its ethics and lack of humanism are very problamatic. So quote Kierkegaard as much as you like: on the surface, okayish for a few hours of entertainment but deeply flawed in its political messaging and dramatic depth, zero fathoms deep.

The idea is good here. Showcase what it means to be a refugee, by making the Danes go through what is happening to many in war ridden countries. Acting is fine as well.

However it just becomes too forced. There are situations where main characters makes such stupid decisions that it became unbelieveable and nearly unbearable to watch. Add to this that it is incredibly slow at times, especialy the last few episodes are just dragged out. It could have been maybe 4 episodes instead.

I would still recommend Danes to watch it as a learning exercise of how it is to be a refugee. The empathy refugees deserve is for sure missing in todays society.

In Thomas Vinterberg's Families Like Ours (Familier som vores), characters face impossible decisions in what could have been an over-the-top apocalyptic sci-fi series. Instead, within the environmental framework of disaster, Vinterberg stays focused on the human cost. It's ironic to see some reviewers question how certain characters could be so stupid or myopic in their decision making, but the series shows how difficult it is for people faced with impossible choices, particularly emotional ones, to think clearly when they're losing everything else.

The series is blessed with some excellent Danish actors--but it's the two young leads (Amaryllis April August and Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt) who pull us in and keep us connected. It isn't that the other actors aren't excellent (Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Paprika Steen always reliable)--but the stories of Laura and Elias are simply more riveting--and extreme. The series also pushes at the notion that becoming a refugee can only happen to "others," illustrating what happens when even well-off Danes become unwanted migrants. The human dilemma is simply human, at all costs, even if you start out on better financial footing.

It's very hard to watch some of this series, especially some of the violence, but it's necessary to see what can happen to anyone. Determination alone doesn't ensure anything in a world like this--though it helps. Sometimes faith and acceptance bring some stability, as with Fanny (Steen), and at others it brings disaster anyway. We move toward an unclear resolution, the most we can hope for in this fictive world.

Well I'm American 🇺🇸 and a movie /series snob and I usually like international you know like stuff out of Korea or Denmark, etc., and I do like this, but something about the daughter in the show I cannot stand. Is that the future of Denmark women how they are an act I hope not this is the worst portrayal of a daughter any family I've ever seen like i'm 50 years old and I've seen some pretty crabby daughters from the Cosby show Lisa Bonet so you name it I've seen a lot and this character I don't know if it's the actress combined but if anybody out there can leave me some feedback on it. She is just horrible. I don't know if it's her acting or if it's this character of the combination, but it's driving me nuts very bad this boy Elias dying and it's like it's nothing. It's like ridiculous. He's driving to save you. He took a mountain a sled to get to you gets murdered and it's like just conversation over a zoom call anyway I give the show rating of five or six. I feel that the father does a good job. Everybody else is a good job, but this daughter I really can't stress it anymore. I think I'm stressed it pretty much already but she is a -10 -100 horrible actress she definitely needs to go to acting school. She's like really bad and so is my review. I'm doing dictation text all right thank you good night.haha.

I've seen quite a few negative reviews here - but don't let that stop you watching this well-produced and well-acted series about how an environmental crisis turns life upside down for a middle-class Copenhagen family. It does require a certain suspension of belief in that such a crisis would hopefully be managed more sustainably than it is in this drama. But you never know, and anyway, it's fiction not a documentary.

The actors were incredible and the script was well-written. What I thought was most valuable was the way the series created a strong engagement for the characters, who in many ways were the same as the series' target group - an average middle class family. Once that engagement was in place we were led through a series of increasingly uncomfortable situations, where some poorly-considered decisions made things go from bad to worse. If you're a parent you will be able to identify with the painful sense of concern that arises when children are forced into dangerous situations.

We don't really want to know about environmental crises, or about the hell that refugees face, so it's easier to just dismiss the series, than to experience those uncomfortable feelings. Watch this series with an open mind and you will be rewarded with a thought-provoking and meaningful experience.

Thomas Vinterberg's series "Families Like Ours" is an ambitious tale about a Danish family facing an apocalyptic crisis. The acting is decent, but it is difficult to sympathize with the characters as they often make incredibly foolish decisions.

From the beginning of the series, we see the family navigate through a series of catastrophic choices that only worsen their situation. Their inability to think rationally and act sensibly makes it hard for viewers to engage emotionally. Instead of learning from their mistakes, they repeat them over and over, which can be frustrating to watch.

Their decisions are often driven by extreme stupidity and short-term thinking, It is hard to feel sympathy for characters who seemingly do not learn from their mistakes and continue to put themselves and others in danger.

Although the series has its strong moments and manages to create an intense atmosphere, it is difficult to overlook the many foolish decisions the family makes. This makes it challenging to invest emotionally in their fate and leaves the viewer feeling frustrated rather than empathetic.

This Thomas Vinterberg's series looks about a doomsday of denmark, making audience expect "Roland Emmerich moments" with CGI catastrophe like "Copenhagen underwater"? No, Vinterberg has his own style, and his own concerns to tell a story full of passion, sympathy and self-reflection.

Is the main audience European and North American? Maybe, and people's experience would make different perception of this series. I am the son of a refugee family who escaped wars, I myself was a "skilled worker" in an immigration program me to a western country. We know the bureaucracy and chaos to enter a country, facing hostility and violence worrying about any circumstances. However, after finally settling down, we always keep in mind the generosity, hospitality and all the good wills of kind people, no matter the living condition is high class or not.

What I cherish in this series, is that this time it's the middle class white family having a touch of a refugee's life. The main family and its members in this series is high middle class, living high quality life, especially in a welfare state that the whole world envies. Yet in the beginning of the story they don't have a clue how fortunate they are. When a catastrophe comes, they try everything to keep the living standard as before, not willing to lead a simpler life or share resources with other people. They are one family and only cares about their family, not realizing there are thousands of "families like ours".

As the show progresses, at first they are all luckily welcomed by people in different countries, where they can still have good jobs and promising future, but they are so "spoiled" that eventually spoiled all the good chances. Some characters even went into the worst nightmare a refugee could get into, facing all the risks and dangers even the hostility and malice. We third world nationals had a lot of stories like this, and the series just let white middle class danish characters to go through it too.

Only when they face the worst, lose everything and yet still manage to survive, they could start realizing how fortunate they were, and how different people around the world are living their lives. Life can be simple and even poor, but what matters is the kindness, humanity and love among people. Even if your homeland no longer exists, you can still live the best of a humble life, and celebrate the beauty of life wherever you are.

This series deals with both global warming and refugee crisis that Europe is facing in 2020s, and it encourages European citizens to contemplate: will we be refugees one day? Will we be any different from the refugees we are receiving today? As the world is on a decline, and the society will lose a lot collectively, are we able to and willing to share what we have and what we lose with others? Always remember it's not only about "our family", but also about all the "Families Like Ours".

I was looking forward to this series with a certain amount of expectation. Knowing many of the strong films by Vinterberg - The Biggest Heroes, The Celebration, The Hunt, Another Round, and my favourite: Submarino (2010) - I felt quite confident about what to expect in terms of craftsmanship. Also the cast, with strong forces like Thomas Bo Larsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Esben Smed, Paprika Steen, and David Dencik would normally be seen as adequate guarantees of great performances.

I like the idea behind the plot, which I think shares bonds to the short story "Hvis der blev krig i Norden" ('If War Should Occur in the North', own translation) but the way the story has unfolded so far is with some lenghts from the standards I had hoped for. More than half though all 7 episodes, the plot seems stuck in a moment of a catastrophe that you simply do not buy. All the streets of inner Copenhagen and those of the suburbs appear completely passable, yet the country is closing down (!) because of rising sea level! In reality btw, most of historic Copenhagen is situated only a few meters above sea level. This means, the story clings on to a narrative of disastrous climate changes that you need to understand but never get to see the consequences of. Only in an epilogue of the last chapter of the series you get an overview of some of the consequences, although, it still appears like a strongly forced decision to shut down a country.

And then the characters... Hardly anyone in particular deliver on the scale you could expect, perhaps with the exception of Dencik, who as usual portrays with a grit and with emotions on the outside. Alas, his role is minimised and not followed in the last part, where we only follow Laura's destiny. What's more astute is that not many of the characters come out as strongly sympathetic, which makes it hard to be engaged in how they will manage. At the center of the plot we meet Laura, nicely portrayed by Amaryllis August, and around her a few actors stand out, e.g. Magnus Millang and Asta Kamma August, but the characters they play are not persuasively build as they appear somewhat one-dimensional and take odd decisions that cannot only be explained via a confrontation with chaotic implications. As we leave Laura in episode 3, she has only just made a rather existential decision and then in the midst of the succeeding episode, she realises the consequences of that, although she already dealt with that previously, and only then she begins to act it out. Of course a little late it appears, and that nonsensical development disrupts our understanding of the character - yes, she's young, yes, she's put in a complete chaos she and no one are in control of, but still, (duh) it doesn't help the plot and our conception of the narrative. Another critical issue is that some scenes could be improved by retakes and then the whole story is so far burdened by no variation in tension, which I find is the most annoying aspect. Also, too much of the story is put on young shoulders, who don't own the expertise of acting but mostly due to inadequate scripting of the characters. Amyrillis August portrays a young mother, at first very convincing, but her character undergoes a strange personal swift mood change (in ep. 4) that doesn't help caring for the young mother. And then she's like many other characters put away in the last episode. Naturally, we cannot follow all but the decision to put in a strong role and then not follow her journey to the end is a frustration that is mirrored in several others. Basically, she plays the only part of working class Denmark, and everything else is centered on a narrow elite of families representing 1% of the Danish population.

The production costs naturally limit what you are able to realise, but why then use the few locations you dispose of to try to sell something it won't stand a chance to materialise as? It's quite obviously a story that takes place and progress via the dialogues and thus more suitable for something for the stage - that is if you cut down the length 'cause after four episodes we are into a 7 episodes' series, but it appears like 30 minutes into a 2 hour long film, despite knowing we're half way through. I hope that I'm mistaken concerning my current expectations as to what will occur in the last three remaining chapters, but fact is, I was already a bit bored. Which means: I had lost hope for this, and my state had actually only put me pondering whether it would be worth following the next chapters. I still hoped for more but for the whole plot and the execution was a disappointing affair.

EDIT: after watching episode 4, I have granted the series another star (now going on 4), not because that means I will eventually end up handing it 7 (unlikely) when all episodes are through, but my initial verdict with 3/10 does seem a bit harsh now. I still kinda like the idea of the story and some of the characters - it's not their fault the script lacks here and there - but it's still a long way to make this a pursuassive and recommended series to follow. I guess, the fourth episode convinced me to see all episodes, though, as some twist and turns have made the story a bit more interesting - and I basically really want to see what Vinterberg has put his work into.

FINAL EDIT after 7 episodes: Overall I hand the series 4 / 10 stars. With the last three episodes, we follow the characters on their individual journeys in foreign countries, but the destinations are far from logical. You could argue that in times of catastrophe there would be no logic, but choosing Poland, Finland, and Romania as top priorities is hard to swallow. What happened to Norway, Sweden, the British Isles, and Canada/ Australia/ New Zealand for that matter? Meaning countries with similar culture, and less density in population. Of course Vinterberg intends to strengthen the idea of a world turned upside down with the spoiled elite turned into what has more in common with contemporary refugees from Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, Eritrea, Palestine... and we wouldn't understand that if the families would seek refuge in other wealthy economies. So, that's just another "absurdity" to accept.

Without spoiling the end, I felt like a revisit to Von Trier and his "Breaking the Waves". The analogy to existential despair is touching but also forced, unnatural and a much unwanted director's remark to yell out this.is.the.end.of.the.story!

In retrospect, the story should have let us know what we are dealing with. What's at stake. Show us. Pick people from more than just a narrow community, when portraying a whole country. Use a logical mindset to the created characters - even when things go wrong, most people still act as responsible individuals.

A strong starting point ends with too many loose ends.

I have seen 4 episodes now and this show is great! The situations the families and persons are put in seems realistic and you can understand their emotions and dilemmas throughout the episodes. As we near the time for departure, things heat up, but that again is something that feels realistic and i never sat with the felling "why did he just do that". Even when i disagreed with a characters decisions or actions, i still understodd where that person came from so to speak.

I can see its receiving a lot of flak from other user critics here (and everyone is ofc entitled to an opinion! ;-)) regarding the persons/families taking bad decisions. I dont think i ever had it that way. We have characters that sudddenly are told, that they have to evacuate the country, and if they can't find their own jobs/housing in "better" countries, the state will provide housing for them in countries less favores by the characters in the series. That puts tremendous pressure on you and your family to take a LOT of decisions very quickly anf navigate in a volatile situation, when you dont know what other countries will say, and when the laws are changing by the day. So i think its a bit harsh judging them from that perspective, and i actually do think they make rational decisions from their perspective. Are they stupid sometimes? Yeah like the decisions WE would make if we were in the same exact situation.

So i can strongly recommend this series, where you get invested in the charcters. There are strong character-buildup and that makes all the social and moral dilemmas much more interesting and you really feel for these characters, when they are in jeopardy. See it, you wont regret it!

Suspend your disbelief (its a science fiction after all) and imagine your privileged life has come to an end and you are now a refugee. The best science fiction isn't set in space but gives you an alternative reality that is not that far out there that it is believable and maybe changes how you look at the world.

This program is more about refugees than climate change but I find myself thinking i should maybe sell up and move to higher ground before it's too late!

Overall there are serious aspects to the program but yet it is sometimes incredible how stupid the characters can be so its hard to take it too seriously but I'm finding it entertaining and maybe will have renewed respect for refugees. For these reasons I can't give it more than 8/10.

The premise is very interesting, but the script and how most of the characters act is beyond stupid. Makes for an unintelligent script that completely destroys any thrill.

It starts out setting the tone and you start to think, wow what if this actually happened, then what what you handle it. Many really great actors in this productions makes it even more interesting to dive into. The first couple of episodes starts strong. Episode 4 was a turning point for a disaster of a stupid storyline unfortunately.

It is shot in a intriguing manor and the locations make it believable at first. Then hits the storyline that it just worse and worse episode by episode. By mid-episode 5 I lost all interest in this.

I don't usually watch a foreign series, but I am truly glad I gave this one a look. This is an incredible series that is gripping, emotional, heart wrenching, and beautiful! From the amazing acting to the script and music, I watched all the episodes one after another, totally immersed! The soundtrack is so beautiful and the story is so sincere, this series will have you wishing it would never end. I highly recommend watching this and allow your self to immerse yourself in the characters stories. I am so glad I found this and hope that others will give it a chance as it is highly memorable and relatable.

It's so annoying to see this Laura character and her foolish naivety. She must be the biggest crybaby ever.

Stubborn, silly, and definitely not a representative 17-18 year old Scandinavian girl. The idea for this series is good, but the script is not realistic. I know Danes are stubborn, but some of these characters are both stubborn and so incredibly lacking in street smarts. Too bad Winterberg did not see this. It feels like the series misses the mark on portraying believable characters, making it harder to feel invested in their journey. Such a wasted opportunity for depth.

I can just agree with the Gilles Character that says Jacob and his wife are just spoiled persons.

We might have become numb to pictures of 'other people' being refugees, fleeing disasters we maybe don't ever expect to experience; what about when it's families like ours that get burnt/flooded/bombed out of our comfortable priviledge?

Yes, there are some stunningly bad decisions made (essential to the plot, darn it) and a fixatedness on overthinking and short-sightedness than is frustrating to watch; yes the effects on the wider population are mostly missing; yes how come everyone's mobile phones never run out of charge or credit...

But, that said: 1, I have seen worse logic fails in loads of 'hit' TV shows recently (I'm looking right at you, BBC); 2, All good stories ask 'what if?' In this series, the exploration of psychological and real practical impacts on nice, polite, middle-class, professional people is thoroughly convincing. Aforementioned dumb choices notwithstanding, I think this is the show's biggest impact and gift: what would I do? Seriously, how sane and raional would we - you and me - become if *everything* changed overnight: home, identitiy, family and friends, language... all ripped away? The moments of shouting 'No! Why would you do that??!" at the TV are satisfactorily outnumbered by the moments of breath-holding and lump-in-throat swallowing... 3, the issue of climate refugees is a real one and will only rise; exploring the impacts through fiction is 100% a valid endeavour. Anything that has us experiencing and concidering what's likely to happen to a huge section of humanity as if it were happening to us - and gets me right in the feels at the same time - has my full support. Thank dog for the happy-ish ending; if only we could guarantee this for real...

After many years of reading IMDb reviews, I finally opened an account just so that I could post this comment. It took me a while to start this show because I thought it was primarily an environmental/climate change/sci-fi story. And it is, a bit. But my main takeaways dealt with population displacement, refugees, families being torn apart with no idea when or if they will reunite, and the many unknowns and hazards that they face in a sometimes benevolent but usually indifferent and occasionally hostile and dangerous world. I understand that some commenters second guess crucial life decisions made by characters. Oh, really? As if they would have done better, in the face of unfamiliar and perilous circumstances. This series spoke to me deeply, and I can't get it out of my mind. Anyone who has personal knowledge of, or family experience with, disruption, immigration, and family separation will feel this series in their bones. The performance of the Laura character was just astonishing. She conveys every emotion and torment that her character was experiencing. Many other characters acted brilliantly too, especially her father.

A country where everyone live in big houses or mansions, drives Mercedes or Audis and every adult is either an architect, diplomat, psychiatrist or entrepenour. Seemingly there is no working class or poor in Denmark.

'Families Like Ours' tries to show what happens to those "ordinary" danes, and how they act and react, facing a shutdown because of rising sea levels.

The build-up is really slow. First example of "something is not right here" is when the architect notices that the water level in his toilet has risen (I kid you not). Then there's the usual "nobody panic" message from the primeminister on television (causing everyone to panic more or less of course). Immediately after we're off to a whole string of sequences and episodes of every man (or woman or family) for themselves. But they are not fighting for survival because the threat isn't imminent. It's more a capitalist nightmare of "who will lose most of their money" before time runs out? And who will stick together? Each chasing their own version of safety, Most behaving unbelievably selfish.

The acting is okay (Vinterberg knows how to direct his cast), but the script could use a lot more fine-tuning. Trying to pick up how teens in Denmark speak, they just inserted words like "sick" here and there in their dialouge for example. There are also servere pacing issues throughout and I really think this would have been a better show if it was made as a two-hour movie instead. Actually some episodes are actually kind of boring.

Maybe if they pick it up in US? Their adaption could be called "Families like ours in 90210"

We have all seen so many 'Post' - Apocalyptic screen dramas, but this is probably the first 'Pre' - Apocalyptic one I have seen. And its an amazing premis, that people must re-act to something that hasn't quite happened yet. Of course the conundrums are just as eviscerating and the emotions are as devastating. This is a TV series not to be binged - more than one episode a night would create emotional overload.

A story with no realizations and centered around a naive and spoiled family.

This tv show was shot brilliantly and there were some beautiful scenes. However, the plot is clumsy, frustrating and thin. You could not sympathize with the characters that, time and time again, repeatedly try to control an uncontrollable situation with their sheer arrogance and privilege.

Sure, you could say this could have been the goal of the show, but there were no realizations and no turning points that might acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is that this is truly an unrealistic situation. Most refugees do not have the entitlement and luck that these characters possess.

With Thomas Vinterberg there is a 25% chance of a really great experience, 25% for a decent experience, and the rest is just horrible. I thought giving this show a try.

Unfortunately, this is one of the most horrible TV show I have ever watched, It had a lot of actors I like. But the screen writing of this show is just horrible.

Every character acts and make decisions like Toddlers, the dialog is as unnatural as if it was dogs speaking.

People can move from one part of a country to another in matter of seconds with no, GPS, vehicles or time spend.

Just avoid it at all cost. Please, nothing to see here. Bye bye.

The basic idea here is a terrific one: what if the citizens of a wealthy, first world country found themselves forced to become immigrants. How would they handle the situation, how would the rest of the world handle it?

Well, we never know, because for some godforsaken reason the creators of the show decided to ignore the larger issue of immigration and instead concentrate on a Danish family consisting of possibly the dumbest humans beings who have ever lived. Each decision these people make is worse than the last decision they've made, and they have no capacity to learn from any of their foolishness. On top of that, they're all irrational, they react like children, and they have no moral compass.

The final problem is Amaryllis April Maltha August. Outside of possessing possibility the best name on TV, the poor girl has either been given poor direction or she simply was miscast. She's only allowed to have one expression on her face throughout the entire ordeal. Considering that she's the show's anchor, it's just another of many misfires in what, again, started off with a wonderful concept.

Simply not worth spending so many hours with so little to enjoy.

Could have been brilliant. Interesting and engaging plot. Great characters. But the storytelling is painstakingly slow. Long slow scenes. A lot of it could have been more effectively and emotionally engaging if the scene lengths were tightened up a lot.

I wish they would have gotten an editor from outside that could have re cut the whole series. I'm sure it would have been so much better if the series was half the episodes it's now. As of now I lost my patience with this series and I lived through the tv and movie scene in the 80's and 90's.

I don't understand the motivation for doing it the way it's been done. Maybe the director thought it would be more "arty"?

Huge fan of Danish stuff and of all the actors in there. Even if Vinterberg isn't my favourite Danish director, I was still extremely looking forward to this series. Yes, it's technically sound, everything is well done, good directing, good acting, but the combination of bad writing and slow pace makes it a bit painful to watch. And like most reviews are saying, you just can't buy into most of the characters because of the decisions they make.

Turns out it's just a bad "Years and years" (UK series with practically the same plot but better in every possible way). I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, not even those nerds like me who watch every Scandinavian movie or series they can put their hands on.