Ängelby

Unusual topic, interesting location, imperfect characters, doesn't follow the usual, predictable Hollywood playbook. Worth a look.

I was pretty gripped by this, having just binge-watched the last two episodes. There were times when I didn't really know what was going on, and times when I wanted to say, No, don't go into the woods AGAIN, in the dark, just don't! But I found the characters engaging and eccentric (I'm officially in love with Viveca) and there was enough of a cliff-hanger at the end of each episode to make me impatient for the next one. And ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you buy into other-worldly stuff or not - it can be complete tosh, like this probably was (see also: Stranger Things), but if you're enjoying it, why the hell not?

I fail to understand why our two Scandinavian friends are so vehement in their dislike - I got the echoes of Twin Peaks and Stephen King, but so what? It's all out there. And I thoroughly enjoyed it - and they're probably less enchanted by hearing Swedish spoken than I am.

Everything is stupid with "Ängelby". The story is stupid. The lines are stupid. The acting is exasperatingly bad with the exceptions of "Göran Ragnerstam", who is great, and Amanda Ooms, who puts in a somewhat acceptable performance.

Mia Skäringer is pretty much going for a tone deaf interpretation of a stone in every scene. Maybe as some kind of a relation to another stone being a part in the fable? If not, the reality is that she's no real actor at all. I like her much better in comedies. She bores the audience and doesn't convince you in any way. Why did the director do this to her? Can she really be this bad? How is that even possible? Any woman you find on any bus would do a better job. Stick to comedies, Mia!

The plot is worse than an old fifties UFO film. With a rich Scandinavian heritage with true nature magic what Ängelby suggests is a falsification of what all that can stand for. That culturally appropriative story-line concerning Egypt is both far-fetched, tasteless and pretty racist. Disgusting!

Most of all, the series is a total waste of time and an insult to people with working brains. I watched every episode for some reason. It only gets worse. If I could give it a "0" I would. Watch it at your own peril.

What an absolute load of rubbish and a total waste of time watching this series: messy, unfathomable plot, unrealistic characters... The list goes on. Actors were pretty OK, but their roles were not. If this series was intended to be a fairytale, it failed. A drama it was clearly not. I don't know what it was, but not a good reason to spend 12 hours of one's life watching it. There seems to be a trend in Swedish TV-series presently - similar fantasy elements could be detected in another recent TV-show from Sweden, namely Jordskott. One can not but compare these two and wish, enough already! Fairy tales for adults don't work unless they are perfectly written or unique.

Like Haven it's a new girl in a country town apparently by chance but occultly predestined to be there and supernatural forces are thought to be at work. There's less of the concretely reified majic than Haven shows and less episodic storylines but it would seem to be derivative, not helped by the fact that Mia Skaringer looks like an older Emily Rose. But it's watchable and entertaining if you can binge-watch it. It's probably more for "Nordic Noir" fans than those of standard mystery series.