News

Netflix has acquired the global rights outside of Norway to the hard-hitting Norwegian crime series “Gangs of Oslo” (“Blodsbrødre”), produced by Monday Scripted for Norway’s largest commercial broadcaster TV2, Variety has learned exclusively.

The six-part series is created and directed by Ole Endresen, co-writer of Netflix’s first Original series “Lilyhammer” and “Young Wallander.” Monday Productions’ CEO Lasse Hallberg who served as executive producer with Steven van Zandt on “Lilyhammer,” holds a similar role on “Gangs of Oslo,” produced by Cecilie Tiderman. Sajid Malik is co-producing.

TV2 Norway’s head of drama Alice Sommer said that following the show’s premiere on the broadcaster’ own VOD service TV2 Play on Jan.19, and an exclusive six-month hold back period for the Nordic territory, “Gangs of Oslo” will also be available to Netflix customers in Norway. The U.S. streamer is set to premiere the show in the rest of the world in the coming months.

Henrik (Henrik Rafaelson) likes to play pretend. He likes to yell made-up stories in the grocery store (loudly and often of the shockingly impolite variety) and to engage people in conversations about things that never happened and to jump out from behind things to scare people. Fortunately for Henrik, his girlfriend Tone (Janne Heltberg) likes to play pretend with him. At least, until real life becomes a lot more interesting and full than all those pretend games. The couple is already in a state of upheaval when Martin Lund’s The Almost Man opens, though it seems to be a mostly cheery one (at least, it’s one that includes dancing to Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” in the middle of the day, which seems like a solid signal that things are peppy). Henrik and Tone have recently moved (they’re still unpacking boxes) and Henrik is about to start a new job, but...

Growing Pains: Lund’s Debut a Gem of Behavioral Regression

The long hard road to growing up and accepting responsibility takes the center stage in Martin Lund’s simply and astutely observed tale about one thirty five year-old man’s coming of age episode, The Almost Man. While certainly not unfamiliar in scope, Lund delivers a charmingly realistic portrait of the dogged, insistent clamp many of us try to retain on those carefree days of young adulthood with a film unhampered by requisite hypersexualization and stylized vulgar antics to meet the entertainment quota of the lowest common denominator.

Goofy, playful, and seemingly never serious, Henrik (Henrik Rafelson) currently enjoys a carefree life alongside his live-in girlfriend, Tone (Janne Heltberg Haarseth). They have just moved into a new apartment meant to foster the next, more adult chapter of their life together, and Henrik has landed a new marketing position. While everything seems peachy,...

The man-child is alive and immature in Norway, according to The Almost Man, a deadpan portrait of 35-year-old Henrik's (Henrik Rafaelsen) incessantly awkward reactions to forthcoming responsibility.

With his girlfriend, Tone (Janne Heltberg Haarseth), pregnant with their first child, Henrik behaves like a teenager, as when he and Tone hilariously pretend to have an argument in the grocery store about abortion and infidelity. Viewing his protagonist with wry detachment, director Martin Lund pitches this character study between awkward comedy and uncomfortable pathos.

To his credit, even as his material begins spiraling into less amusing territory, Lund alleviates the growing gloom with goofball levity, most winningly in a scene in which Henrik's ribald pals seren...