albert-balvers

In Germany there is a TV channel that shows "Schlefazz", the worst movies of all time. Accompanied by comments from two comedians and live message from the audience, this is a guarantee for an evening full of great entertainment, albeit somewhat sophomore-like.

Sous la Seine is definitely a candidate for this series. Whoever wrote this, and whoever is the production team that founds financing and actors willing enough to play these crazy roles and say the ridiculous lines of text, you have my deep respect. The only way to enjoy this, is to take a bottle of wine (or two...) and switch off your brain.

After reading the announcement of the series on German TV I was intrigued by the theme: A businessman returning to the small village in Norway, where he grew up and, after being a prime suspect in a murder at the age of 18, was acquitted of the crime. He left the town, made a successful career in the Far East, only to return after 20 years or so to save the main employer in the town from going bankrupt. Such a topic offers plenty of opportunities to make an intriguing TV-series. However, already after watching the first episode I was really disappointed. The actors walk, behave, and are dressed like clichés. The investors are of course all smartly dressed good looking young men, who prefer to travel by helicopter, but many of the details have nothing to do with the reality of this world. Their behaviour is irrational, and they take risks that investors would never take, even if they were driven by sentiments. After watching for a while, this gets so annoying, that the basically great theme of the series disappears into the background. There are really much better Scandinavian crime series to watch (like The Bridge), don't waste your precious time on this one.