Bonus Family - Season 1
Swedish and English with English Subtitles
Season 1 (2017) – 10 Episodes approx. 46 minutes each
Season 2 (2018) – 10 Episodes approx. 46 minutes each
Season 3 (2019) – 10 Episodes approx. 46 minutes each
3 out of 5 paws
‘Bonus Family’ is a Swedish series that follows two families in the midst of a divorce. The title ‘Bonus Family’ is from the Swedish term for a family with stepchildren – i.e. not stepchildren but ‘bonus’ children. One family’s wife (Lisa) and another’s husband (Patrik) fell in love and have moved in together along with their children from their previous relationships. Lisa’s has a daughter (Bianca) who is 15 and a son (Eddie) who just turns 10 as the series opens – she is still married to Martin. Patrik has a son (Wille) from his ex-wife Katja. They share the children on alternate weeks. Martin – who works in a furniture store - is still bitter about the separation and still wears his wedding ring. Patrik lives at his mother’s house – where his children stay in the attic on his week - with her and her female friend (Gugge). Katja - a successful business executive who is having an affair with her boss – lives alone in her condo. The first season centres on the drama and comedy arising from the relationships between the happy couple, their exes, and the children. It’s at once funny and heart breaking – Martin is still in love with his wife; Eddie is both obnoxious and hilarious (and possibly ADHD); Bianca is a rebellious and unlikeable teenager; Wille is a shy and brilliant fussbudget; Katja is bitingly sarcastic – but lonely; Patrik loves his son – but looks down on his ‘bonus’ children; and Lisa is friendly and warm – and newly pregnant with Patrik’s child. Throw in a pair of hilarious marriage counselors – who are great at analysing Lisa and Patrik’s problems, but are constantly bickering when by themselves – and you have an excellent snap shot of the everyday problems of the atomic family in Sweden. With good acting and hilarious story lines ‘Bonus Family’ has become Sweden’s most watched television series.
Bonus Family - Season 2
Swedish and English with English Subtitles
Season 2 (2018) – 10 Episodes approx. 46 minutes each
3 out of 5 paws
Season 2 starts off about a year later – Lisa and Patrik have had their baby, Lo; Martin is still trying to find a partner through online dating; Katja is working through all the available men; and the bonus children (Bianca, Eddie, and Wille) are struggling through school and home life. The first scene has Lisa and Patrik discussing a serious problem with their analysts (Ylva and Jan) which through flashbacks to two months previous is slowly disclosed throughout the season. Eddie (previously diagnosed with ADHD) gets a teaching assistant, Sima, who he is comfortable with; Wille (Patrik and Katja’s son) is furthering his friendship with Henrik (Katja’s co-worker); and Bianca graduates high school, but doesn’t know what to do with her life. Martin’s mother, Bigge, is apparently more than just friends with her friend, Gugge. Lisa and Patrik decide to get secretly married – but this ends up disrupting all the families when this gets out. Emma, Lisa’s sister, moves in with the happy (?) couple, and promptly starts to disrupt the family arrangement with her meddling and lies. Season 2 is not bad, but there are a few inconsistencies with the story line that don’t make sense – the ‘serious problem’ isn’t really a problem, and it never gets resolved properly; Martin’s date at the wedding (there is more than one this season) is his old girlfriend, Tessan, who broke up with him at the end of the last season; and other little things that just don’t jibe. I liked Season 2 – but not as much as Season 3.
Bonus Family - Season 3
Swedish and English with English Subtitles
Season 3 (2019) – 10 Episodes approx. 46 minutes each
2 out of 5 paws
Season 3, in my opinion, is a bit of a mess. It looks to me as if they hired different writers who hadn’t followed the first two seasons storylines. It opens about a year late with a funeral; Patrik’s father (Ingmar) dying (maybe) of cancer; Martin’s girlfriend 9 months pregnant (but not the same girlfriend as before); Filip (Patrik’s friend and fellow teacher) absent and his place taken by the ludicrous (very) school principal (Peter ?). Katja gets a new boyfriend, Branco, who is Wille’s karate instructor; Henrik reappears later in the series after breaking up with his partner, Camilla; Eddie and Wille become reluctant friends; and Martin takes on new jobs in order to buy a house. Lisa and Patrik have to make a difficult decision about additional children. The script is not properly synchronized throughout the series and situations change without a reasonable explanation. I found the characters to be not as likeable as in the previous seasons – and found them to be so shallow as to lose interest in what happens to them. The series end is very messy – it tries to tie up all the loose ends, and fails miserably. There are no plans as yet for a Season 4 – and in truth, no interest for me if they do one.
Fallet (The Case)
Swedish and English with English Subtitles
Season 1 (2017) – 8 Episodes approx. 30 minutes each
3 out of 5 paws
There’s Nordic Film Noir – bleak, stark, dark, tales of sadistic killers and the self-sacrificing detectives that have to solve the cases as well as problems of their own; and then there’s Fallet – an over-the-top crime spoof, laden with clichés, and Tom and Sophie, two bumbling, but well-meaning detectives. The first episode opens with the horrific murder of an Englishman in Sweden – hung, stabbed, a bible pinned to his chest with a dagger, religious phrases cut into his cheeks, cut in two and sewn back together …(“was he still alive when he was hung? .. “No, he was cut in two …”). The detectives, Tom from England, and Sophie from Sweden, are paired up to solve the murder in the little Swedish town of Norrbacka. The action plays back and forth between St. Ives in England, (where the corpse came from) and Norrbacka …”a shitty little town with horrible restaurants, and nothing much to do … and a population of 17,000 idiots” (Sophie’s words (she grew up there), not mine). It’s hilarious … and alternates between English and Swedish dialogue … and is a light-hearted refreshing change from Nordic File Noir (but I’ll still keep watching that – so different and entertaining from the North American shows). And of course, the Americans are planning to do their own version …
Snabba Cash (Fast Cash)
Season 1 (2021) – 6 Episodes approx. 30 minutes each
3 out of 5 paws
Snabba Cash is a Swedish gangster drama (redone from a previous series but with a much different environment) that blends start-up culture with the drug trade.
Leya, the main character, is making a pitch for her new company, TargetCoach. The product offers clients a chance to use AI to cut through the clutter of opinions online and discover what people "really want." Unfortunately her current backer is trying to squeeze her out and she needs a new investor in order to get her company off the ground. Leya has a five year old son Sami – his father died in a gangland shootout.
Salim, wedding singer and gang leader Ravy’s deputy wants out of the drug business. He’s burnt out, can’t sleep, and is on a steady diet of drugs. Ravy won’t let him leave.,
Tim, a 15 year old white Swedish boy wants the easy cash and glamourous life that comes with being a drug gang member.
Ravy is Sami’s uncle who wants to get into Leya’s business. Salim falls in love with Leya, who doesn’t know at first what he does for a living. Tim is recruited into Ravy’s gang but Salim doesn’t want him to have his life destroyed by drugs and violence.
“Snabba Cash” is about people who in the pursuit of easy money find out that that comes with a heavy price to pay. I didn’t like the first episode and almost dropped the rest of the series – however, I got drawn into the story and character development. While it’s not one of the best gangster series I have watched (“The Break”, “Under Cover”, “La Reina Del Sur”, etc..), it ended up being quite good. Netflix has announced that there will be a Season 2.