TV Series: Lilyhammer

I feel so disillusioned with television that two years ago (or was it three?) I cancelled my TV licence. There's just not enough good stuff on television to justify the monthly fee. I can watch the few programmes I want to watch on Iplayer or similar services. Alternatively I can buy TV series on DVD or Blu-ray.

A note to my American readers: In England and many other European countries there is a television tax. In England this tax is called a TV licence and is used to fund the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), so that it can broadcast programmes without being financed by adverts.

In these dark days for television I am so happy to have discovered a gem like "Lilyhammer". It's a Norwegian series starring Steven Van Zandt as Frank Tagliano, a high ranking member of the New York Mafia. After his dog Lily is killed in an unsuccessful assassination attempt he testifies against the head of the Mafia. He goes into witness protection in Norway, in the town of Lillehammer (which he prefers to call Lilyhammer after his dog), under the new identity of Giovanni Henriksen. Soon after settling in he sees the promise of his new environment and decides to transform Lillehammer into a new Las Vegas under his control. The series follows his attempts to create an organised crime syndicate in the small snow-covered town.

The series is in a mixture of Norwegian and English. Giovanni speaks almost no Norwegian when he arrives, but he soon becomes able to understand most of what he hears. One criticism that I have of the DVD release of season one is that the menu only lists "English" as subtitles, which offers subtitles for all spoken dialogue. There is a second subtitle track that only presents subtitles when Norwegian is spoken, but this is only accessible via the DVD player's subtitle button, it isn't listed in the menus.

I've seen some reviews refer to this series as a comedy. That isn't quite accurate. Many scenes seem amusing because of the culture clash, but they're very realistic. We can imagine that this would really happen to a New York gangster trying to make a new life in the mountains of Norway. Don't forget that this is a Norwegian series, filmed on location in the town of Lillehammer itself. The writers and producers of the series present Norway as it really is, and I'm sure that the lead actor Steven Van Zandt is quick to tell them what seems strange to him as an American. I strongly recommend this series to people who want to watch something different. You'll enjoy it even if you don't usually like gangster series.