BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.” – Thomas Fuller
Frankly, this is a series that truly spirals into madness about a person who is nearly insentient. Functional yet lost and absorbed in his own world. His father, Bosse (Peter Haber) is finally going to do something regarding his deadpan son who refuses to live. Tore (William Spitz) exists with his father and works in his father’s funeral business as a mortuary assistant. Suddenly, Tore is given a notice to vacate the house. His dad wants him to start to experience living his life on his own. Tore’s best and only friend, Linn (Sanna Sundqvist) who literally is part of the family as well, tries to get Tore to see this is for his own good. Feeling and experiencing the world for himself and being on his own will be good for him. She also knows that Tore is gay and needs to explore his sexuality. It does not take long for Tore to also figure out that his father has gotten a girlfriend, and it now seems obvious that he wants him out of the house so they can live together.
Outside one of the nursing facilities they were visiting, his father was on the phone to his girlfriend, when Bosse was tragically struck and killed by a garbage truck. As Tore watched the whole thing unfold in front of his eyes, his world collapsed in on him, and he shut down – completely. He acted as if nothing happened and proceeded to go on with his business. In essence this is Tore’s story of dealing with his grief. His whole world crumbled and for the first time he had no anchor, no support, no crutch. He was terrified and he turned both inwardly and then outwardly to try and make sense of what was to become of him.
Tore became a lost soul. He ends up blaming his father for his actions and to some degree he is correct. His father cuddled him and smothered him and never encouraged him to be himself, until it was too late. So, Tore grew up immature, emotionally stunted, and completely lost, having never experienced anything in this world. He had no clue what self-discovery was and even if he did, he had no one to guide him, nurture him, or allow him to explore that or even transition into other worlds of discovery. His impulse control was non-existent, and any boundaries of decorum or sensibilities were untested, as he had to now find out on his own. Since all he knew was to project blame on everyone and everything else, he never could look within himself.
Therefore, with no internal controls – booze, sex, drugs reigned supreme. And having some knowledge on how to handle individuals during emotionally needy times, he knew what and how to say things to get what he wanted. However, all that did was to spiral him downward to more isolation and depression and of course, denial. His insecurities overwhelmed his rationale judgments which further lead him to make aimless and often contradictory decisions, most of which were not well thought out, let alone planned with any sense of coherence.
As he spirals downward, along the way through this journey, he meets a number of very interesting characters. One he falls in love with, or what his perception of love is. Erik (Hannes Fohlin) is an object of his affection (or lust) and when he finally lands him, he discovers that he is flawed and that comes with a whole set of baggage he was unprepared to deal with. He too cannot be relied upon to lift him out of this lake of sadness as he is in one himself.
However, he does meet a drag queen that does give him something that no one has given him before. Hope, and seeing himself in a new light. Shady Meat (Carlos Romero Cruz) gives him permission to be himself. Tore also meets others along the way down. An elderly woman named Heidi (Karin Bertling), who by all societal standards and definitions, in the moment Tore meets her, inflicts elder abuse on her albeit for the noblest reasoning. Yet even I was charmed by his charisma and wondered indeed if his behavior was truly all that bad for her. Perhaps I too was also caught up in his madness as well.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Carlos Romero Cruz as Shady Meat did. Although she sees Tore’s ugliness, the struggles, his slipping into personal madness, she also sees the need for redemption and personal acceptance. She gives Tore a new persona which helps him now perhaps see that what he had and also what he has is not so bad. Shady Meat is one of those enigmatic characters that every once in awhile enters into someone’s life that provides the sagest of advice at the most pivotal moment in your life. Without that person, who knows where you would have ended up and she seems to sense that responsibility. Carlos Romero Cruz plays the role of ‘mother’ with such an intense conviction from the moment she sees Tore as if she understood his issues. In a way, she filled that void and gave him the tactility of nurturing that Tore so desperately wanted and desperately needed.
This is a story of Tore searching for something meaningful and solid, tangible, and real in this life. Something outside of himself that will validate who and what he is. And when he does not find that, he spirals downward into pain and brings along as many others on his journey as he can. Either advertently or inadvertently. His journey is both fascinating and forbidding. Perhaps a bit over the top in places, but never completely unrealistic. It is a fascinating study of human nature of a person so isolated from himself from the beginning.
This is a brilliant series that will obviously not be for everyone; as truth be told, Tore is not a likable character. He is sick. Yet the story is brilliant and told with conviction and the acting here is top notch by all. William Spitz is gay, openly, so his characterization is taken to a deeper level and his emotions are quite penetrating and you feel them through the screen. You can detect his connection to his emotions.
I am hoping for Season 2, but I am doubtful this will occur. The series is dark, brooding, melancholic, and does not end on a happy or even necessarily hopeful note. Yet it feels genuine, honest, and tells a robust story of someone who is in a lot of emotional pain and does not know how to deal with it and never has learned how.
It is a story I think is worthy of being told.
Leave a Reply