#swedish shows

[sflow-er]

Happy three years of Young Royals

I remember I kept coming across the trailer in June 2021 and being unimpressed by what looked like Swedish Elite. The only reason YR ended up on my watch list was this post by author Jonas Gardell:

It took me a week or two more to actually start watching, but once I did, I could not stop. So, my thanks for everything this show brought into my life go out to the entire cast and crew - but also to one of my favourite Swedish authors for that final nudge!

In that spirit, I want to promote Gardell's own stuff here as three of his shows are now available worldwide on SVT Play. There are no subs only Swedish subs, so you can put those YR-inspired Swedish skills to good use! I've written English blurbs under the cut.

That happy GIF of Rasmus and Benjamin breaks my heart. Anyway...

De halvt dolda (2009, 4 episodes)

Tells the stories of four families living in Stockholm with particular emphasis on the children. In the 1970s, there are three brothers, rebelling against their religious father and dealing with the loss of their mother. In the 1990s, there's a young skinhead with two little brothers and an alcoholic mum, and a withdrawn closeted young boy from a suburban family who is targeted by the skinhead and his friends. The fourth family consists of a married couple in the 1970s; the husband is emotionally abusive to his wife and jealous of his successful brother.

Won the Kristallen award for best drama.

Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (2011, 3 episodes)

Probably Gardell's best-known work, this is a tragic story about a young gay couple and their friend group, set during the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Stockholm. The story starts with small-town boy Rasmus moving into the big city and being taken under the wing of an out-and-proud man named Paul. Through him and his friends, Rasmus meets and falls in love with Benjamin, a closeted Jehovah's Witness. All their lives are soon overshadowed by the new sickness sweeping through town.

Won the Kristallen award for best drama.

De dagar som blommorna blommar (2019, 3 episodes)

A heavy drama about three boys whose families are neighbours in 1970s Stockholm. There are tensions bubbling under and facades being upheld by their parents, with long-lasting impact on their lives. In the 1990s, one of the guys has decided to take his family to Estonia to discover his heritage (with tragic consequences). Another is still stuck under the abusive influence of his older brother, while the third is directing a play about his parents' divorce.

This one got slightly mixed reviews; Aftonbladet gave it four stars while Svenska Dagbladet gave only two. Apparently, the jumps between timelines can be hard to follow and the story gets melodramatic at times, but the acting is top notch. I didn't actually get the chance to watch it when it came out so I intend to do it this summer!

[percynorthwest]

i just watched 'Don't ever wipe tears without gloves', and i am devestated.

it's about two gay guys, (one guy who comes from a small town, and another who is a Jehova's witness) and their friends during the aids pandemic in stockholm, sweden. it's a three episode series, and its so beautiful. i really recommend watching it .

[gifs-of-puppets]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[sauerland-2001]

But honestly? Malte Gardinger, my goodness. When August cried during the dining room scene while everyone else was fighting - that felt incredibly real. August did things that Wille (or Simon) didn’t have to forgive - but Malte played him with so much love and emotion in these last few episodes, he made me appreciate the character so much more. Well done.

[foreverunraveling]

Is it just me, or does Young Royals really love to scare us, lull us into a false sense of security, and then pull the rug out from underneath us (in a way that's much worse than the original threat)?

For example, you see August clocking Wille leaving the movie before Simon in episode 2.

You (if you weren't too distracted by the scene itself) might have worried that he might show up when they were having their first kiss there. But he didn't. The show consciously created that tension and then relieved it as a foreshadowing of the much worse version of that to come later.

That tension is recreated at the end of episode 4 when August is shown outside a window at Forest Ridge.

There's a brief moment of relief--he's at Alex's window, not Wille's. While you know deep down where this has to be going, you still have a kernel of hope. And then even when he does make it to Wille's room, you can't tell it's a boy (let alone Simon) for five full seconds. Hope tries to stay alive. We all know how it ends, though--that tension snaps right back into our faces when August spots Wille and Simon moments later.

This happens on a different scale with Wille and Simon's planned weekend together in episode 3. When Wilhelm tells Simon that August will be staying at Forest Ridge, that introduces a tension of "will they get their weekend together?"

That tension of "will they get their weekend together" is relieved when Wille asks if he can come to Simon's in Bjarstad, only to AGAIN snap right back into our faces when a much bigger problem surfaces--Erik dies. So, they don't get their weekend anyways.

Hell, there's even a hint of this in episode 2 when August walks in on Wilhelm looking at Simon's Instagram before rowing practice. He doesn't actually see what Wille was doing, though--so it's okay--and he ends up taking a call from Erik.

In another way, this happens with Wilhelm and Felice's relationship from season 1 to season 2. She initially kisses him in episode 3, and we worry that he might just go with it. He doesn't, though. What a relief. In the next episode, though, once he's crown prince, Wilhelm is publicly flirting with Felice (despite her relationship with August) over how "cute" she looks in a video. But our worries about this fade with the release of the video and Felice's support into season 2...

Until they actually almost hook up in the third episode, that is.

And it's definitely not limited to Simon and Wille and their relationships. It comes up with Sara and August too. When he initially kisses her in episode 4 of season 1, you might worry that maybe Sara will respond in a less-than-healthy manner, or that she'll keep what happened to herself instead of telling Felice. Sara rebuffs him, though, and tells Felice about what happened in the stables later that episode.

Tension introduced and relieved, so we move on. But then in the final episode of season 1, Sara goes to August's room to confront him about the video. And she ends up kissing him. In season 2, they end up being in AN ENTIRE SECRET RELATIONSHIP that Sara keeps from Felice. The original fear that you might have had about August twisting his way into Sara's heart was well-founded, it seems.

There are also smaller examples. Like when you see Erik driving incredibly fast in episode 1, or when you see Wilhelm riding on the scooters with Simon, Rosh, and Ayub in episode 2, some people worried there might be some kind of accident. (He was going hands-free, for fuck's sake.)

Well, in both of those instances, everything turned out okay, while Erik's actual offscreen accident in episode 3 obviously did not.

The anxiety about Marcus catching Wilhelm and Simon kissing at the Valentine's party is momentarily alleviated when it looks like him and Simon are going inside, but then Marcus turns around and sees Wille (not to mention he sees Simon eyeing Wille throughout the entire song and during the applause).

Let's not even get started on the drugs. We thought that storyline was resolved, gone, done away with after Alexander was seemingly expelled during season 1.

But then he's back in season 2, and the question of whether anyone will tell Alex that Wilhelm was the one to pin the blame on him arises. It seems a minor issue--given that Alexander wasn't actually expelled, and he seems to like Wille, we don't necessarily expect it to matter all too much. In episode 6, though, the "drug thing" is back at the top of our list of problems. We thought that this had been dealt with! That we'd gotten past it!

But it's worse than before--there's a pill bottle with Simon's father's name on it, and August has it! August has a potential witness behind him (Alex) and is threatening to tell not just the school, but the cops!

Don't worry, though, the tension is relieved when Simon tells Wille he's not going to report August to the police... for approximately six seconds until we see that Sara is reporting August instead.

Anyways, following this pattern, you can draw some really interesting potential conclusions about season 3 based on some of the big tension reliefs that have occurred over the past two seasons. Not saying that any of these will happen, but I'm preparing myself for anything:

Wilhelm has some sort of drug OD—like Simon (and some of the audience, probably) worried on the night of the Society party. This is one I'm really hoping doesn't come up.

Wilhelm actually kills August—when Wilhelm puts that gun down, it's a massive relief for most of us (also the characters present). This would just be... wild. And would explain Omar's tweets about how crazy the season is, I guess.

Sara outs Stella's crush on Fredricka, like she was threatening to do when Felice was moving out of their room at the Manor House. Istg if she does this I might lose it.

Wilhelm's mother dies. This was definitely one idea on some people's minds when Wilhelm takes that call that turns out to be about Erik in episode 3.

Wilhelm actually abdicates. This is definitely a threat made in season 2 that was later assuaged. I'm pulling for Wilhelm taking the throne only to abolish the monarchy. That might be a bit too optimistic on my part, though.

ALTERNATIVELY, August gets the throne. They teased us with this when Wilhelm almost didn't give the speech. August was literally walking up to the podium when Wille leapt up to take his place and momentarily rescued us from the notion that August was going to be ascending the throne.

Wilhelm and/or Simon and/or Sara get pulled from Hillerska. After the video, both Simon and Sara were potentially not going to return to the school. Simon was even late for the first day back, when he missed the choir performance. And Wille was almost physically removed from the school in episode 2 of season 2. Given the statement in the trailer about the school potentially shutting down... this one doesn't seem like too much of a long shot.

It's hard to say what any of this could mean for Simon/Wilhelm's relationship—I mean, in season 1, we had about six instances where we thought we'd get Simon and Wilhelm together and originally didn't (the first music room scene, the conversation after Erik's memorial, the second music room scene/drug situation, the video leak, Wilhelm LYING about the video leak).... the reasons kept getting worse and worse, until there's a release of tension when Wille says he won't deny the video—only for it to be far more crushing when he does deny it having promised otherwise. It seems like there's a new, bigger problem every time they turn around. So far, they've overcome all of the obstacles they've faced (honestly, I don't know how)... but I can't imagine that they're about to be facing an easy course based on that trailer.

Anyways, these are my meandering thoughts about some ways that we can try to guess at what we might have coming based on the show's patterns and its use of foreshadowing. Like I said, I'm just trying to mentally prepare myself for some of the wild-ass shit that might go down. So these are some crazy scenarios based on a few fake-outs that we've had so far. I'm still hoping that they don't take the smallest, most hopeful bits of seasons 1 and 2 and crush them in season 3....

[willietheguy]

Guys watch this

[ask-but-beware-the-consequences]

Family!AU is sometimes a bit challenging lol when it comes to Dethklok production with the two most active workers.

Skwisgaar is equally questioning the hold up. But I'm sure he'll manage to help somehow.

Autumn Collection #5

>prev family au<

[rubbish78]

....apparently, Frank Iero is hilarious according to Ray Toro (x)

[dykedvonte]

Do you have anything you've been thinking on but just haven't made a post about it yet? Also I'm really enjoying your fic!

I have a few things but it's likely mostly headcanons that I consider somewhat disconnected from my analysis.

Curly's parents had him old, only child, died shortly after he graduated and got the pony express position. It was the last big thing they saw him do which is a reason he stayed for so long.

Doesn't admit how much their death affected him

Jimmy has a largish family. One of the cases of too many kids to keep tract of, parent never really noticed any of them nor their behaviors

Anya lived in a lot of houses growing up, regular supportive family that just struggled to support themselves.

Became a nurse largely to avoid their financial struggles but mostly because she felt too many people weren't being cared for and advocated for in the world properly

Swansea likes high top sneakers most. Likes how snug they fit and how they shield his ankles at work

Curly has a bit of a caffeine problem since he can’t sleep. Can occasionally be found wandering the ship at “night” when he had some too late or just couldn’t sleep.

Daisuke knows a little about a lot of things. Starts conversations with “did you know” a lot but please don’t ask him deeper questions

Curly has known Jimmy longer but has worked with Anya and Swansea longer, met them during his middle years, met Jimmy shortly before college.

Swansea rents a house, Daisuke’s family lives in a big nice apartment, Curly has a condo, Anya live in a small one bedroom apartment and Jimmy has a studio.

Curly's home is very disconcerting. It's too normal to a like uncanny degree.

Anya is ambidextrous but prefers her left.

Anya and Curly are both not native English speakers so occasionally they forget words and bond over the mutual mocking they get from the rest of the crew. Daisuke knows some Japanese but is still learning, never picked it up as a kid

Only Swansea and Daisuke know how to drive, Earth in my mind is very post capitalist so only older people and like the extremely wealthy can afford cars.

It's also like walkable just due to how many businesses are in your face. Probably strict living vs shopping districts

I have more but the way that I headcanon about them is like too long.

[theaviatorthatcouldnotfly]

things that were discussed in omar's Q+ interview

choosing the tracklist was the hardest part of the process because there were a lot of songs to pick from

a track he expects to be a fan favorite: wrong, because a lot of fans as well as his friends love it when he does ballads

he has recorded a live version of wrong, to be released in the near future (!!!!!!!)

he really enjoys lose me because it encapsulates the entire theme as well as his feelings over the last year

he doesn’t feel the need to chose a song to put on a tracklist just because it gives him a writing credit

decided to take the lyric "every night fantasy" from lose me and make it the ep name because the songs are "up in the clouds" and it fit the vibe

every night fantasy in one word: "free" because he has been feeling very free as a person and an artist

there is a new introduction and a new ending to the show, all the songs from the ep will be performed!! "a lot of new stops"

vibes of the show are "more intimate", "sweaty, hot, dance-friendly, emotional"

they will be using the same setlist for every show on this tour

for the fans, he has added one song that he's never performed but all of the fans asked him to add on the setlist (at the end of the video Q+ compares notes and says that fans were begging for que puedo hacer? and omar confirms that this is NOT the song he put on the setlist 😭 rip que puedo hacer, better luck next time)

LANGUAGE CHANGE!! they started talking in spanish because the fans love it (Q+ knows us too well i fear)

there were no english subtitles for this section at the moment that i watched the video and i am NOT a native spanish speaker, so my translations and takeaways from the spanish-speaking part of the interviews are not entirely accurate. take this with a grain of salt, and please feel free to correct me!

it's very important for him to maintain his connection to venezuela in his artistry and to have spanish in his songs

it's been difficult for him to carve out a space for himself in an industry that doesn't always acknowledge people of color (o: "latinos have to do double the work") but he loves music and does everything he can to chase his dreams

he talks about the difficulty of his mother's experience, being an independent woman of color in a country whose language she didn't speak initially

artists he wants to collaborate with (regardless of language): rosalía, bad bunny, karol g (he loves her, but his mom is a superfan)

rihanna mention x1

he began translating red light to spanish after fans kept messaging him to ask for it

red light is very flowy and a bit unclear as to what he wants to say (as in the topic of the lyrics) but the feeling was something he wanted to keep in luz roja and he thinks luz roja is overall on a different level than red light + that it feels more real

he talks all the time with his team about the possibility of doing shows in latin america, it's a step-by-step process right now but he's certain he'll be touring in latin america one day

he's working on an album, working on new show dates, omr beauty is working on new products

what advice would he give to other people who are trying to find their own voice, be free, and express themselves, especially in countries where it can be dangerous to be yourself? "it's a struggle, but you need to have faith... you will find your own people... know who you are and don't be hard on yourself... take your time, because one day you will be thriving"

[kkasan3]

I was playing and also being silly with a death gijinka

[gifs-of-puppets]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[stars-irises]

I recently found the program I got from a Swedish production of The Play that Goes Wrong, which I saw when I was like ten, so here are a series of facts about the Cornley Drama Society written in the program:

Character facts:

Chris has played roles such as:

The cat in "Cat"

A brother in "Two sisters"

The second messengers friend in "Hamlet"

Jonathan is a hand model on an international level.

Robert's most challenging role in all of the Cornley drama society's productions was his role as "paralysed horse".

Sandra has quote on quote "worked in theatre since a very young age, since her mother played pregnant woman number 4 in an episode of a tv-show"

Max has seen the movie "Three suns" 27 times. I googled this movie and collectively the opinion on it seems to be that it's really bad and boring. Also he studies discreet mathematics and technical mystery.

I'm not mentioning any Dennis facts right now since they are either in the PPGW program or make him sound so much more professional (I love you Dennis, but your constant state of confusion is very relatable to me and I want it to be acknowledged)

Trevor has the second highest score in Sweden on Candy Crush.

Literally the whole of Annie's description is just complimenting her and saying that she's very talented and that she is behind a lot of the groups success.

Bonus fact:

They describe Murder at Haversham Manor as "a murder mystery so skillfully written that some in the ensemble still haven't figured out who the killer is."

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Swedish Chef - The Muppet Show (1979)

[reallycoolsoup]

No sesame Street or fraggle rock characters included cause i can't even fit all the muppets on this poll

[mythtakens]

Show Me Love aka Fucking Åmål (1998) dir. Lukas Moodysson