Lilyhammer

Cafe Society
1

Lilyhammer is a TV series starring Steven Van Zandt. It is made in Norway (I believe) and the DVD that I borrowed from a friend is mostly in Norwegian without any English subtitles.

It is currently in its 3rd season and I just don’t get it. By that, I mean that I just don’t understand it’s appeal.

I watched the first season quite carefully because I loved The Sopranos and I was kind of amazed that Van Zandt whose previous show business experience consisted of playing bass for Bruce Springsteen was able to make the transition to an actor in Ths Sopranos.

For those of you who may not know, he played the owner of the Bada Bing strip club in The Sopranos.

At any rate, I’d like to ask you for your opinions of this Lilyhammer TV series. I don’t know what to make of it. At first, I thought it was a serious crime drama. But it has quite a few comedic elements.

Unfortunately, I just find the production to be very weak. IMDB rates it at 8.1 and since 7.0 is usually given to borderline shows, 8.1 indicates a show is very very good.

But I just don’t see anything that is very good about this series. The acting seems mediocre at best (primarily referring to Mr. Van Zandt’s acting). The entire premise of the show seems weak and silly. I don’t understand why anyone would make this show and distribute it as if it were a serious attempt at entertainment.

But, lately, I have been very wrong in my opinions and I’m expecting many people here to tell me that I’m just out to lunch with this opinion.

I guess my main interest is to learn why people here might believe this to be a quality show and just what it is about this show that you find interesting. I cannot figure it out.

P.S. The actual spelling of the town’s name is “Lillehammer” as I found when I displayed several maps of Norway. So, I wonder if the misspelling of the name has anything to do with the attempt at entertainment.

Is it possible that this show contains some deep sarcastic messages that I just don’t understand? Is it possible that one needs to be Norwegian in order to absorb the entertainment value of this show?

I sure would love to know just why I seem to be missing the boat when it comes to this show. Thank you.

2

Ack! Sorry, I missed the 5 minute time limit for editing this post and so I left several spelling mistakes.

3

It sounds like the show is just now working for you. Nothing wrong with that.

I quite like the show, but I don’t think it’s the most genius thing ever, by a long shot. The quirkiness of the Norwegian humor is a strange mix with the stereotypical Mob Boss schtick, and that mix works for me. It’s not a particularly deep comedy - mostly “fish out of water” plus a hefty dose of self-deprecating Norwegian self-awareness, plus whatever trope stands in for “bad ass dude vs. a mild/meek culture”. So, not exactly creative genius, but I get some laughs out of it and enjoy watching how things unfold.

Oh, and I’m not Norwegian, nor am I intimately familiar with their culture, but that part of the show resonates with the few Norwegian comedies I’ve seen, which is where I’m getting my estimation.

It’s a Netflix production, and is available on streaming there, with subtitles for the Norwegian parts.

4

I like it because I find it entertaining. That’s it. Entertainment.

5

Huh. I’m Norwegian, so… I’ll go check this out.

…

OK, I watched a few minutes of it on YouTube. No. The thing is just not funny. At all. That’s pretty much all there is to it, as far as I can tell.

6

It’s very dark humor. A lot of people don’t “get” dark humor. I often use the movie Fargo as an example. A couple of my friends had no idea it was supposed to be funny, while I laughed all the way through it. Dark humor isn’t for everyone, and that’s OK. It’s just not for you.

7

I love it. I watched it on Netflix so I could at least understand what was going on.

(P.S. I think there are a couple of other threads for the show.)

8

Season one and two. Great show. Season 3 is filming, but won’t be released until next year.

9

I started watching on Netflix not too long ago. Like it well enough but now I want to visit the real Lillehammer. One of my great great grandfathers grew up in that area and I may still have distant cousins there.

10

I generally agree with the OP’s opinion of the show.

Lily was the name of the main character’s dog, killed in the first episode.

11

(Evil Cackling laughter) He, he, he…You will pay DEARLY for the mistake. (Triumphant Evil roaring laughter)

12

Oh, I have paid. Believe me. You have no idea just how much I have paid.

But, I am preparing to write a book and hope that all will be revealed when I do.

People think they are safe. But time will yield all results. Just wait and see.

You are not the only one who can perform evil, cackling laughter. But, just remember he who laughs last, laughs better!

At least, I tink that’s the way it goes.

13

I wanted to like this show, but it seemed mediocre to me to. I couldn’t stick with it, even though my Norske half loved pretending I was visiting Lillehammer.

As for why this show is a hit, realize that a 12-hour program about firewood was a recent Norwegian ratings smash. Now, lest you get the wrong idea, please know that the first four hours focus on firewood aficionados discussing chopping and stacking techniques — the remaining eight hours were shots of a burning fire.

14

I binged this entire series recently.

At first, I really liked it, and it had a lot to do with the setting and the humor. I know very little about Norwegian society or culture or language and if nothing else, I just liked listening to the sound of people speaking Norwegian.

By the end, I just felt dirty. Here was another show asking us to appreciate the humor of a man doing violent, reprehensible, criminal things. It repeatedly tried making someone who hurt others for a living look like a good guy just because there might be someone else around who might be perceived as worse.

It made the audience laugh at and cheer for vile acts.

And by the end, most of the humor was very stereotypical and unimpressive.

However, I did learn of the Norwegian tradition of “taco Fridays” from the show—apparently something like 10 percent of the population makes the Norwegian version of tacos and other kinds of Mexican food at home on Friday evenings and watches the popular Friday night lineup of government television broadcaster NRK (which also produced Lilyhammer).

Apparently, tacos are now so popular in Norway that many young Norwegians consider it to be traditional Norwegian cuisine.

I’m thinking of adopting some version of that tradition myself.

15

I loved the first series, I found it very funny and enjoyed the landscape and setting. The culture clash held my interest, as did the main character’s ability to adapt (or to force the locals to adapt to him).

By midway through the second series, the joke was wearing a bit thin, but I expect I’ll watch the third series too - he’s an engaging actor and the supporting cast are good too.

16

Gave up on it after the first episode or two. It just doesn’t work.