Sometimes when we’re watching a show, we think that it would work better if they cut the number of characters by at least a third. Sometimes there are just too many people and too many stories to give enough time and care to. A new drama from Norway has this issue, but it’s still worth watching because of its central couple and the news that will make everyone rethink their relationships.
Opening Shot: At a house on a lake, a large family is playing games on the front lawn.
The Gist: People are spinning with their heads on bottles and then stagger-running back to the starting line. There’s a tug of war. Seems like a lot of family togetherness. But all the while, Johannes (Dennis Storhøi) wonders when his wife Carina (Pernilla August) is going to break her news to everyone.
Two weeks earlier, as Johannes builds what will be the bonfire he burns during Midsummer, the Scandinavian celebration of the longest day of the year, Carina decides that she’ll break her news to everyone on Midsummer Night, when everyone is having fun and celebrating the holiday. She also wants a Swedish Midsummer celebration, which is more fun and silly than how its celebrated where they’re living in Norway.
When the day comes, Carina is making her traditional strawberry cake, and Johannes is setting up with his and Carina’s youngest daughter Helena (Sofia Tjelta). The first to show up is Petronella (Maria Agwumaro), Johannes’ daughter and Helena’s half-sister. Carina and Johannes’ older daughter Hanne (Amalia Holm) shows up with her fiancé Darius (Peiman Azizpour). Darius’ parents Jannike (Linn Skåber) and Tabur (Kadir Talabani) then show up, with Darius’ brother Robert (Eirik Hallert), who at one time dated Helena.
The whole time, Carina is wondering where her brother Håkan (Christopher Wollter) is. He arrives on a boat, with the much younger Sara (Fanny Klefelt) on board.
Johannes wonders if Carina is still going to tell them her news, which is when we flash back 7 weeks to Carina struggling to swim and admitting to a friend that she’s having cognitive issues, feeling like she needs to relearn things she once knew how to do.
Back on the lake, everyone is having a good time at lunch, when Hanne notices two empty chairs. That’s when Elin (Liv Bernhoft Osa) and her son Lysander (Kim Falck), Hanne’s ex, show up. Hanne tells Carina how messed up that was, and Carina she made a mistake given everything that’s on her mind lately, but won’t elaborate further.
This is when we go back a month. Carina may or may not have a cognitive issue, but she knows she feels like she’s “withering away.” She wants to experience more in her life, but she knows that she can’t do it with Johannes, who seems to be, in her words, “done.” It’s not that she doesn’t love him or the life they built, be she asks him for a divorce so he doesn’t stand in her way.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? While Midsummer Night takes place over one day, the complicated family secrets aspect of the show remind us of shows like Brothers & Sisters and Parenthood.
Our Take: Per-Olav Sørensen, the creator of Midsummer Night, throws a lot at us in the limited series’ first half-hour. We’ve got the central couple, Carina and Johannes, who have been married for what seems like around forty years. They have two adult daughters, but it seems that Johannes has had a daughter with someone else at some point during those 40 years, one who is part of the family but not really. There are complications with both daughters, Hanne and Helena. Carina’s brother Håkan likes dating women half his age.
But at the center of all of this is Carina’s dissatisfaction with her life as she goes through her sixties and how she wants to blow up her life in order to get the most out of the time she has left. When she announces her news, it’s going to set a lot of things in motion that are likely to upend the lives of the rest of the family, as well.
Carina’s issues are presented in a bit of a confusing manner. It’s not the flashback device that bugged us, it’s the fact that she at first alluded to some sort of cognitive decline, but then she just says she wants a divorce in order to live her life how she wants. So, was the cognitive decline she talked about real or just her being scared about how settled her life is? Maybe it’s a little of both. We’re not quite sure yet. More flashbacks are likely necessary to flesh this out.
But we’re going to need flashbacks to figure out Johannes’ relationship with Petronella and how that affected things with Carina. We’re going to need to see Hanne with Lysander to see exactly how their marriage broke down and why Carina maintained a relationship with him after their divorce.
It’s a lot to keep track of. And we wonder if all of the stories are going to get the time they need to be properly told. But the family celebrating at that beautiful lakefront house is a pleasant one to be around, so that helps. We’re okay to hang in there and see if these myriad stories get sorted out because of it.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Helena asks Carina what the “secret” her and Johannes have, but Carina won’t say yet. Johannes looks at his wife and wonders when she’s going to give the news.
Sleeper Star: Amalia Holm’s character Hanne has a lot to deal with, given that her ex and former mother-in-law are at this party and she has no idea why. We’ll see how she handles it.
Most Pilot-y Line: As soon as Håkan said he didn’t want to have kids, you knew that Sara would walk into a bathroom and pull out a pregnancy test. That may be one of the more predictable storylines on this series.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Midsummer Night may have a few too many stories to service in five short episodes, but the family at the show’s center is one we want to spend time with, which helps a lot.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
