User Reviews

Jordskott

A TV series based on fairy tales set in an adult setting rather than a childlike one. This show has to be admired for it's complexity.

Holding an adult viewers attention whilst going completely off the mark reality wise and taking us into a fantasy world can not have been an easy feat for the writers and directors.

I must admit it is sometimes hard to stay intrigued in the show but somehow they keep pulling me back in and I want to know how everything ends.

I am only on episode 4 at the moment but I will definitely watch to the end to see what happens.

Some of the suspense moments in the film are more frightening than a horror film and as you can imagine the horror and gore builds up towards the end in episode 4 and so does the suspense.

Now into episode 5 and the lead character faces an unimaginable choice.

I found this series to be a really fun watch. It's not really a police series, it's actually about something a lot more fun and the series has entertained me so far.

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First I'd like to note that I'm generally a fan of Scandinavian TV shows. I enjoy watching crime shows, thrillers, and shows that delve into the supernatural.

So, when 'Jordskott', a Swedish mystery show, was announced to be aired on Arte, one of my favorite TV channels, known for quality productions and 'insider tips', I was full of expectations.

Consequently, I wasn't discouraged, when I felt that the first two or three episodes were mostly boring and way too long for what actually happened. I was hoping it would eventually get better, especially once a few of the 'mysteries' were explained.

Unfortunately, it didn't.

This is a show in which little is said, less explained, and nothing shown. It seems that none of the characters are curious, suspicious, or even much interested in what's going on. Obvious supernatural phenomena are taken for granted without anyone wondering about them. When the female protagonist's daughter shows up after having gone missing over seven years ago, she's infected by a 'parasite' that nobody has ever seen. Nobody at the hospital has any clue about it, and besides a half-hearted idea about removing it surgically, nobody appears to be interested in finding out more about it. The police are apparently completely incompetent and investigations into the apparent kidnapping, which serves as the initial hook for the show, go nowhere until the protagonist, lead by clues gained from strange visions and seemingly unrelated incidents starts to help them.

There's a bunch of odd characters with nebulous motivations, all apparently knowing more than they admit.

I don't know if it's for reasons of a low budget or artistic choice, but despite a growing population of 'non-human' beings, the viewer is never shown more than a glimpse, if anything at all. There's a teenager with glowing eyes, some screeching thing in a bath tub, and plenty of completely human-looking beings that are either carriers of the before-mentioned parasite (this is actually the 'Jordskkott') or something else (which is never explained) with vestigial tails. The biggest let-down is that the apparent villain, purportedly, the only survivor of a mythical race never makes an appearance, while the real villain turns out to be a secretary(!) trying to make sure her mentally retarded son will enjoy a good life after her imminent death (she has cancer) by bequeathing a silver treasure to him.

So, yeah, this was a complete waste of my time. What little there is of the flimsy storyline could have easily been told in a double-length episode of the X-Files.

I am someone who loves Scandinavia and folklore. What do I love more? Scandinavian folklore.

Jordskott, which begins as an apparently regular polar, builds its interesting fantasy storyline progressively as you learn to know the characters and their motivations. The different stories of the different characters relate pretty seamlessly to each other, and the show manages to build tension progressively and intelligently. The acting is also very convincing and coherent.

The visuals are gorgeous, with a good choice of colors and clever shooting locations, especially for the scenes taking place in the forest, and even the transitions between two major scenes.

The folkloric/fantastic part of the show is relatively good, even though it would have been nice to actually see more of the supernatural creatures, and not just their powers or repercussions on the plot. The characters are well designed and somewhat lovable, even though most of them, at some point, happen to make bad decisions.

The closing scene, with Josefine finally returning to where she "belongs", is a very moving moment of the show, and ends the first season beautifully.

A second season would obviously be welcome, notably so that we could maybe learn more about the creatures that used to live (and still live) in the forest, such as Muns, but also so that we can discover who exactly are the people being the organization Vaas is a part of.

In a nutshell, the show illustrates magnificently the strength of Scandinavian series, with emotion, gorgeous cinematography, immersive and well integrated CGI, coherent characters, and an really interesting and not so common storyline.

Jordskott's atmosphere and general tone reminded me a bit of Real Humans, not regarding the story but rather the overall development and the feeling it left me dealing with when it was over.

I definitely recommend this show and I hope a second season will come.

Had high hopes for Jordskott but unfortunately definitely not my kind of thing. Was hoping for a thrilling, suspenseful realistic TV programme and was disappointed when things started getting mythical. I lasted till halfway through episode 4, but as soon as there started to be "monsters" posing as humans I decided I couldn't justify wasting another 6 hours of my life finishing the series.

It was definitely cleverly done and I actually thought some parts were really creepy. i'm sure many people would like it. But if you're like me and prefer non mythical and realistic things I suggest you give this one a miss.

Jordskott, at first I thought it was a detective drama and my flatmate was very quick to dismiss it because of the subtitles. My advice, stick with it! I continued to watch it and found myself watching each episode twice.

Yes, it's a detective drama, but it's also a supernatural/fantasy story, one with a slightly disturbing underlying story - fantastic filming and acting, with a story that keeps you guessing right till the end.

Well worth a watch, the story doesn't drag and it'll open you up to more European dramas - you've just got to learn to read and watch at the same time :)

I had very high expectations on this show as I was really intrigued by the synopsis and its potentially nail-biting mystery. A woman who's daughter inexplicably vanishes in the woods never to be found and then 7 years later a boy goes missing under the same circumstances in the same woods? Come on! It could be one hell of an interesting story!

But as so many times before regarding Swedish television shows it seems like disappointment is once again looking my way.

First of all the script has some very hard to disregard types of holes. For example the female main character is a cop...but keeps asking people for the address of a man who's name she knows. Has she been living under a rock for the past 20-30 years? Not knowing how easy it is nowadays to just go online and look somebody up? Nobody taught her this during her police-training?

Another thing, during the first episode the same character crashes her car trying to avoid hitting a person that suddenly shows up in the middle of the road. It turns out this person is a young girl in a state of chock and can't respond to her surroundings. Now, the community is focused on finding a missing boy, and the local cops are aware of the main characters belief that there might be a link between the unsolved case of her own missing daughter and the recently vanished boy... But not a single cop in the first episode thinks it's worth while to take a little look in the surrounding woods where this girl was discovered by the main character? Not even a little glance? Na, it's just not worth it I guess...

I admit, the main character takes a little look and sure enough she stumbles upon something interesting! Who would have thought! Not the local cops or anyone els I guess...

You know when I watch a really good police show... I don't feel smarter then the cops. The mystery is as mysterious to me as it is to the characters in the show. (True Detective is a great example of this)

In this show not only do I feel smarter than the cops, I laugh at their stupidity.

In another scene the main characters daughter shows up in a dream sequence, I guess, and asks her mother why she gave up looking for her and I cringed during the entire scene. It just seemed so unnecessary, almost like the creators are begging the audience to find them creative and imaginative. Everything about that scene was forced and repetitive. We already know the main character is suffering, we know she feels guilty for not finding her daughter and solving the case. If they really wanted to push that point they could have done it in another way that actually would have been creative instead of just slow and boring.

But Swedish television shows seems to love those to ingredients, slow and boring.

This show has hyped itself as a mysterious one, but if you kind of know what is going on after the very first episode...is it really that mysterious?

I say this, there is something very wrong with Swedish television shows and movies, I have a strong feeling they could not only be so much better but that something in the very fabric or infrastructure of Swedish creative storytelling and movie-making is hindering it, always keeping it slow, boring, and predictable.

If you like very slow paced nature vs Industries type of series with a few murders thrown in and no one to root for then this is for you. The main protagonist who is supposed to be a cop kidnaps a young girl to selfishly save her own kid. Uses her as bait to capture the bad guys. And obviously bungles up and the girl is taken from her making her look like an idiot. And soon after forgets about the kid and goes back to worrying about her own kid. The only good cop gets murdered by what looks like some FBI kind of unit to hide secrets which he has uncovered. The major issue was again the pacing. Even after multiple forwards the story did not move much. And as others have mentioned there is a mythical angle to this series which was difficult to digest and comical in some ways according to my opinion.