Scott Brinton

Cultural chaos makes for great comedy

Posted

During a school break last winter, my wife, kids and I fell ill with a nasty virus, and we were lying around the living room, moaning in misery, fumbling through cable’s on-demand menu, seeking something, anything, to watch.

It was a cold, dark, dreary day. Emphasis on cold. Did I mention that we were moaning in misery?

I’m unsure why we started flipping through NBC’s submenu, as my wife and I had long ago written off the network. (After the golden era of “Seinfeld,” “Mad About You” and “Friends,” it just wasn’t the same. Sorry.)

Somehow, though, we stumbled across “Welcome to Sweden,” an intelligent, quirky, bicultural sitcom set partly in Manhattan and mostly in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, which premiered last summer. Instantly we were hooked. Forgive the CBS reference, but it reminded me of a chicer version of “Northern Exposure,” of which my wife and I are longtime devotees.

Over the next five hours, we watched all 10 half-hour installments of “Welcome to Sweden’s” first season. How we missed an entire season of such a cheerful comedy (it just makes you smile) I’m uncertain, except to say that NBC is really bad at promoting its best work.

“Welcome to Sweden” fast became our favorite new show, in large part because we related to the characters.

The plot goes like this: Bruce Evans, played by Greg Poehler (the real-life younger brother of comedienne Amy Poehler, who produces and appears as herself on the show now and then), is a 30-something, Manhattan-based accountant to the stars who hates his job. He meets Emma Wilk, played by Swedish actress Josephine Bornebusch. She’s a banker based in New York. Bruce and Emma date for a year and fall in love.

One day, Emma lands a big job at a Stockholm bank and decides to return home. Voilá! Bruce has the perfect reason to quit his well-compensated, but ultimately unfulfilling, job: He decides to move to Sweden with Emma. Therein the series –– and the laughs –– begin.

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