TV review “Christmas Storm”: Sweets with a capital “S”

Grinch and scrooge must stay away. Beating Christmas hearts can pick up blankets and popcorn.

“A Storm For Christmas”

Norwegian TV series in six parts

Premiere on Netflix on Friday 16 December

Series creators: Per-Olav Sørensen and Lars Saabye Christensen

Screenplay: Lars Saabye Christensen, Jan Trygve Røyneland and Per-Olav Sørensen

With: Dennis Storhøi, Maibritt Saerens, Jan Gunnar Røise, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Alexandra Rapaport, Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa, Ida Elise Broch, Sus Wilkins, Jon Øigarden, Ravdeep Singh Bajwa, Ariadna Cabrol, Line Verndal and others.

Per-Olav Sørensen is truly the hardest working man on Norwegian TV. In 2022, he has been behind the film “Royalteen” and the series “The Playlist” (both on Netflix). More to the point in this context: In 2019 and 2020 he gave us “Home for Christmas” – the one with Ida Elise Broch on checker’n, you know – and last year the amusing “Julestjerna” (on TV 2).

Not just a seasoned TV man, that is, but an experienced one christmas series-man. Refreshingly fearless to give us exactly the sentimental touch we crave now that the nights are getting long: A few hours in front of the screen that can calm us down, and maybe even kindle a little hope that 2023 will be the year when everything will work out for us all (even though we know better).

This year, he has even added an extra gear to his audience flirting. With him on the script team, Sørensen not only has Jan Tryge Røyneland (“Kongens no”, 2016), but also Lars Saabye Christensen himself. Stories flow from the fingers of the latter, from the time he gets up in the morning until he goes to bed at night. So this must be good, right?

We’re going to meet one heap people who have all arrived at Gardermoen airport just before Christmas Eve. Someone must work there. Someone is going out and traveling. Someone will travel to someone, someone will travel from something. Only a few are in the great Christmas spirit.

The bartender Marius (Jon Øigarden), for example. He serves and converses with the guests like a true professional. But he looks anxious when he talks on the phone. Pianist Arthur Berg (Dennis Storhøi), who sits in Marius’s bar, is troubled by the fact that his career seems to be on the upswing. His concert in Oslo last night was slaughtered in Aftenposten, and he has only sold some thirty tickets for the next one, in Tromsø.

The parents of Kaia (Talia Lorentzen), played by Line Verndal and Oscar Jean, argue about absolutely everything – especially what is not important. The pop star Ida (Ida Elise Broch) behaves like a spoiled child, as young pop stars like to do, and is a mare to the faithful assistant Ingvild (Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa). But she has her story, too.

Let’s also spare a thought for the airport priest Ronja (Maibritt Saerens) and the single mother Maria (Ariadna Cabrol). Yes, and the suspiciously happy salmon-eating David (Jan Gunnar Røise), the lonely baggage worker Henrik (Valter Skarsgård), the naive influencer in a pink sweater, Diana (Hanna Ardéhn), the blasé pilot Olav (Ravdeep Singh Bajwa) and the airport – Santa Claus Alex (Ibrahim Faal). The latter is very tired most of the time.

Several? Yeah, geez. Always more space in “Julestorm”. To Gard Øyen as a lost elderly Portuguese gentleman, to Kyrre Hellum as an honorable taxi driver, to Catharina Vu as a cheerful service employee, to Alexandra Rapaport as a customer who makes life miserable for people like Catharina Vu, to Carmen Gloria Peréz as a security guard and to Sus Wilkins as a woman, Stine, who has been to Norway for a pre-Christmas side trip.

Then I haven’t even mentioned the Danish diva Ghita Nørby. And Sara (Thea Sofia Loch Næss), a slightly lost young woman who wonders what her father wants for Christmas.

Whew! Here, finally, is the point: These people cannot get rid of the stain. A Christmas storm is raging over Scandinavia, and almost all flights are cancelled. Our friends are stuck at Gærdis, with plenty of time to get to know each other and think about what Christmas is “really about”.

We are talking about an ambitious braided series, with a large number of characters that will develop in one direction or another. “Love Actually” (2003) had a dozen stories going on at the same time. “Christmas storm” will not be worse.

Not all the fates are very exciting in themselves. But that’s how it is in stories like this. The intention is that all the small stories should add up to something bigger when things turn around. And that even the people who have given up both life and Christmas – yes, special they – must regain faith in both before the Pope goes to midnight mass in Rome.

In this sense, the scriptwriters refuse little. We’re talking shamelessly broad-brushed sentimentality here, sweetness with a capital “s” and sentimentality with a capital “f”. Faith, hope and love and the greatest of all is Christmas. Perfect for anyone who thinks that too much of a good thing is absolutely great. Unbearable too grinch, scrooge and others who do not believe in Santa Claus.

Much of the credit for “Christmas Storm” succeeding as what it is meant to be – a relaxing break – goes to the ensemble. Both Øigarden, the very hub of the story, and Storhøi, which is really in good shape during the day, deserve to get something nice this year.