This is essentially the "small town high school football star gets away with rape" story, exported from America to Sweden and football to hockey to prove...universality of concept maybe? It's unclear.
Yet the series fails to either really capture the effect on the town (its apparent goal), or on the victim. Rather, it reverts to a character study of a few of the town boys and men, with particular focus on the father of the victim and, of all potentially questionable choices, the perpetrator himself. The women, including the victim herself, are shunted to the background and periphery, flattened into saintly martyrs with no emotional complexity and little dialogue. They are there merely to highlight the suffering of their men, as they struggle to deal with what has happened.
To be clear this is not to argue that it is not well acted, or well produced. These are straight up writing and directorial decisions, and they are consistently questionable for a supposedly modern show.
One can only hope that the book is better than the series. But the show is story telling straight out of thirty years ago. And that's exactly where it should have stayed.
Yet the series fails to either really capture the effect on the town (its apparent goal), or on the victim. Rather, it reverts to a character study of a few of the town boys and men, with particular focus on the father of the victim and, of all potentially questionable choices, the perpetrator himself. The women, including the victim herself, are shunted to the background and periphery, flattened into saintly martyrs with no emotional complexity and little dialogue. They are there merely to highlight the suffering of their men, as they struggle to deal with what has happened.
To be clear this is not to argue that it is not well acted, or well produced. These are straight up writing and directorial decisions, and they are consistently questionable for a supposedly modern show.
One can only hope that the book is better than the series. But the show is story telling straight out of thirty years ago. And that's exactly where it should have stayed.