This is going to be fun: new Swedish series announced

No half measures at Netflix, but we already knew that. If their Spanish series are hot, then we get everything in Spanish. Muy bueno, of course. But the days in Spain seem to be over and it is now completely Swedish. Caliphate of course, but Scandinavian series were already praised for that. Most are thrilling (except Home for Christmas), and why change a winning team… They clearly do this best, so it’s not very surprising that a new exciting Swedish series has been announced. But this one looks really cool. Fully based on a true story, and I personally always like that.

The series will be called Clark and the lead actor is not really a stranger. That is Bill Skarsgård, who you might know better with a particularly unpleasant clown mask on. Yes, he played clown IT in the two remake films. But no worries: here he has ‘just’ his normal looks. Although a little tweaking will have to be done, because he plays the criminal Clark Olofsson and that is not exactly an attractive character to look at.

Because Clark is based on the autobiography of this Olofsson, who has been imprisoned for a long time but now lives a reclusive life in Belgium. Originally Swedish, he is responsible for the term ‘Stockholm syndrome’. If you have never heard of it: it is called that when a victim starts to feel psychologically connected to their kidnapper. It is often quite romanticized in films: the victims really fall head over heels in love and that is then called the Stockholm syndrome, but surprisingly, that is actually never the case.

Olofsson began his criminal career in the 1960s, with many robberies, thefts, and more throughout Europe. The robbery where the Stockholm syndrome was born is, of course, also addressed: a bank robbery in 1973 in, of course, Stockholm. Four people were held hostage here, who, after being freed, chose the side of the robbers. Olofsson was one of them. That loyalty to the robbers even went so far that all four refused to testify in the trial against them.

Okay, this one seems really cool to me. I find the whole Stockholm syndrome an interesting phenomenon and actor Bill Skarsgård is also really cool (especially when he is not a clown). Unfortunately, there is not yet a trailer (which I find a very big downside) and they cannot yet mention a release date (ARGH). But it is a Netflix Original and usually Netflix is quite quick with these kinds of things, so I guess: late 2020? I think that’s a nice goal.