I'm tired of the Netflix slow burn fad. Just because something moves along slowly does not necessarily make it more profound. But Netflix entire investment strategy is that it's more cost effective to produce a "limited" series (how I hate that phrase...) than a movie, since you get 8-10 hours of content instead of just 2 without the cost scaling at the same rate (it doesn't cost 4 times more to produce an 8 hour series compared to a single film). The problem with that strategy is that just about every Netflix original show is painfully drawn out. The story in Katla could easily have been told in half the time without losing anything of substance concerning the characters or the story.
That said, I certainly didn't hate the show. I don't know Icelandic, but the acting felt pretty good. The Swedish actors however are as theatrical and unnatural as usual, which is only one reason why I rarely (if ever) watch any Swedish films or shows. The story and the mystery is interesting, but the writing itself is quite lackluster. Some parts make no sense at all.
One boy comes back from the dead. One woman after having been missing for a year. Two characters have doppelgangers, one of them 20 years younger than she currently is. One would expect that people would react with horror: scream, vomit, s**t their pants and faint (and not necessarily in that order). If my dead grandmother suddenly knocked on my door I would GTFO and don't look back.
But everyone takes it in stride, with at best a mild sense of surprise. The only one who even slightly reacts in a way one might expect is the disabled lady.
When the Swedish woman comes and meets her doppelganger sans 20 years, no one finds it the least bit peculiar that they look exactly the same? No one thought of asking her what year it was? "Hmm, we had a girl who worked here 20 years ago, and she is standing right next to you looking 20 years older. But you also claim to have the exact same name. Seems legit."
In episode 4 Grima says to her sister Asa who has been missing for a year: "You disappeared. How can you be so calm when everyone around you is freaking out?" At this point absolutely no one has freaked out about her returning apparently from the dead.
Even when one character finds an exact clone of herself in episode 6, she doesn't seem to be even slightly vexed.
There are some nice visuals, nut I assume that this show wasn't co-financed by the Icelandic board of tourism, because it looks like a dreary place I would never want to set foot in.
I know it might be silly to expect some basic logic in a fantasy piece, but I can only suspend my disbelief so far.
That said, I certainly didn't hate the show. I don't know Icelandic, but the acting felt pretty good. The Swedish actors however are as theatrical and unnatural as usual, which is only one reason why I rarely (if ever) watch any Swedish films or shows. The story and the mystery is interesting, but the writing itself is quite lackluster. Some parts make no sense at all.
One boy comes back from the dead. One woman after having been missing for a year. Two characters have doppelgangers, one of them 20 years younger than she currently is. One would expect that people would react with horror: scream, vomit, s**t their pants and faint (and not necessarily in that order). If my dead grandmother suddenly knocked on my door I would GTFO and don't look back.
But everyone takes it in stride, with at best a mild sense of surprise. The only one who even slightly reacts in a way one might expect is the disabled lady.
When the Swedish woman comes and meets her doppelganger sans 20 years, no one finds it the least bit peculiar that they look exactly the same? No one thought of asking her what year it was? "Hmm, we had a girl who worked here 20 years ago, and she is standing right next to you looking 20 years older. But you also claim to have the exact same name. Seems legit."
In episode 4 Grima says to her sister Asa who has been missing for a year: "You disappeared. How can you be so calm when everyone around you is freaking out?" At this point absolutely no one has freaked out about her returning apparently from the dead.
Even when one character finds an exact clone of herself in episode 6, she doesn't seem to be even slightly vexed.
There are some nice visuals, nut I assume that this show wasn't co-financed by the Icelandic board of tourism, because it looks like a dreary place I would never want to set foot in.
I know it might be silly to expect some basic logic in a fantasy piece, but I can only suspend my disbelief so far.