Partisan (TV Series 2020–2022) Poster

(2020–2022)

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6/10
Had potential but lots of plot holes
JamesR197327 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
An odd one this - for a start I misread IMDb and thought there were 10 episodes - so after the 5th I was wondering why the next episode wasn't available and then realised it had ended. It looks like there may be a 2nd season, but whether I watch it or not is another thing.

After seeing a recommendation I thought I'd take a punt on this and for the first couple of episodes I thought it was quite intriguing. The main character played by Fares Fares was engaging as were the two girls. I initially liked the mystery of not really not knowing what was going on - unfortunately, setting aside the "pure race" theme of the community, I was none the wiser at the end.

A lot of this was down to some bizarre decisions made by the characters which just didn't ring true, as well as some of the lamest fight scenes I've seen in quite a while.

If you've just tonked someone on the head and dumped them in the open grave, wouldn't it be sensible to check whether they really are dead or not before deciding whether to sack it for the night and fill the grave in the morning? If you've managed to find an escape route out of the commune, why not just go and find back up straight away rather than going back in? Even worse, the main character does this again when he gets the girls out through the pipe. When running away from the compound why choose the most open place to do it ie. A field, rather than finding something a little more covered?

I don't regret watching it, but sometimes being too obscure and clever can be equally as annoying as something full of signposts and exposition.
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6/10
Good idea, badly executed
petermller13 September 2020
I've got to say, this kept me on my toes to the very end even though it felt, literally, goofy at some points. As many has pointed out, many decisions were uncalled for and were hard to get your head around. Hoping for a more straight ahead second season. Usually, when you have a great idea, the script will write itself. Somehow, that didn't happen here.
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5/10
Questionable.......
s32761694 September 2020
You don't need to look too hard to interpret "Partisan" as a politicised drama.

There's is, for me, a pretty obvious message pushing multi-cultural-ism. That's no crime in itself but it's simplistic overtones, I feel, ignores many of the complex and often discordant issues, associated with this philosophy. Its hardly a one sided debate, by any means.

The other problem I have with this series is its associating what appears to be a cult of eugenics orientated supremacists, with green initiatives, like organic food. I personally fine it dubious given how much stress and damage, pesticide based, commercial agriculture, is causing to the environment.

Moving beyond these concerns, I came to this series primarily because I'm a big fan of actor Fares Fares, who I first encountered in film adaptations of Jussi Adler-Olsen's crime novels.

As per usual Fares hands in an excellent performance as Johnny the undercover cop. Indeed to be fair, so do other cast members. The cinematography is also, excellent.

That said, I can't find any degree of personal comfort in this series. My reservations about its tone and underlying messages, bothers me. For this reason I wont be watching any further.

5/10.
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2/10
Promising start, totally dissapointing ending
hersa728 September 2020
The show got me hooked with the first two episodes, but after watching the last three last night I am extremely dissapointed - so many lose ends, strange decisions and plot holes...
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7/10
Edited review after seeing all episodes
freddy_at_home17 August 2020
I have edited my first review of this series, after watching all the episodes. It isn't fair to give a bad review when it turns out to actually pretty good. So, therefor the edit review. The series last 2 episodes got very exciting for me.

After seeing all episodes, I will remove my 5/10 and change it to 7/10.
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1/10
Waste of time
kattmorsan6 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Nope, didn't like it but I watched all episodes anyway. I see nothing excellent here neither acting or otherwise. The last episode is a major disappointment, extremely slow, a lot of walking in tunnels and characters making strange decisions. If you want to escape, why choose to run in a field for every one to see? Why did Johnny turn back? When he had dealt the final blow, why did he stay and drag the body away? And the final fisticuffs, just a lot of groaning and huffing and puffing and rolling around on the ground.
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6/10
try to engage with your brain...
pigsmiceandmen15 October 2020
Some of the 'reviews' on here from 12 year olds who 'only watched one episode', who want more of 'The Killing, The Bridge'..Zzzzzzz. Yes!! It is a B movie, it's supposed to be, and while I agree the execution was not on point I can only assume this was probably due to various covid restrictions placed on the completion of the piece. If you like Whicker Man, The Prisoner, you'll understand this. Even people leaving it 1/10 can't stop themselves from leaving spoilers. Grow up.
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2/10
Old school B-movie
jonaslundell6 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Ok, how about this plot: Neo-nazis (kind of) striving to build a new aryan Europe, a new world of white "perfectly built" males and females. All this undercover (or funded by) doing business in ecological vegetables. The story is as bad as the outcome. If I explain the storyline to a friend, they think I'm joking. All the above is going on in this secret facility with an underground IFV unit, of course with long dark tunnels, in the countryside of Sweden. It is like a weird mix of Wolfenstein, Captain America and Änglagård.

The characters are as cliché as the plot; the drunken Polish drivers (of course they are Polish as we know they only drink, smoke and harass women). And the most wicked witch of them all - Maud, in search for the perfect female and who keeps her father alive with the intention of using him as an eternal breeding source. And Kent, of course you need an evil physical guy as well, played by Johan Rheborg. I would assume he wants to forget his participation asap. And Fares Fares - what did you think of when you signed up for this? Money talks.

And so it goes. What started as a decent thriller evolved into a story that only fits into the genre of 80s b-movies. It gets worse, episode by episode until the grande finale that - surprise - is not a finale at all. Just a halabaloo of everything. What a waste of time. The only thing I am scared of is a season 2. I am sure the writers could come up with a sequel.
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Abysmal
creer-720-4615371 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
One of the worst foreign dram series I've seen and I've seen a lot.

Once we see the dead man being kept 'alive' we know this is crazy land. Artifical insemination, a plot to take over Denmark via organic vegetables. (They weren't even super power bio dynamic).

What were they thinking?

Filming was fine, some acting was fine.

Story was atrocious.

Fares Fares should have known it was a hopeless story that no amount of editing could fix.
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6/10
Not as bad as I was expecting
christerenglund25 April 2022
First l want you to know that this is my first rating, and as Swedish myself I have a lot of experience with swedish movies amd tv-shows.

I first heard of this tv-show a couple of days ago as a Swedish news program announced that there will be a second season of Partisan.

I checked up the show here and checked the first 20-30 reviews, Since 90% of the users had given it one or two stars I first felt like I might aswell ignore this show altogether.

However, I usually want something running on my tv as I sit with my laptop, and season one was only 5 episodes.

So I watched ( well I guess I mostly heard ) all episodes today.

After the third shows I got kind of got curious what it all was about and how it was going to end.

So with all that said, let me telll you what I agree and do not agree with here.

Manuscript : Sure is not the best, but I have seen a lot worse, Some plotholes indeed and some questions that never got answered. With a new season coming they might adress this.

Acting : Somewhat ok. I think Fares Fares did a good job given what he had to work with.

I do agree that at some points I reacted on a poor acting aswell,

This show seem to work better with Swedish people I think, wich does not really suprise me.

I did not really know ehter to rate this show 5 or 6 but I think it is worth a 6 with its uniqe plot.
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1/10
Don't bother
winborg6 September 2020
Bad acting worst script. If you think game of thrones had a bad ending you are hate this one. Ridiculous actions taken by the main character who is supposed to be a policeman, not credible att all.
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8/10
Needs to be viewed
whar-6069123 July 2021
The premise of the story is chilling, reminiscent of Douglas Murray's "The Strange Death of Europe" (published 2017). There is far more to this than just a fenced community pretending to live the ideal life. It may be an uncomfortable plot to watch, but needs to be seen.
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4/10
Unconvincing
laduqesa28 September 2020
There were holes as big as a moon crater in this mini series. By the end, so little was resolved.

The plot summary does not do this justice. It's actually a lone-cop drama, a misfit of course. I found the organic farming to be incidental; it could have been any cultish organisation in an enclosed large parcel of land with buildings. I actually found the belief in organic farming and the political views held by the dirigeants of the farm to be dichotomous.

However, nothing was explained. How did the farm come to the attention of the cops? And who were these cops anyway who had such latitude to mount such an unconventional operation? Why were the sisters so essential to the farm when there were so many children there already? Where on earth was the unexplained money coming from?

There were so many "how did they...?" and "how come...?" moments that to describe them risks entering spoiler territory. It just didn't hang together, there was no coherence.

I really like Fares Fares and he didn't disappoint. Several other stalwarts of Scandi drama starred as well and turned in competent performances. They'd have been more convincing with a decent story though - some of them looked faintly embarrassed at the nonsense they were performing.

The ending was slightly unexpected but had to be contrived to finish like that.

It wasn't a total waste of time but I could have spent the hours on something better.
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3/10
What was it All about??
christian-larsen16 September 2020
This was much too disappointing. Too many lose ends. Terrific Fares Fares can't save this mess.
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3/10
When is season 2 com.. please don't!!
timstandefeldt7 September 2020
This show had so much potential but for every episode that I watched it felt that they just let it all slip through their fingers more and more.

This could have been a movie instead of a series... all this could've been wrapped up in 90minutes basically. Unnecessary dialogues, lose ends, poor character backgrounds, illogical decisions and let's not even talk about the ending.

I give it a 3 because I liked the setting nothing else.
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2/10
Big disappointment...
magnus-astholm6 September 2020
Big disappointment...Not even Fares Fares is on hos best this time... What we in Sweden call a "turkey series"... Hope we don't have to see another season.
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2/10
Slooooow and boring.
sebastian-ra12 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Dont even start watch this. The cast looked promesing but the result was total garbage.
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9/10
Dystopian brilliance
hilarycantor19 December 2021
This powerful series is not to be judged by conventional standards. It is not an action cop series set in Sweden. Rather it is a story of alienation, corruption, white suprematism, revealing an under belly of vicious violence and control. It is no coincidence that the title Partisan has the soundtrack from Leonard Cohen, a song originating from the French Resistance when the French were trying to evade and defeat Nazi occupation. There are many references to Foreigner, spoken with vile contempt. The acting is outstanding, the most believable realism I have seen, despite the storyline. The whole atmosphere is terrifying, the drama is more psychological than action based. If you want an action based, logical narrative cop series, this is not that. Although I would have liked a neat ending, sadly there was no need, as in life. If you like to relate to the pain of alienation, loss and the struggle to survive amongst evil, then you will be moved.
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3/10
Weak
mike-tan-58-4125406 October 2020
I expected more from a Swedish production, but it has such a poor storyline and there is no exitement at all to enjoy. What a waste of time to watch and of such good Swedish actors.
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1/10
Interesting storyline, terrible execution and script
susekl11 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The first episode I actually found quite interesting because of the storyline but from there it went downhill. Quite stereotype characters with the polish constantly drunk dirivers, the undercover police that is a hard-boiled and does a lots of strange and peculiar choices in the last episode.I.e why did he choose to turn back in the last episode to fight with Johan? That is just not a logic choice. Totally surreal.

I really hope they spend their money on something else than another season.
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1/10
Wast of time!!!!
lizasilverholt6 September 2020
So disappointed. What could have been a great story turned out to be a big disappointment. Just sad!
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3/10
Wow! Fare Fares
cr199523 November 2021
The last episode was completely disappointing!!! I'd like to have seen people get arrested. Some justice dished out. Christ almighty what a disappointing production. Like others have said who escapes over open fields, All you need is a pair of pliers to cut through that fence. This script was full of holes.
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1/10
Bad acting, worse script
eemiliiebn30 August 2020
Did an American write the script for them to Google translate to swedish? If you want something to fall asleep to this is great!
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8/10
Ethics and aesthetics
paul2001sw-122 December 2021
An idyllic organic farming comune turns out to be a fascistic blood-and-soil cult in this intelligent Swedish thriller. For sure, the plot is a little fantastical, but the motivation and character of the villains makes sense, unlike many "trouble in paradise" stories where there's little real explanation for the darkness below the surface. Here, the ethics and the aesthetics tie together nicely; and at just five episodes, the grim story moves along lightly. The final fight is unusally convincing.
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2/10
But why.....?!
flag-737707 September 2020
Awful acting, paper thin plot and a huge amount of loose end. This is so bad. Do not watch.
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