The two first seasons were fun, clever, spooky and a brilliant study of the soul cracking under the weight of modern bureaucracy. What really made it work - other than the terrifying metaphors - was the vivid presence of the two main actors: Kirsten Rolffes as the kindly but intelligent Mrs. Drusse, whose mission was to take pressure off the hospital's restless spirit community, and Ernst-Hugo Järegård as Stig Helmer, a petty force threatening to short-circuit whatever sanity is still left in the building. To play up the Big Brother motif, Lars von Trier exaggerated Helmer's arrogant "Swedishness" in a way that made him a comical warlord in a playful battle between the two Scandinavian nations, resulting in some priceless monologues now considered classics.
A quarter of a century later, Järegård and Rolffes are both long dead and nothing is as it once was. The national-stereotype jabs have taken over completely, but are no longer clever nor fun. Trier may think Swedish rhetoric from the last decades deserves little subtlety in response, but by lowering himself to its level, his own creation becomes just as superficial. To top it off, Trier cannot help himself from making everything very, very meta. Drusse is replaced by Karen, who has seen the original series on DVD and wants to meet with the characters of old. Scenes are repeated, roles are filled, exposition is rampant.
Maybe the whole third season is itself one big meta-joke, with Trier poking fun at his own inability to resuscitate the series and its characters. Which unfortunately is not very enjoyable to watch. In previous seasons, Rolffes's reactions to the spiritual goings-on had me on the edge of my seat and Järegård's genius made the remarkable hypocrite Helmer somehow believable. Helmer Jr., however, is a caricature of a caricature without much individuality except, perhaps, mild confusion at what he is supposed to do with this role, and Karen is simply the generic wise, old psychic, stuck in a production that's forgotten how to be scary.
So, is this really about the dead end of nostalgia? I would not be much surprised if the finale has Trier laughing his head off at our naive expectations. But, being only two out of four episodes in, I hope I'm dreadfully wrong and that I will eventually be scared straight in the upcoming episodes.
A quarter of a century later, Järegård and Rolffes are both long dead and nothing is as it once was. The national-stereotype jabs have taken over completely, but are no longer clever nor fun. Trier may think Swedish rhetoric from the last decades deserves little subtlety in response, but by lowering himself to its level, his own creation becomes just as superficial. To top it off, Trier cannot help himself from making everything very, very meta. Drusse is replaced by Karen, who has seen the original series on DVD and wants to meet with the characters of old. Scenes are repeated, roles are filled, exposition is rampant.
Maybe the whole third season is itself one big meta-joke, with Trier poking fun at his own inability to resuscitate the series and its characters. Which unfortunately is not very enjoyable to watch. In previous seasons, Rolffes's reactions to the spiritual goings-on had me on the edge of my seat and Järegård's genius made the remarkable hypocrite Helmer somehow believable. Helmer Jr., however, is a caricature of a caricature without much individuality except, perhaps, mild confusion at what he is supposed to do with this role, and Karen is simply the generic wise, old psychic, stuck in a production that's forgotten how to be scary.
So, is this really about the dead end of nostalgia? I would not be much surprised if the finale has Trier laughing his head off at our naive expectations. But, being only two out of four episodes in, I hope I'm dreadfully wrong and that I will eventually be scared straight in the upcoming episodes.
