Even though I wasn't bowled over by "Lilyhammer" there are reasons to give it high marks:
- - It's funky and weird and different enough that you don't see the same pre-fabbed faces and content that you'd normally see in network TV.
- - It stars one of the most unlikely "pretty faces" in the biz - the eternally-scowling Steven Van Zandt.
- - It's a true breakthrough show. Its original episodes are available all at once, as people who stream a lot of content on Netflix are likely to watch. I myself do entire TV seasons in a few days sometimes (especially when, as in the case of "Southland" those seasons are only six episodes long.)
- - I've never seen an "American" series set entirely in another country.
- - The show reminds me (a bit) of a not-as-well-written "Northern Exposure."
Steven Van Zandt is a multi-talented, multi-discipline musician whose turn as mob consigliere and strip club owner Silvio Dante in "The Spranos" showed yet another side of him as his character navigated the dangeoous and surreal New Jersey mob world. On that basis (I guess) he was hired to play wiseguy-turned-informant Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano who is witness-relocated to the Norwegian town of Lillehammer. Yes, an odd choice explained by his love of the city when he saw it on the 1994 Winter Olympics - whatever. He's told to behave himself and that if
he gets in trouble with the law he's on his own.
Frank quickly uses his New York attitude to stir things up when he bribes, blackmails, roughs up, and cheats just about everyone he comes in contact with to get what he wants. And yet, his sense of fair-play is firmly in place as dispenses (mild) street justice to the people in which he contacts. You can take the boy out of the mob but...forgettabouit.
"Lilyhammer" is terribly uneven -some good and fun stuff interspered with some truly awful stuff. Sometimes it seems like everyone is doing a bad skit from "Saturday Night Live." But at times, Van Zandt makes it work and his situation doesn't seem so truly unbelievable as a fish out of water. He's surrounded by actors who show potential - if they're given just a little bit better material to work with.
In the spirit of giving this breakthrough dramedy a fighting change and since Netflix is directly able to track the metrics of people watching it, I'm going to finish the rest of the season. Not even "Cheers" or "Seinfeld" was brilliant all at once and, as stated, this has potential.
The entire Season One of "Lilyhammer" is available on Netflix streaming.
And that's amazing!
