Review: Swedish drama series Midtsummernatt is the unimaginative Ikea version of Festen

The Swedish Midsummer Night festival is reminiscent of the Dutch King’s Day. On June 21 in Sweden, stupid games are played during the day (sack races, nail pooping), stupid songs are sung while wearing strange headgear and there is a lot of eating (herring!) and drinking.

The five-part Swedish family drama takes place against this background Midsummer night place. Mother Carina (Swedish acting legend Pernilla August) has invited all her children and supporters – not only to celebrate the traditional Swedish festival but also to make an announcement that will seriously disrupt the festivities. Partly for this reason, she postpones her speech again and again, to the annoyance of her husband Johannes, who, as a Norwegian, does not like that Swedish nonsense anyway.

Pregnancy test and brain tumor

However, mother Carina is not the only one walking around with a secret in this summer Netflix series. Daughter Hanne is getting married, but is not faithful to her husband-to-be Darius; Carina’s brother Håkan shows up with a new girlfriend who could have been his daughter; a positive pregnancy test is found and there is also someone walking around with a brain tumor.

Enough family secrets for a Swedish version of the Danish classic Festivities. Unfortunately is Midsummer night has become more of a Swedish soap opera in which characters constantly accidentally overhear snippets of conversations that are not intended for them and from which they invariably draw the wrong conclusions. The fact that flashbacks are needed in between to reveal what the various secrets contain does not improve the dramatic build-up. It’s like going to an Ikea version of it Festivities is watching where all the elements have been put together without any imagination.