Ya know how there are those people in your life...the ones who talk about this new season of Dancing with the Stars? This is not for them. NBC obviously caved to Amy Poehlers wants and green lit her brothers sitcom pitch. That pitch became the summer replacement series welcome to Sweden. For 8 weeks I have DVRd this NBC sitcom with the Poehler pedigree and in the beginning I was suspect. I thought, what the hell is this? Half the damn show is in English subtitles and aside from the fact that all the women are gorgeous (tall elegant blondes) I really dont see myself reading my Must See Thursday night TV. In the beginning the only thing that even remotely grabbed me was the theme song, which I have attached below. In an era when production companies are trashing the traditional theme song in favor of squeezing in a few more seconds of commercial time, I thought this was the best sitcom theme of all time, ever! Fact is this is a very good sitcom. A very non traditional sitcom, probably more appreciated on an HBO or Netflix, but its on NBC and...well, ya gotta give them some credit for really going outside the, pun intended, box. Whether or not we will see a second season probably depends entirely on how well Parks and Recreation continues to do and how much NBC wants to keep Amy Poehler happy. In just a few weeks we will be treated to what the networks consider good shit. We will undoubtedly see single dads raising precocious kids and intact family units hysterically trying to reinvent the wheel. Most of those cant miss new shows that NBC will roll out for fall will be epic failures..... One out of 100 will be Modern Family, and thats great, but it doesnt change the fact that the most interesting and unique network sitcom in decades will depend entirely on how much juice Amy Poehler has for her brothers show. I watched the final few mins of season one last night and thought.....wow...I probably will never see another episode. NBC will probably never air this show again...and thats too bad because this was a terrific show. Greg Poehler looks like a cross between Amy Poehler and Greg Kinear and he is pretty damn likable and funny. Josephine Bornebush, the Swedish model turned actress who plays the women/girlfriend who lured the NY celebrity accountant (Poehler) to Sweden (plot of the show) is really a breakout star. Fact is this is actually pretty awesome that NBC would give this style of sitcom a platform at all. With any luck the show will continue on a much more discriminating platform (cable/stream) and become a hit.......lets be honest. If the much applauded House of cards or Orange is the new black first appeared on NBC or Fox they probably would have been cancelled before everyone started calling them the greatest things on television......we live in an age when quality has options....and whether or not NBC renews Welcome to Sweden doesnt really matter. Its good enough that someone will.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 06:04:49 +0000