Okay, it's not "The Wire" but "Nobel" is very good. Apparently the genre is "Nordic Noir." Previous series would likely include "The Killing" which was actually set in Seattle but it was adapted from a Swedish series.
"Nobel" is a thriller/political/mystery with a darkness to it, a brooding, foreboding. The closest thing American TV has to these dark Scandinavian things is "House of Cards."
It begins by following a Norwegian Special Ops team acting as part of the NATO involvement in Afghanistan. It opens as the Norwegians have to distinguish the suicide bomber in the public square from among all the innocent peasants, a sort of lethal "Where's Waldo" scene, and it continues to other missions-- rescuing a woman for reasons to which they are not privy and guarding a diplomat to a dangerous meeting, and it melds into an intrigue which involves espionage in the dark grim and grimy mode of John Le Carre and "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold."
I've only seen half of it, but there are some wonderful one paragraph exchanges, from the explanation by an officer to his troops about what makes killing in war different from killing in civilian life, to the analysis of a Norwegian foreign service officer who dissuades an activist who wants to sponsor the application for asylum for a Chinese dissident, who may be in the running for a Nobel Peace prize (which is awarded by Norway, not Sweden.) If the activist allows the man to apply for asylum, it will end his chances for the Nobel prize, because then he will simply be a man who is afraid to die, whereas if he does not seek asylum, he may be a hero worthy of the peace prize.
In another scene, a Special Ops captain confronts his platoon leader, who wants to kill the Afghan war lord who has just days earlier exploded an IEP, killing the platoon leader's beloved comrade. Now the war lord and the platoon leader are about to face off in a village game of a sort of bloody horse polo, in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the villagers. The platoon leader wants revenge, but his captain tells him the IEP was just business, just war, and hard as it is, do not take that attack personally. This theme and event come back in a later episode and the platoon leader is able to use it to his advantage.
Added to that is the moodiness of the Norwegian settings, the spare interiors and the green parks which contrast so starkly with the dust and dirt of Afghanistan, which the Norwegians refer to as "Down There."
Mixed in are the references to the Americans, who the Norwegians consider near barbarians, likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Talk about rules of engagement--as the Norwegian soldiers see it, the Americans are sent to Afghanistan to kill, where the Norwegian soldiers are sent to be killed.
There is even a sequence which turns on its head the notion of watching a video of a violent exchange, which reminds us of the videos we see of American police officers behaving murderously--but in this case you have seen the actual scene and you know what is not seen on the video; you and know the soldiers were completely justified in opening fire and, in fact, if they had not, everyone would have died, and the diplomat they were protecting would have died with them.
It's well written and the characters are completely involving. The hero, one of the heroes, is a short, bald but powerfully built guy who comes home to his wife, who is beautiful in a taut, willowy way, and she works for the Foreign Ministry and in one of the best introductory scenes ever, she defuses a potential debacle with the Chinese ministers with wile and imagination and you see immediately how formidable she can be. She is one cool customer. She is well matched to her husband, who is the definitive cool customer, cool and deadly.
"Nobel" also serves to remind that America is not the only country to spend blood and treasure in Afghanistan, although it does nothing to solve the mystery of why we bothered.
President Obama's voice opens each segment, telling us that diplomacy and patience would not have stopped Hitler--sometimes you have to simply oppose evil, with force, and it reminds us of the rationale for sending troops to war there, but the story itself argues against this notion.
This place is so impervious to Western notions of good and evil--men believe women are possessions, and educating girls is an anathema. Murder is a way of life. Child rape is shrugged off. Afghanistan is not just backward but medieval. Any exchange with the Afghans is a dance with the devil.
In the Trump era, this is is a powerful elixir and a bracing dose of reality.
"Nobel" is a thriller/political/mystery with a darkness to it, a brooding, foreboding. The closest thing American TV has to these dark Scandinavian things is "House of Cards."
It begins by following a Norwegian Special Ops team acting as part of the NATO involvement in Afghanistan. It opens as the Norwegians have to distinguish the suicide bomber in the public square from among all the innocent peasants, a sort of lethal "Where's Waldo" scene, and it continues to other missions-- rescuing a woman for reasons to which they are not privy and guarding a diplomat to a dangerous meeting, and it melds into an intrigue which involves espionage in the dark grim and grimy mode of John Le Carre and "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold."
I've only seen half of it, but there are some wonderful one paragraph exchanges, from the explanation by an officer to his troops about what makes killing in war different from killing in civilian life, to the analysis of a Norwegian foreign service officer who dissuades an activist who wants to sponsor the application for asylum for a Chinese dissident, who may be in the running for a Nobel Peace prize (which is awarded by Norway, not Sweden.) If the activist allows the man to apply for asylum, it will end his chances for the Nobel prize, because then he will simply be a man who is afraid to die, whereas if he does not seek asylum, he may be a hero worthy of the peace prize.
In another scene, a Special Ops captain confronts his platoon leader, who wants to kill the Afghan war lord who has just days earlier exploded an IEP, killing the platoon leader's beloved comrade. Now the war lord and the platoon leader are about to face off in a village game of a sort of bloody horse polo, in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the villagers. The platoon leader wants revenge, but his captain tells him the IEP was just business, just war, and hard as it is, do not take that attack personally. This theme and event come back in a later episode and the platoon leader is able to use it to his advantage.
Added to that is the moodiness of the Norwegian settings, the spare interiors and the green parks which contrast so starkly with the dust and dirt of Afghanistan, which the Norwegians refer to as "Down There."
Mixed in are the references to the Americans, who the Norwegians consider near barbarians, likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Talk about rules of engagement--as the Norwegian soldiers see it, the Americans are sent to Afghanistan to kill, where the Norwegian soldiers are sent to be killed.
There is even a sequence which turns on its head the notion of watching a video of a violent exchange, which reminds us of the videos we see of American police officers behaving murderously--but in this case you have seen the actual scene and you know what is not seen on the video; you and know the soldiers were completely justified in opening fire and, in fact, if they had not, everyone would have died, and the diplomat they were protecting would have died with them.
It's well written and the characters are completely involving. The hero, one of the heroes, is a short, bald but powerfully built guy who comes home to his wife, who is beautiful in a taut, willowy way, and she works for the Foreign Ministry and in one of the best introductory scenes ever, she defuses a potential debacle with the Chinese ministers with wile and imagination and you see immediately how formidable she can be. She is one cool customer. She is well matched to her husband, who is the definitive cool customer, cool and deadly.
"Nobel" also serves to remind that America is not the only country to spend blood and treasure in Afghanistan, although it does nothing to solve the mystery of why we bothered.
President Obama's voice opens each segment, telling us that diplomacy and patience would not have stopped Hitler--sometimes you have to simply oppose evil, with force, and it reminds us of the rationale for sending troops to war there, but the story itself argues against this notion.
This place is so impervious to Western notions of good and evil--men believe women are possessions, and educating girls is an anathema. Murder is a way of life. Child rape is shrugged off. Afghanistan is not just backward but medieval. Any exchange with the Afghans is a dance with the devil.
In the Trump era, this is is a powerful elixir and a bracing dose of reality.
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