Netflix trailer: https://rb.gy/4kocqr

I wanted "Families Like Ours" to be good, but I wasn't expecting it to be one of the best series I've seen this year.

I've been kind of on a losing streak. I want my series to be as good as a movie. Then again, how many mediocre movies did I go to see back in the last century, when moviegoing was still a thing? I want more than entertainment. Not only do I want to be engrossed, I want to feel, and what I want to feel most is a connection to the human condition. In this frazzled world in which we live there's a focus on escape, but I'm more into the real nitty-gritty.

The Danes and the Israelis make the best television. "And "Families Like Ours" is Danish, but the premise... I'm not usually a fan of sci-fi, not that that's the proper description of the series.

The concept is very simple. The Danes can't hold back the encroaching water that has resulted from climate change, and they've decided to empty the country. But you're not prepared for a complete exploration of people's choices when they're broken down to zero, doing their best to escape a slide into poverty. You lose all your assets, you lose all your status, then what?

A secret cannot be held. This is why I doubt all those conspiracy theories. People love to talk, almost no one can hold back from telling others juicy, private news, always with the admonishment not to tell others, which they promptly do.

There's disbelief, before ultimate acceptance.

There's frustration with the system...after all, you had no part in this decision!

As for the rest of Europe, except for the Netherlands, it's business as usual. But EU rules do not apply. You cannot go to another country willy-nilly, there are rules, and they probably eliminate your choices, never mind hopes and dreams.

And under all this hopes and dreams remain. Some romantic, others career... What's more important, preparing for the inevitable future or being beside your loved ones?

One question after another is raised. To the point where you start to anticipate them, but just like human nature, you can't anticipate them all.

And unlike an American show, everything is not hunky-dory. The prick brother remains a prick.

There are so many issues. It's not just as simple as decamping. What about your relatives, your ex, do you have a responsibility to look after them? And if they go to a different country than you, will you ever be able to see them again?

Question upon question is raised. Everything is more complicated than you think it is. Can you hang back and go with the flow? When the government is being shut down and there's no one to look out for you?

Now they've made this kind of show/movie in America before. The closest analogue is 1983's "Testament," which is very good, but not as good as "Families Like Ours."

I tried to watch the Apple shows. "The Studio"? Elements of amazing insight, leavened by predictable insanity, it's hard to watch more. Maybe if you were watching week by week you'd have hope it got better, but now that the series has played completely, and everyone is unsatisfied, I see little reason to go back to it.

The venerated "Dope Thief"? Okay, maybe I'll go back, but despite the flip of the script, it's very American, and I say that in a negative way, two-dimensional actors playing to an audience that wants whiz-bang spectacle more than reality.

Now "Dope Thief" is not that bad, but in truth it's not really that good.

I want a show so good that I suspend disbelief, where I become entwined with the characters, to the point where I believe they're real and their trials and tribulations affect me.

That's "Families Like Ours."

There are none of the traditional America tropes. Sure, there is some violence, but that's the nature of life, unfortunately. Everything is normal and there are no real heroes and what's it like to start all over? Do you have to start all over? And what do you prioritize, your job or..?

I would expect "Families Like Ours" to be remade in English like other legendary Danish shows like "The Bridge" and "The Killing," and these regionalized remakes tend to be faithful to the original and very good, but never quite as good as the progenitor.

And you can see the original right now, on Netflix. Sure, it's subtitled, and you can watch with English voices dubbed, but one thing is for sure, you won't be bored, you'll become enraptured and stick with it.

Your move.


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