Lilyhammer Review: "Silvio" from The Sopranos Relocates from Jersey to Norway

 photo credit: TonyFelgueiras via photopin cc

Bruce Springsteen band member Steven Van Zandt, a.k.a. "Silvio Dante" from The Sopranos, stars in the new fish-out-of-water, Norwegian-produced comedy drama Lilyhammer, the first venture by Netflix into original series content.

Van Zandt plays New York gangster Frank Tagliano who enters the Witness Protection Program after he testifies in court against a mob rival who tried to wack him. Van Zandt also gets a writing, executive producing, and composing credit in the series.

With the same scowl, vocal style, hunched shoulders, excessive f-bombs, and hideous hairpiece that were on display in The Sopranos, the Tagliano character hides out in Lilyhammer (Lillehammer), Norway, with a new identity, Giovanni Henriksen.

In the process, "Johnny" Henriksen manages to find shortcuts through the Norwegian socialist bureaucracy. In so doing, the show raises an interesting question. What's worse--an ineffectual government functionary or a crooked "businessman"? Further, if a former crime boss corrupts everyone in his path with a "direct-action strategy," is that an upgrade?

As Lars Walker writes at the American Spectator website...

Imagine a television comedy about an American who moves to an exotic foreign country. He utterly refuses to assimilate, flouts the local laws, beats up people who offend him... acts in pretty much every way as the stereotypical Ugly American, and yet comes out as a sort of a hero?

And imagine that this series was produced, not by some jingoistic American company, but by people from that very foreign land. And what if most of their countrymen loved it?

Big Hollywood's John Nolte lauds the show for its perhaps inadvertent counter-balance against political correctness that would likely never find its way into American television:

Every year Norway holds their own 4th of July, and when Johnny sees that his girlfriend’s son has written a speech about tolerance, peace, love, and multiculturalism — he tells the kid not to apologize for Norway, but to be proud of his country and to stand up for it. The end result is one of the series’ highlights.

Whether the series will "go left" in future installments to make up for its departure from PC orthodoxy remains to be seen.

The subplots and characters in Lilyhammer are interconnected like--to some degree--Curb Your Enthusiasm. And although those in the Witness Protection Program have sometimes gotten into further trouble with the law in real life, would someone on the run from the mob really get mixed up in all kinds of high-profile schemes?

The eight-episode series, which apparently set ratings records in Norway, takes a darker, less-comedic turn in episode five, and becomes somewhat unbelievable by the series finale. It has been renewed for a second season, however.

Perhaps the most charming aspect of the show is how the generally friendly and quirky Norwegian characters switch seamlessly between their native language and English.

Lilyhammer does not necessarily pack a wallop or hit the nail on the head, but if you subscribe to Netflix streaming, it's definitely worth a look.

 

Mr. Brown Goes To Washington: There Is A New Sheriff In Town

Congratulations to Scott Brown on his stunning victory in the Massachusetts Special Senate election. The march towards socialism has been stopped in its tracks. And far as homeland security, this is what the Senator-elect said in his acceptance speech:

And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation - they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.

Immediate fallout of the Brown victory: Obama's flawed nominee to head the Transportation Safety Administration, Erroll Southers, has withdrawn his name from consideration.

Reagan: Free Enterprise Must Prevail Over Socialism

Whether you agree with his policies or not, one of the many admirable things about Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, was his unique and colorful career in the private sector before he sought public office. This background is in stark contrast to the career politicians, i.e., those who never held a real job, currently running the federal government. With great hubris, these politicians want to invade "the precincts of private citizens" as Reagan says in this amazingly prophetic and eloquent 1961 audio commentary about socialized medicine.

If we recall correctly, one of Peggy Noonan's books used the metaphor of Ronald Reagan, the high school lifeguard, as guiding America safely back to shore after the failed Carter presidency.

Orwell on Totalitarianism

Famed novelist George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984) initially considered himself a "Tory Anarchist" and then a socialist. He was, however, highly critical of various factions within the socialist movement, and especially assailed apologists for Stalin.

Orwell had seen the deadly consequences of Stalinism up close during the Spanish Civil War. In a fascinating biography of Orwell by Gordon Bowker that we're reading, Bowker quotes from an Orwell speech, circa 1941:

The totalitarian state exists for the glorification of the ruling clique, which means that the ruling clique are the prisoners of their own power and are obligated to follow any policy, no matter how self-contradictory, which will keep them in power. And having followed their policy they are obliged to justify it, so that all thought becomes a rationalization of the shifts of power politics.

Separately, Orwell wrote that "the really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits 'attrocities' but that it attacks the concept of objective truth: it claims to control the past as well as the future." Sound familiar? Hope and change anyone?

Orwell also disparagingly referred to Bolshevik commissars as "half gangster, half gramophone," which to some degree may be the contemporary equivalent of propaganda-by-talking-points.