🇸🇪 SNABBA CASH SEASON 2 🇸🇪
Snabba Cash (2021-) is a Swedish Netflix Original crime drama. Season 2 has 6 episodes of 38-49 minutes. Rated 15 UK.
⚠️ This is a spoiler review of Snabba Cash Season 2 ⚠️
Premise Season 2:
“A year has passed since the first season. Leya is one of Sweden’s hottest stars within the startup scene. An IPO for Target Coach is just around the corner and Leya seems more successful than ever, but she is also tormented by the memories of Salim.
Jamal (Ardalan Esmaili) is newly divorced and the operations manager at Leya’s old elementary school. He’s fighting to give his young students better opportunities, but the management would rather continue to cut the budget.
The climate on the streets is more brutal than ever. Ravy is up against the wall, pressured by the police and their new methods as well as his new competitor Zaki (Adam Kais). The market is screaming for more drugs and the cartels are ready to deliver, but the gangs are lacking young dealers.
Against her will, Leya’s reminded of her previous connections with the underworld, and once again, she’s crossing paths with Ravy, Nala and Osman – all in the ruthless chase for easy money.” Netflix
Cast:
Evin Ahmad as Leya
Dada Fungula Bozela as Ravy
Ayaan Ahmed as Nala
Yasmine Garbi as Li
Adam Kais as Zaki
Alexander Abdallah as Salim
Khalil Ghazal as Osman
Ardalan Esmaili as Jamal
Olle Sarri as Tomas Storm
Ali Alarik as Tim
Peter Eggers as Marcus Werner
Daniel Nevado Kröger as Amir
Johni Tadi as Hassan
Crew:
Creators: Jens Lapidus, Oskar Söderlund, Jesper Ganslandt
Writers: Oscar Söderlund, Jesper Ganslandt, Mona Masri, Aron Levander
Directors: Jesper Ganslandt, MĂĄns MĂĄnsson, Lisa Farzaneh
Composer: Erik Enocksson
Cinematographers: Gustav Danielsson, Nadim Carlsen
Sound Designer: Niklas Lindh
Review:
One of the highlights of my Nordic viewing last year was season 1 of Snabba Cash. Impressive cast, gritty story, well-written, exciting, tragic and captivating. Something that felt “real” in the same vein as Top Boy but doing its own thing with a similar scenario.
This show has a fantastic cast yet again this season and we see both old characters (including Salim) and new ones. During this season motivations and depth are added to these. The youngsters were generally impressive. All really good performances from the main cast and supporting cast with Ayaan Ahmed (Nala) being outstanding — what fabulous range!
We see, and understand, why the young kids get involved, how they are recruited and what the attraction of belonging to this new “family” is. We learn about the new character Jamal, his connection to Leya, and that his life is an alternative. We can also understand the frustrations he has with his job, the kids and funding etc.
Leya’s life becomes increasingly complicated and even more dangerous. We reach more than one point where we, like she, can sit back and think “How the hell did we get here?” The hurdles she has to overcome are many, including the creepy men in swimming pools and others that are both criminal and mentally unstable (that includes the “respectable” who, frankly, are no better).
Then there is the damage done to her young son, who is lashing out and clearly showing signs of abandonment issues. Leya herself is bordering on having a psychotic break and the appearances of Selim are handled so well in this. There’s nothing supernatural or just a flashback but a real, dynamic reflection of her own psyche and her unresolved trauma and tremendous guilt.
Leya’s arc this season is beautifully constructed. From a start where life looks so promising, and she is in a place of denial as to what happened to Selim before, it all starts to go wrong. From this initial point of conflict and things starting to go bad, things get even worse. At the point where we, and probably our protagonist, think it cannot possibly get worse, it does!
I loved the way the “new kid on the block” Zaki was introduced and how his character developed; and that he was not without some redeeming features.
Ravy is another fascinating character. The whole point of the assault on the boy by Ravy is that we should be repulsed by it! We should always have in the back of our minds that whilst he can be a loving uncle and father-to-be but he is also an unbalanced thug! It’s part of the depth of his character that he is not just a “bad guy”. We can see that he wants to get out of this deadly life but that he is enmeshed in it — this is a major theme of this show as so many are entangled.
Trust, loyalty and betrayal are all explored this season (as last) and people show their true colours under stress. Family in every sense of the word is another lynchpin around which a lot revolves.
Although it is tempting to see Snabba Cash as only negative with no hope of escape it is important to hold on to facts such as Jamal having come from this place and that not all the kids chose to stay in the gang after what has happened.
I absolutely love the way Snabba Cash is written and the dialogue. This show is gritty, authentic and has both integrity and honesty. What the cast and crew can create on the screen owes much to this great screenwriting. Show not tell has not been forgotten, we see what people are like not just by their words, but as in this street life, their actions. As they say, actions speak louder than words.
I’ve not even touched on the direction and cinematography yet, so much palpable tension, excitement and a sense of impending doom… All enhanced by great sound design and music. Great action sequences, special effects and again I’ll mention the sound design. Do yourself a favour and watch this with a decent sound system or earphones, you’ll thank me for it.
The memorial to the boy who died too young was one scene that made me cry, so tragic, so needless… what a poignant emotionally charged yet beautifully underplayed piece of TV. Again images told us so much. The candles.
At the end of this season we have an enormous body count, innocent lives lost, and almost a sense of inevitability. Leya knows the game she is now up to her neck in and the likely outcome. I mentioned her arc this season, who would have thought at the start of episode 1 where she was going to be by episode 6? Masterful storytelling!
I cannot wait to see season 3! I need to know what happens next!
Awards Season 1:
2 Wins & 5 Nominations
Trailer Season 2:
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