🇩🇰 🇩🇪 SLOBORN 🇩🇪 🇩🇰
Sløborn (2020-2021) is a German-Danish drama/sci-fi/thriller TV series. Season 1 is available on Walter Presents U.K. C4 app. 8 x 45-55 minute episodes. Rated Guidance for content. In German, Danish and English with embedded subtitles.
Premise:
“After a pandemic rolled through the island of Sløborn, the survivors have to deal with the consequences.” IMDb
Cast:
Emily Kusche as Evelin Kern
Alexander Scheer as Nikolai Wagner
Roland Møller as Magnus Fisker
Adrian Grünewald as Hermann ‘Herm’ Swarting
Mads Hjulmand as Jan Fisker
Aaron Hilmer as Devid
Lea van Acken as Ella
Crew:
Creator: Christian Alvart
Writers: Christian Alvart, Henner Schulte-Holtey, Arend Remmers
Composers: Max Filges, Christoph Schauer
Cinematographers: Christian Alvart, Christian Huck
Editors: Marc Hofmeister, William James, Zoë Dahmen, Robert Sterna
Costume Designer: Dorota Budna
Key Makeup Artist: Meike Gfrörer
Locations:
Norderney, Lower Saxony, Germany
Poland
Brandenburg, Germany
Review:
Sløborn season 1 was made before the Covid global pandemic and it’s worth bearing that in mind when watching. It is, of course, tricky to discard what we know happened in real life when watching but I think it’s best to approach this as a “what/if” scenario. It’s also worth considering the different type of virus in this series, it being haemorrhagic brings a whole different dimension, especially visually. There will be blood.
There is quite a lot to like about this series. I particularly enjoyed the performances, the direction and cinematography and the excellent music and sound design. I’m also a fan of sci-fi which this is.
Some coincidences tended to make me roll my eyes. One example of this is when our “slightly” irritating female protagonist Evelin (boy did I get irritated with her name after a while) looks out of a hospital window and her father just happens to be in the street outside at that very moment.
There were also some plot holes and hard-to-swallow implausibilities such as a young teenager being able to pick up a sub-machine gun so easily (those things are heavy), an army boat patrol only having a single serviceman on it and a magically invisible boat (boats) when others came to look.
I thought the character development in Sløborn was very well done although perhaps some could have started at a slightly less extreme level of hot mess etc. I did get a bit confused about some characters’ motivations which were muddied and felt as if they could have been better developed. Evelin wasn’t a character I warmed to, nor were her parents, but it was satisfying to see her develop as a person in this.
The acting, as I briefly mentioned before, is generally good in this series.
What interested me a great deal was how this scenario was handled by the authorities and those in positions of authority were explored. The spectre of military rule during a state of emergency, people being transported to camps and selection procedures and the various responses of civilians’ would certainly ring a louder warning bell in some countries than others…
One thing Sløborn has, disregarding its issues (it does have them), is that parts are genuinely exciting and thrilling and it is, overall, an entertaining watch. I do think it perhaps suffered from trying to give us too many perspectives in one go.
[My only other observation, as a German speaker, is that the subtitles are annoyingly “off” at times]
Awards:
3 German Academy TV Award Nominations
Trailer:
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