SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Blistering performances.

I was pretty gripped by this, having just binge-watched the last two episodes. There were times when I didn't really know what was going on, and times when I wanted to say, No, don't go into the woods AGAIN, in the dark, just don't! But I found the characters engaging and eccentric (I'm officially in love with Viveca) and there was enough of a cliff-hanger at the end of each episode to make me impatient for the next one. And ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you buy into other-worldly stuff or not - it can be complete tosh, like this probably was (see also: Stranger Things), but if you're enjoying it, why the hell not? I fail to understand why our two Scandinavian friends are so vehement in their dislike - I got the echoes of Twin Peaks and Stephen King, but so what? It's all out there. And I thoroughly enjoyed it - and they're probably less enchanted by hearing Swedish spoken than I am.

Looks better from a distance?Of the three previous reviews – the two Scandinavian reviewers were not at all keen but the one from the USA found a lot of good in it.Is it a national culture thing? I am from the UK but have visited Sweden a few times. The show could well be derivative drivel / hogwash / nonsense but there are few things in life that are truly new.It is however beautifully filmed with interesting characters and lifestyles. Am I intrigued because I want to immerse myself in what I imagine Swedish country life is like?

What an absolute load of rubbish and a total waste of time watching this series: messy, unfathomable plot, unrealistic characters... The list goes on. Actors were pretty OK, but their roles were not. If this series was intended to be a fairytale, it failed. A drama it was clearly not. I don't know what it was, but not a good reason to spend 12 hours of one's life watching it. There seems to be a trend in Swedish TV-series presently - similar fantasy elements could be detected in another recent TV-show from Sweden, namely Jordskott. One can not but compare these two and wish, enough already! Fairy tales for adults don't work unless they are perfectly written or unique.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."― Oscar WildeIn the case of Swedish TV-series Ängelby I would say it's more of an insult than flattery.The setup, right down to the main theme, is a total rip off from Twin Peaks. Same goes for the mystery man who doesn't speak. He is a copy of he dwarf who speaks backwards in Twin Peaks. But in Ängelby he can speak to flying elks (!).In the woods there is a mystery stone from space which sounds a lot like Stephen King's The Tommyknockers. Then we have the mystery kid that rides his bike in the woods. Why does he remind me of the mystery guy in Lost?There are more examples of "inspiration", or theft, from Stephen King, Twin Peaks, Lost and more. Fact is I have no problem with inspiration, but I do hate plagiarism, especially when it's uncredited.Besides the lame story Ängelby has some of the worst acting I've seen in a long time. In Sweden the government pays writers, directors, actors etc money for their "cultural work" which makes is a job you choose because you like it, not because you're good at it. The need to reform the Swedish system has never been clearer than with Ängelby.Life is short, stay clear of Ängelby. You don't need to thank me for that advice.