Lilyhammer

I recently binge-watched all three seasons of "Lillyhammer", and I can't believe how engrossing this Netflix series is. It never loses interest. Most of the people responsible for the series are Norwegian; in fact, pretty much all escept Steven van Zandt, who stars and is also given credit as a writer and executive producer.

The aspects of Norwegian culture featured in the series are realistic, as far as I can discern. For example, I had never heard of reindeer races, but it turns out that reindeer racing is quie popular in northern Norway, Finland, and Russia.

The winter scenes have always captivated me, as I much prefer winter weather to summer weather. This is one thing that has attracted me to movies like "Fargo" and "Beatutiful Girls", the great winter scenes, with lots of snow.

But what has most captivated me about this great series are the references, both direct and indirect, to great movies of the past. The opening scene in season two is right out of "The Godfather", where an aggrieved citizen is making a plea for help, and for a long time it shows his face without showing who he is talking to. Many of the lines are word for word from the opening scene in "The Godfather".

The first sheriff of Lillehammer is an exact takeoff of the female sheriff in "Fargo". There is a direct reference to "Goodfellas", where Johnny is berating a guy for saying he is funny, and Johnny then says he is mimicing Tommy from "Goodfellas". In another scene Johnny connects with an autistic boy by using lines from "Angels with Dirty Faces". The line "I'm the guy who's telling you the way it is" is taken from "Get Shorty", and possibly other movies as well. In two scenes right out of "Godfather II", a guy who is about to get whcked gets taken out on a boat for fishing.

When Johnny and his men are on a mission, Johnny's dim-witted assistant suggests they call themeselves by colors, like in "Reservoir Dogs". Johnny points out that the purpose of that was so they don't know each other's names. At one point the assistant says "I could have been a contender", right out of "On the Waterfront".

When the mob sends two men over to Norway to assassinate Johnny, the two bungle around just like the two thiefs in "Home Alone". And the girls in bikinis coming out of an RV to entice the two guys into partying with them are right out of "Dumb and Dumber".

The final episode, appropriately entitled "Loose Ends", is particularly noteworthy. The loose ends are indeed tied up, and the theme is developed of whether Frankie's time has come and gone, whether it is time for him to give way to a younger (and meaner) generation, as represented by the guy Tommy who refused to leave Norway when ordered to. Tommy gets his comeuppance,and the old guard survives intact. I was pleased that the Brazilian beauty has a big part in the finale, and many of her lines are quite poetic.