quote:

In the near future, the Green Party of Norway stops all oil and gas production following an oil spill in the Norwegian Sea caused by a climate change-related super storm. Soon after, Europe is on the verge of an energy crisis, but the leaders of the European Union have cut a deal with the Russians, which share a border and have Arctic drilling equipment around the corner. They are going to save the Norwegians --and Continental Europeans -- from the cold.

Only, as if straight out of science fiction, the aliens have come and they are not leaving. Some in Norway's government want the Russians out. They are taking too much control, and Norway is quickly feeling like a vassal.

Worse yet, the U.S. wont help because the president has pulled the country out of NATO. And the center-right powers-that-be in the E.U. want to teach the Green Party a lesson.

The Russians know Norway wants them out, but like a clip out of the novels sitting in the drawers of BuzzFeed and Daily Beast reporters, the Russians aren't going anywhere and are on orders from The Kremlin to stick it out. They use their vast technological skills to monitor Norwegian rabble rousers like Big Brother. Norwegian nationalists rise up against the Russkies. Military grunts break with the brass. The European Union warns "do not provoke them," and we have a show down.


Such is Occupied, a TV drama that pits a left wing Green Party government with a European Union who, out of punishment for killing their energy supply, hands Norway over to energy rich Russians. The show taps into the current zeitgeist reminiscent of Cold War entertainment like War Games and Red Dawn. With the Baltic States and Scandinavians up in arms over the Russians on their borders, and Donald Trump saying NATO is obsolete in its fight against terrorism, Occupied puts the worst, modern Russian nightmares on screen.

Fans of Russian spy thrillers might have to dig to find Occupied with English subtitles. Others who just like to hate on climate change Green Party types might get a kick out of surfing YouTube watching Norway's Green Party chief standing down to what amounts to an EU-sanctioned Russian occupation.

Occupied first aired in 2015, a year after Russia annexed Crimea, a southeastern peninsula in Ukraine's Black Sea. It was first created in 2008 by Jo Nesbo, a best-selling "who-dunnit" mystery writer in Norway. Besides than the usual ensemble cast, big budget made-for-TV spectacle, Occupied asks the question of viewers to consider what is more important: peace or national sovereignty.

The Meduza Project, an independent digital publisher in Moscow, gave a play-by-play look at the series this weekend from the Russian P.O.V. As they describe their own peeps in the show: "Russians talk from a position of strength in Norway that should arouse in the viewer an animal fear of them: they are more powerful; they know all about you; they do not reflect (or feel empathy), they just carry out orders."

In the series, the Green Party prime minister played by Norwegian actor Henrik Mestad (his father is the late Viking Mestad, a politician from Venstre, a green-ish, multi-culti liberal party) is given a choice at the point of a gun: our way (Russia's way) or the highway. He plays a self-doubting, limp-wristed leader for the most part, that cannot even keep his own army in line. He's got high ideals and principals. And his key question is whether democracy be saved by undemocratic methods.

Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appear in words and deeds, ordering around the Russian ambassador there, played by award-winning Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkunaite. Her real live counterpart in Norway, Sergey Andreyev, reportedly said that Occupied made Russians look bad. The Embassy took the show so seriously that it went on record to confirm that the Russians have no interest in threatening Norway's sovereignty.

The Russians didn't issue similar warnings with other television series that either make the Russians look like bad guys, or oligarch thugs as is the case with Londongrad, a show created in part by Russians.

The U.S. has its own Russia-centric dramatic series. Amblin Entertainment's The Americans is about double agents in the U.S. in the Reagan era. It was created by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA officer. It has aired on FX since 2013. The series ends next year.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
I saw the first season and thought it was great. I cancelled Netflix and don't know what happened after season one, but would love to know if it's available elsewhere (e.g., Amazon).