Tore (Swedish Series)

Everyone has their own way of dealing with grief. Some tackle it head-on, while others live in denial. In this series, a gay young adult Tore, our leading man walk a path of self-destruction. As audience it sometimes become frustrating for us to not be able to understand why Tore is doing what he is doing, but if you delve in the character depth enough, it feels like an honest portrayal of grief and escapism. The actor playing Tore also happens to be writer and creator of the show. And what's more interesting is that even though the show may sound all serious and drama; it's actually a dark-comedy, tragedy and drama. At six episodes of half an hour each, this Swedish Netflix series was a very good binge watch.

The split is simple. Tore is a 27 year old gay, virgin, young adult, socially clueless boy who lives and works with his father at the funeral home. In the first episode we see father and son fighting over why isin't Tore leaving the house to live on his own. Essentially he has lived a very protected life. IN a random freak accident, his father gets killed by a truck, and this is when Tire does everything possible to suppress and ignore the grief. He finds a party gat where gay parties happen and starts frequenting that. He meets Viggo there, gets introduced to alcohol and drugs and possibility of sex. Around same time, a new florist Erik comes into the picture and Tore is completely mitten by him and starts flirting with him at every occasion. Meanwhile, his closet friend form a longtime, a single mom Linn fails to understand why Tore is behaving the way he is. She sees his life spiraling out of control in front of her eyes and everything she tried to do to help him, doesn't work. Everyone is worries that Tore is about to lose his footing in his desperate attempts to escape reality. While trying to escape grief, he even force tries to have sex with Viggo, so he is not reminded of his father. And once when he actually gets some love and affection from Erik, the reality hits him hard to find that Erik already has a boyfriend. Its through some meaningful friendship of a drag queen from the party board that finally Tore starts to make sense of things, apologies to Linn and goes on stage in a drag in the finale finally hoping to come out of his shell.

Tore excels in the depth and authenticity of its title character’s grief. He is crippled by grief that he doesn’t understand or know how to process. Naturally, he runs from it and tries to dull its pain with various numbing agents; drugs, debauchery, jokes and eventually his bad decisions lead to experiences that begin to shape him into a man who can stand on his own two feet. He consistently makes terrible choices and hurts people. It broke my heart when he hurts Linn and her adorable 6-7 year old son, who cannot understand why suddenly Tore is behaving the way he is. He’s difficult to like by design, though, because on a deep level, he doesn’t like himself, or at least the position he finds himself in. The show asks for patience in highlighting Tore’s flaws so that he can understand and learn from them. What I also was fascinated by was individual stories of Erik and Viggo and Linn and also the old lady who lost her husband. These supporting characters have their own arcs, feelings, anxieties, and personalities and how their interactions with Tore are all different. With Viggo, you can see that Tore sees an escape in terms of drugs and alcohol. Viggo initially thinks he wants sex too but when they eventually becomes friends, Tore make a move on him to escape memories of his dad at a funeral conference. With Erik the florist, he is the first man who he feels a crush on. He does simple stupid yet loving things that you would expect a man crushing on someone would do to get their attention. That whole relationship is beautifully shown. With the older woman, it's the only time he actually talks about grief and how people handle it. We already talked about Linn. Let's not forget to talk about the dog MJ, a very important character indeed who, probably besides Linn, has to bear the brunt of Tore's craziness. MJ was crazy about Tore's dad and after his death, MJ constantly reminds him of his dad and Tore can't handle it.

As the leading man and the creator of the show, William Spetz does a fantastic job of bringing Tore to life. He's childish for sure, but endearing thanks to his awkwardness and lack of social awareness. There's a solid reasoning, an emotional understanding, of why Tore makes an irrational decision, and that is what makes the narrative so tragic and agonizingly relatable. Yes, Tore is more often than not self-destructive in his attempts of suppressing grief, but along the way he does become a more well-rounded adult. This is what makes Tore so compelling; it's a painfully real look into every aspect, good and bad, of dealing with grief and finding yourself along the way. With excellent acting, beautiful script and stellar performances, you will laugh and cry, like I did with each episode. Do yourself a favor and watch this show. A gay man's exploration of dealing with loss and growing up, something like this, I have not seen before. (8/10)