En helt vanlig familj - Season 1

When nineteen-year-old Stella is arrested for a murder in an entire family, her parents are left with many questions. What happened, why is their daughter suspected of this crime and did she actually kill someone?

The Swedish En helt vanlig familj, translated into English A Nearly Normal Family, is one of Netflix's newest miniseries. The mysterious dramatic story is about the Sandell family from Lund consisting of father, mother and daughter. At first glance it is a very normal family, but behind closed doors unresolved traumas from the past play a major role in their current lives.

You understand why the characters do what they do and as a viewer you can really imagine what drives them to their actions.

Stella Sandell (Alexandra Karlsson Tyrefors) is fifteen years old when she is raped during a sports camp. Ultimately, this event is swept under the rug and we move forward in time four years. Stella is now nineteen years old and doesn't really know yet what she wants to do with her life. She works and dreams about traveling far away, while her parents would rather see her study and work towards a more stable future, just like best friend Amina (Melisa Ferhatovic). When Stella bumps into the rich, older Christoffer Olsen (Christian Fandango Sundgren, Ondskan) during her birthday, a new world opens up for her. She is intrigued by him and their relationship develops rapidly.

En helt vanlig familj starts with a murder. It soon turns out that Stella is arrested for this murder, but who the victim is only becomes clear later. As the story progresses we see the build-up to the murder and finally find out in the final episode what really happened that fateful night. Did Stella commit the murder or was it someone else, and what was the motive for the crime?

Stella's mother Ulrika (Lo Kauppi) is a lawyer and quite a workaholic. Her relationship with her husband Adam (Björn Bengtsson, The Last Kingdom), who is a pastor at the Church of Sweden, suffers as a result. They seem to be growing apart and things don't get any easier after their daughter ends up in prison. While Ulrika buries herself in her work, Adam looks for answers by starting his own investigation. What soon becomes clear is that they both deal with their emotions in a completely different way, so there is little question of supporting each other. Can their relationship survive all this?



With only six episodes that together take around five hours, it is not a long series. Still, this is more than enough time to tell the story and give the characters depth. In the end, it is clear what exactly happened and it is up to the viewer to determine whether the consequences are justified or not. Personally, I like these types of short mysteries, but I must honestly admit that this story was a bit disappointing for me. That has nothing to do with the acting because it was very strong.

Halfway through, the series feels a bit long-winded and even boring here and there.

It is clear that the makers wanted to tell the story realistically with real people and their flaws. I feel like they sometimes went a little too far into this. Not a single character is really sympathetic and although it is logical that trauma has a lot to do with a person, I would have liked to see more positive sides of the parents, for example. What I really liked was how believable the whole thing is. You understand why the characters do what they do and as a viewer you can really imagine what drives them to their actions.

There was some tension missing in the whole family. The atmosphere portrayed in the trailer only really came to the fore at a single moment while watching. The story progresses a bit and there is a lot of attention to how Stella's parents deal with everything that happens to her. I would have liked this a little less. Halfway through, the series feels a bit long-winded and even boring here and there. This is a matter of taste and certainly does not make the series bad. Ultimately, it's just a good story told well. But I had imagined something more about the series. That is why my final grade is not very high, for me En helt vanlig familj was just not it.