Midsummer Night is a series directed by Per-Olav Sørensen starring Pernilla August and Dennis Storhoi.
If you’re looking for a family drama about time, kinship, human relationships, and the changes life brings, Netflix presents “Midsummer Night”. The drama unfolds over five episodes during the summer solstice, interwoven with several flashbacks.
It might remind some viewers of Bergman, especially some of his films in terms of theme and construction, but “Midsummer Night” is a TV show about characters that mainly talks about the acceptance of time.
A series that’s very “European” in feel where the focus is more on the construction of characters than the visual aesthetics, revolving around dialogues and what the characters think and feel (which brings it close to Ibsen’s European theater).
A drama packed with emotions about accepting maturity and, above all, the passage of time.
Plot
A family comes together to celebrate the summer solstice. Each one will bring their own stories, small or big, to a celebration that will stir up conflicts, old memories, and also, new hopes.
About the series
A series about the family and time, one of those that we’ve seen a thousand times and those that endure because they’re stories of generations, time, life, and death. Yes, everything so significant and, at the same time, as natural as the cycle of life.
Everything revolves around the characters and, therefore, the actors shine more than the series’ aesthetic quality (which is clearly televisual). All stand out, especially Pernilla August, who plays the role of the mother who makes a decision that affects everyone in some way. She’s fantastic in her role, the one that has to shine in the series around which the rest of the characters revolve.
But it’s not a series with a single protagonist. Yes, we’ve seen quite a few series and movies of this kind: here the protagonist is choral or, if you want, as abstract as the family itself or the time that elapses.
The formula is this: a dichotomy is established between a celebration that, at its core, represents the passing of time and, during that brief period, the characters realize that time has passed and that everyone has changed in some way.
Yes, we’ve also seen this in 19th-century theater a thousand times, and this series has a lot of theatrical treatment, just like Bergman had in some of his films, but only in some.
Our opinion
A series that knows how to play with transcendence, time, and its own theatricality. A series where the strength lies in the performances and the construction of the characters. A series that you need to get into and let it capture you, allowing the characters to flow from their apparent theatricality into reality.