Season 1, Episode 3
Date of airing: December 3, 2016 (DR1)
Written by: Klaus Rasmussen
Directed by: Lars Kaalund
”Is this a dream or is this real?”
With Sara's accident and drop into the water, the show has reached the inciting incident, and the main premise of the story can finally begin. Sara wakes up in what is either a dream or another reality, and the drama of the narrative about a comatose girl and her desperate family can commence. It's why I decided to watch the show in the first place (and because it's December). The first two episodes made this show look like a soft young-adult drama, but now we are getting to the point, and a fantasy plot is added. Sara will now have to survive in the real world and a fairytale adventure in the other reality, after her real-life fairytale was just stomped on repeatedly.
As expected, Janus was not interested in Sara, and she got her heart broken in return. That does make me wonder how much Janus will still be part of the story, and if he and Sara may eventually become the “endgame” of the story, with Sara finally getting her prince at the ed, or if she gets to realize that her previous choices in boys have been a waste of time, and she would rather live life on her own. Not to mention that the entire premise of the show can be shortened to “girl is in a coma, dreams up a fantasy world in her mind to fight to stay alive.” A certain British cop drama set in the 1970s, which aired for two seasons, had the same premise, and I'm assuming this show is playing the same tune.
Meanwhile, I could not help but notice how the color grading was differentiating between both worlds. Real life is dark, moody, almost bleak with its blue hues. The fairytale world became bright and with a hint of yellow, but not without darkness either (there seem to be some lighting issues turning shadows completely black – I'm not sure if this was an intended style for the show). It makes it easier to distinguish both storylines in the future, but that doesn't mean I don't like how the show is color-graded in general. I'm not sure that a young-adult drama is supposed to look gritty and moody, almost like an HBO show.
Oh, and the German dubbing of this show dropped another F-bomb when Sara was declaring with a loud voice that she wanted her prince now and that she is “fucking 15.” Still, I'm surprised the children's channel of Germany's public broadcaster would accept such language on their airwaves. And it is confirmation that I didn't mishear the F-bomb in the previous episode.
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| Only a twin can mend a sister's broken heart. |
