People Are Difficult (First Season) Hostages had a strange effect on me: I took it unexpectedly to heart. No, the events described in it did not lead to such an effect, but the widest range of emotions that his heroes had to experience. The secret is that people are complex, and this is what I was able to convey, show the series, at first glance, not intended for this.
On the one hand, the story of several crimes unfolds before the viewer, only indirectly related to each other, as well as the characters involved in them. But these crimes are nothing more than a way to seriously influence the people involved in them, to change human lives, to release to the surface all the angels and demons that are most often locked inside the human soul. Much more time is devoted not to investigation, not to action, but to emotions from actions, from strong and serious events. Therefore, the authors do not spare their heroes: everyone can be maimed or killed, everyone can be hurt. Some lines look completely meaningless in the shadow of the main, moreover, they mean nothing to her, but they are necessary! They are needed to show how much a person has inside, no matter how he looks, no matter how people around him know him. Everyone in the series has a chance to either screw it up or fix it. But there is not one that is clearly black or uniquely white. People are complicated! Even criminals. Even the cops. Even victims of crime.
There are no main characters in the usual sense of the word, acting equally meaningfully from beginning to end. The main characters are human emotions. The authors are interested in exploring meanness, duplicity, nobility, reaction to grief, repentance, correction: all the strong and attractive feelings that can be experienced. The victim of the crime, Lydia, evokes no sympathy, neither physical nor moral. Even as a victim, she is cruel herself, and it's unexpected, paradoxical, it mixes the cards. It is difficult to accept that this happens, that it happens that a cold-blooded person still acts because of “just” feelings. The seemingly positive Evert finds himself trapped in a sense of duty, a sense of friendship, and his own sense of what is right. And also an elusive sense of guilt over his wife and fear of accepting a new reality, from which the hero gently flees, perhaps only realizing his escape from the edge of his mind. The criminal Yochum is torn between love, friendship, a possible new future and fear for his life. His words in the finale are not only understandable and believable, but completely convincing, as the authors in these six episodes conduct it through redemption. But another policeman, Tobias, is rather a function, albeit at times quite human, which the authors do not lead along the corridor of emotions, but through the attitude to which other people lead. And yet it is also a personality: implausibly and frighteningly different than it seemed; the footage in the latest series is very symbolic - the two sides of the same coin are so obvious that it jitters. Even deeply secondary characters, such as the pimp Lucian, have their own scene, giving the opportunity to look into the soul and see something else, hidden. In each there is darkness and light, and the unobvious rushes out. Each is multifaceted, this is the meaning of human existence itself, and “Hostages” clearly show this.
As for the detective component, it is deeply secondary. Hostages is a series of permanent action, not a thoughtful investigation. Heroes do not try to achieve anything, they try to understand in a given moment and second, and understand more for themselves than for others. The first half of the series is not quite a detective, maybe a thriller: tense, unpredictable and sharp. The main secret of the hostages is the people themselves. Heroes try to understand the motives, not to find the traditional answers for detectives, not to prevent possible future crimes, but to realize the committed ones. Therefore, the final here is open, discouragingly shocking and leaving in serious shock and bewilderment. The finale is a consequence of human decisions and human delusions that could have been prevented, but people are people, and so much of life is a direct consequence of human psychology.
Hostages don’t have the charm of traveling through old Europe. Stockholm in the frame is purely technical: here is the station, here are beautiful shots from above with rivers, lakes, historical buildings, here is a serene forest, but most often the action takes place in buildings. The city is not involved in history. It's just a location. This approach is better for focusing on people, which is probably why space matters so little in the series.
Quite unexpectedly a wonderful series, so emotional, which is not every melodrama, so thoughtful and intelligent, which is not always the author's film. To speak in such a clear language about emotions is expensive. It’s impossible to see at what point the show engages, absorbs, catches every word and every look. It's very interesting, and it's very complicated. Its name, perhaps, does not reflect its essence, the emphasis here is not on the cell, not on hostages, but on the very nature of man in all its diversity. This movie is for those who lack emotions: “Hostages” will give them full.