Last week, on Thursday, May 5, two titles were released that I feel perfectly sum up the Netflix conundrum. One, an indulgent, gurning “comedy” by Mike Myers. Another, an exciting, funny, true(ish) tale by Jonas Åkerlund. One is about a secret organisation that controls the world featuring cameos from a whole host of Hollywood actors that will have you asking yourself, “Why in God’s good name are they in this movie?”, and the other, is in Swedish.
One the One Hand, The Pentaverate
Mike Myers’ The Pentaverate is exactly what you expect from a Mike Myers movie. Only worse. Gone are the days of Wayne’s World, or So I Married an Axe Murderer, or even that first Austin Powers movie. (Editor’s Note: The second one was pretty good too!) This isn’t smart comedy. This is The Love Guru Mike Myers. I’m not even going to bother telling you about The Pentaverate because it is not worth repeating. Just know that Mike Myers plays too many characters, and while all of those visual effects are done well, I did not laugh once throughout the series.
In a (sad) attempt at reliving the genius joke that was the rocket launch from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Pentaverate includes a sequence where Mike Myers’ mild mannered Canadian (CACA News? Groan) reporter is playing a particularly vulgar game of billiards with some foul mouthed New Yorkers. At one point, Myers’ cameraperson, British actress and BAFTA nominated Lydia West turns to the camera, breaks character, and speaking in her English accent asks, “How can Netflix be okay with this?” It then cuts to a nameless Netflix executive, who goes on to say that they will recut that scene to remove language and make it more family friendly. Only it isn’t. The movie then cuts back to the same sequence, with all the bad language badly cut out (think Malaysian Censorship Board), and now it just looks like Mike Myers is “fucking” the foul mouthed New Yorker. Only it doesn’t. It’s a joke a 12-year-old from 1990 might find funny.
The Pentaverate is bad. And for some reason (maybe it’s Mike Myers, maybe it’s the Netflix cheque that came with the casting call), this movie is littered with famous actors who should have known better. Jeremy Irons introduces all the episodes. Rob Lowe is here. Keegan Michael-Key. Ken Jeong. Debi Mazar. Jennifer Saunders! After watching just two episodes of this lame, six episode series, I’m left to echo the words of Lydia West: “How can Netflix be okay with any of this?”
And on the Other, Clark
And then there’s Clark, Jonas Åkerlund’s series about Sweden’s infamous criminal Clark Olofsson and the crime that gave rise to the term “Stockholm Syndrome.” Clark is a frenetic and frenzied retelling of the Clark Olofsson story from the point of view of Clark Olofsson himself. Jonas Åkerlund takes his years of music video experience and has put together a story that is exciting, fast, and colourful. Åkerlund leans into the idea of the unreliable narrator with Clark Olofsson recounting his many past adventures from his point of view. Clark is a rockstar. He is Butch Cassidy and Billy the Kid all rolled up into one Swedish meatball. It also doesn’t hurt that Olofsson is played the mischievous and delicious Bill Skarsgård.
Over the course of six episodes, the audience is taken along on a ride that takes in the Swedish countryside, Stockholm, Hamburg, and Beirut, as Olofsson gets himself into, and out of, varying degrees of trouble. Escaping multiple prisons, shootouts, becoming a fugitive, and breaking hearts, seems to be par for the course for a day in the life of Clark Olofsson.
None of this, however, is told as gospel. Jonas Åkerlund is very clear in his portrayal of Clark Olofsson. This is Clark Olofsson’s story, by Clark Olofsson, told in wild abandon. Girls fawn over him as he is taken away to prison. Their mothers fantasise about him as they watch the news. He is Sweden’s naughty boy. It doesn’t matter that an accomplice kills a police officer in a robbery gone bad. Or that he accidentally shoots another police officer during a scuffle. In making this a fun story, Jonas Åkerlund stays away from making just another cops and robbers story. How much – if any – of this is true is up for debate but as a piece of storytelling, Clark is a fun watch that reminds the audience that every story has a point of view that is worth telling; even if that point of view is wrong.
The Pentaverate versus Clark
Here’s the thing. It seems that when Netflix’s algorithm is pushed aside for human centric content development, the stuff they come up with is more than excellent. Unfortunately the majority of that is happening in the non-English language space. Shows like AlRawabi School for Girls, Dark, Most Beautiful Thing, Kingdom, Alice in Borderland, Control Z, are all excellent shows that will not get the love and attention of viewers because they are seen to be less accessible to wider audiences. But if the success of Lupin and Squid Game are anything to go by, it seems that the rest of the world is less troubled by that one-inch barrier of subtitles.
Netflix’s recent big Hollywood releases, on the other hand, have been less than stellar. In fact, they have been downright embarrassing. Big, expensive multi-picture deals ($300 million for Ryan Murphy, $100 million for Kenya Barris) that have all proven to be either middling or disappointing, has shown everyone, except those at Netflix HQ, that trend and algorithm driven content creation has not been the success story they may have hoped it would be.
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