Streaming series review - Prisoner

Prisoner (originally, Huset): Season One ** (out of 5) Prison films and series tend to pick one of the following themes: Action flicks with plenty of fighting, starring the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme or a Scott Adkins. Usually, it’s a good guy fighting for survival against overwhelming odds. Next would be the slew of exploitation women-in-chains sort, using the premise as an excuse for nudity and other aspects of lurid appeal. Most were B movies that thrived in the 1970s – ‘80s. The Orange is the New Black series classed the genre up a bit without losing titillation value. Then there were classy character dramas like Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke and The Rock. Finally come comedies like The Longest Yard (original, fun; remake, lame). This six-episode subtitled Danish drama manages to break relatively new ground with a bleak, claustrophobic drama of variably flawed characters on both sides of the law.

The star is Sofie Grabol as Miriam – one of the guards trying to do right by the law and the prisoners in a corrupted system. This is the third series starring her that I’ve covered this year. She excelled as a police detective in The Killing, and as a hospital midwife in The Shift. Those set the bar higher than this outing could reach, though through no fault of hers.

Grabol looks to have been frumped up a bit for this role, befitting a character long beleaguered by inmates, colleagues on the take, and a son whose drug habit and criminal ties add plenty to her burdens. Most of the show is from her perspective, along with Sammi (Youssef Wayne Hyvidtfeldt), the stuffy by-the-book new guard she helps to train. The prison has been running on a laissez faire policy of looking the other way on the prisoners’ drugs, contraband and periodic brawls or stabbings among rival groups. Letting them do their thing keeps the place relatively calm and makes the guards’ lives far easier. And safer.

That all changes when well-meaning warden Gert (Charlotte Fich) announces that because a new prison is being built, one of three – including hers – will be closed, either ending their jobs, or sticking them with a 75-mile commute to the nearest placement. Inspectors will be monitoring operations for three months to decide which gets the axe. That pressures the guards to begin scouring cells for forbidden fruit, and enforcing the rules far more diligently than before to convince the higher-ups to shut down someone else’s turf. Naturally, the inmates bristle at the loss of enjoyment and income this imposes, putting all careers and bodies at risk.

Seems like the setup for a gritty, brutal drama, doesn’t it? Well, the trio of credited writers – two of whom also directed episodes – thought otherwise. They went for a slow-moving, highly cynical presentation, with little regard for stirring viewer empathy. Not much in the sex/skin department; relatively shy on displays of brutality. Miriam and Gert are generally the most sympathetic, but neither character’s actions make them protagonists to root for. For me, having an anchor like that is fairly essential to sustaining interest in what happens – moreso for the time a season of series takes compared to movies. Perhaps they were focused on hammering home critiques of Danish and other prison systems as more of an editorial than entertainment product. If so, they achieved the goal. But that doesn’t make for must-see viewing. On the plus side, the season ends without cliffhangers of consequence, so it works as a complete miniseries if there’s never a Season 2.

(Prisoner: Season 1, mostly in Danish with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of 3/12/24)