Review of Ägd (2016)
Seen in 2017.
Non-economic costs. Social status and affluence versus hypocrisy.
Filmed stage show. Not literally a sequel to Ljust & fräscht (2016), but it’s the same people on the same theme in the same format. More tame and more shallow than Ljust & fräscht. More time is spent boringly discussing how bored the audience would be if the performers talked about economics than is spent talking about economics. Similarly, although the argumentation rests on environmental limits to the economy, there is no attempt to illustrate this idea in a meaningful way. A higher proportion of the jokes are irrelevant, like Schyffert’s piece on the personal computer being invented as a personal assistant. This false premise is just an excuse for him to characterize modern Windows, iTunes and Adobe CS user interfaces as akin to a Finnish pop diva, while wilfully ignoring every benefit.
At the time of watching I was not in the target demographic. From an outsider’s perspective, the satire seems lenient. The ultimate conclusion, a proposal to bring more material industry back to Sweden, is insincere. I did still enjoy the frequent use of needless specificity in word choice as a formalist comedic element, but it doesn’t carry the show.