Reviews of Morran och Tobias (2014) and related work
- Sequel: Morran & Tobias – Som en skänk från ovan (2016)
Morran och Tobias (2014
)
Seen in 2015.
The interesting thing about it is the characterization of Tobias, combining a toxic, sedentary masculinity with uncontrollable online spending. Apart from the need for eBay- or Blocket-like services to enable his lifestyle, the foundation is archaic: Characters inferior to the spectator making obviously poor decisions.
‣ Morran & Tobias – Som en skänk från ovan (2016)
Seen in 2019.
Indifferently composed. The reality TV topos should have been abandoned to pave the way for the mushroom dream. The writers probably made the right choice keeping the plot on a skit-like basis without a strong cohesive plot, but they should have taken the opportunity to trace the decay of the new house more clearly, as a linear process.
The airplane makes no sense at all, whereas Morran’s excursion to a barbecue party serves several purposes: A gag, reinforcement of the idea that mother and son are keeping each other helplessly isolated, and an opportunity to build the world outside. The glimpses we get of that outside world are mutually contradictory: Some apparently normal people, an extremely negligent delivery man, Åke’s grotesque friends, and Robert Aschberg. This could have used more work.
The attempt to stay current by giving Morran a Botox injection is curiously understated in comparison to real-world stars at the height of that trend, but Tobias’s morbid “community”, online dating expertise and sensuous unboxing are excellent. It’s a shame that his gadgets wouldn’t work; the burner in the opening scene, for instance, would not produce thrust.