A Nearly Normal Family – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Friday Night

[trigger warning – rape]

Episode 1 of A Nearly Normal Family begins with Stella acting nervous and scratching a tattoo on her arm while a therapist talks to her. There’s a flashback to when she was 15. After a handball match, she goes swimming with the assistant coach, Robin. She leads him on and they kiss but he gets aggressive and doesn’t stop when she tells him no. He rapes her but they are caught.

She tells her parents and they get her checked. The doctor changes her mind midway and says there is no definite proof. The mother, Ulrika who is a lawyer, pushes her till she starts doubting herself if she ever “made it clear” to Robin. The father, Adam, who is a priest, is hell-bent on going to the police but Ulrika stops him as she believes they will lose the case and Stella will be blamed. Stella overhears and is upset.

Flash forward to 4 years later, it is Stella’s 19th birthday and they gift her a moped for work. She is upset as they don’t listen to what she wants. Instead, Adam reprimands her for lying when she does it to get off work.

That night, she goes to a club with her high school friend, Amina. They are interrupted by Amina’s law college friends and it is revealed that Stella is a dropout. The classmates distract Amina with studies and a bored Stella approaches a dapper guy in a suit. She lies that she is going his way, which he knows but humours her and they head to an art gallery in Copenhagen. Chris, the guy then takes her to a club where they dance all night and then drops her home.

Present day is 6 weeks later to a Friday night. Adam makes family dinner but Stella is out and Ulrika has work. He realises that Ulrika left her ID card behind and constantly checks on Stella who ignores his calls and texts. He is awakened around 1.54am as Stella showers in the sauna, has bloodstains on her clothes and ignores him. 

The next day, he hears mother-daughter arguing over Stella’s missing phone and when he comes out, he notices the ID card is gone. He makes a move on Ulrika but she stops him as they need to leave. As they get ready, he finds Stella’s phone in the sauna.

They play tennis with Amina’s parents and then Adam leaves for work. On the way, he comes across a murder scene.

Next, we see Ulrika’s point of view of the previous night – she is having an affair with her colleague, Mikael. She arrives home 50 minutes before Stella. The next day, she quietly takes the ID card. She then has the argument with Stella. It cuts to brunch with Amina’s mother after tennis. Ulrika is ashamed of Stella for being a dropout and wishes for a daughter like Amina whom she mentored. 

At home, Mikael calls to alert her that Stella has been arrested for murdering Chris. She tells him to defend her and then searches the house. She finds the blood-stained clothes and hides it in her bag. The cops show up with an arrest warrant and she is immediately taken to the police station for her statement. At the end of Episode 1 of A Nearly Normal Family, Stella is put in jail.

The Episode Review

This Swedish Netflix Original is off to a great start. Episode 1 of A Nearly Normal Family aka En Helt Vanlig Familj hooks the viewers right from the beginning and uses twists and turns to reveal what is going on. The beginning is sad and triggering as this happens all the time. But is needed as it lays the foundation for the broken relationship with the parents.

The 3 perspectives give us a better understanding of what their roles are. We see three new sides to Stella – the future nervous wreck that she will be due to some trauma; lovely and bubbly but her innocence is broken when her family doesn’t have her back; 19 and disillusioned with the world but pretends to be normal. But she is still her outgoing self.

Lying also seems to play a recurring motif, especially with Stella and Ulrika, and gives us a glimpse of how that will play into the overarching plot.

Ulrika is a workaholic, chooses logic over feelings as she doesn’t think twice over dropping her daughter’s case as she knows they will lose. She is emotionally distant and clinical but also has some love as she breaks the law to help Stella.

As for Adam, he just may be the dark horse. There isn’t much in the premiere, he is shown as the perfect father and husband. He is passionate, loyal and trusting. He doesn’t think much of all the red flags or hints. But maybe he is and we will see it later.