Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
Best Friends
The White Whale
The Devil is in the Details
Cat and Mouser
Making Tsunami
Showtime
The Hunt
Too Close to the Sun
The Västberga helicopter robbery in Sweden marked a monumental moment in the country’s criminal history. On 23rd September 2009, at around 5.15am, a G4S cash service depot was robbed in southern Stockholm. The robbers used a helicopter to pull off the heist, landing on the rooftop and taking off with bags of money. I won’t spoil the outcome of what ensues from here, but it’s certainly a crazy tale – and rife for a Netflix mini-series.
Netflix are no stranger to these adaptations of course, and whether it be the highly popular La Casa De Papel (now called Money Heist), The Great Heist or even their highly ambitious experimental show Kaleidoscope, the structure works very well in a binge-watch format.
This time it’s the turn of the Swedes to try their hand at this, who deliver a pretty decent recreation of the heist. There’s plenty of drama along the way, and split across 8 episodes, the show works its way up to the heist itself before seeing the nervy, nail-biting hours and days that followed.
The focus here is predominantly on one man, Rami. Based loosely on Iraqi robber Safa Kadhum, Rami’s journey is a fascinating one and he makes for a compelling protagonist to follow. He has a history of stealing, and a natural talent for crime, but after falling in love with a woman called Karin and raising two kids, Rami hangs up his balaclava and gun, deciding to go on the straight and narrow.
Unfortunately, Rami is screwed by the system when he invests all of his money into a shrimping venture, left with nothing as he’s scammed. To make matters worse, it’s not just his money on the line. His father-in-law (who already doesn’t like him, given he’s an ex-con) also has money invested in this, along with dangerous criminals too.
With a massive bullseye painted on his back, Rami is left with no choice but to return to former partner in crime (quite literally), Michel. He’s a clever man, dressing modestly and managing to fly under the radar all these years despite a string of robberies and thefts to his name. He’s the real mastermind here, thinking big and managing to come up with crazy schemes on a whim. His latest is the aforementioned helicopter heist, but even this is too elaborate for only two men.
Rami and Michel are joined by businessman Zoran, and eventually a total of 20 people to make up their crew. We don’t follow everyone, but midway through the series we do meet a skittish helicopter pilot, Axel. What begins with a focus on Rami, does branch out as the episodes progress to include Zoran, Axel, Leonie (more on her shortly) and Michel’s journeys. We see who each of these people are, what led them to the heist and why they’re doing this.
It’s clear from the off that Rami and the others are the underdogs, and there’s definitely a slightly biased perspective here in favour of the robbers. Rami in particular is made to look incredibly sympathetic and it’s hard not to wish him the best as he undertakes this crazy heist. To add to all of this, there’s a crippling undercurrent of racism here, along with a look at what drives individuals into the world of crime, but these are very much used effectively on the peripheral just to add a slight edge and tension to everything.
It wouldn’t be a cat and mouse chase without an authoritarian force after the gang and that stems from Leonie Hamsik. She’s a no-nonsense officer who wants to do right by the law, but finds herself struggling in the face of bureaucratic loopholes. Early on she finds herself under fire for the way she handles an arrest, but as we hit the second half of the show, her attention is very much on the heist.
Leonie is always one step ahead of her colleagues, almost annoyingly so, and it makes for a frustrating watch because the rest of the force are made to look like absolute idiots throughout the show. Granted, the series is quite faithful to the true events, but it would have been nice to see a more hard edge to the cops, just to rachet up that tension a bit.
The show’s grainy, gritty feel is definitely helped by the amount of fly-on-the-wall camera work here. There’s far less cinematic wide-shots and sweeping vistas seen in other productions, and instead we follow the characters in what very much feels like a re-enacted documentary.
This approach is surprisingly effective, and during the heist itself, instead of going for big establishing shots and a bombastic musical score, everything is very minimalist and boots-on-the-ground. The tension feels organic, relying heavily on the little things going wrong or the chatter across radios to really get that nail-biting tension going.
However, this feel of following the characters as they get ready for (and then take part in) the heist is a bit of a double-edged sword. When the action picks up, its incredibly tense as mentioned above. The final 3 episodes in particular make the ride to that point absolutely worth it. However, there’s also the feel of the show dragging its heels a bit – especially during episodes 3-5. These really lack the flair needed to keep a spritely pace as the heist is set up and ready to go.
With something like La Casa De Papel, you felt compelled to watch episode after episode, as the series threw out big cliffhangers, crazy twists and a much more urgent feel to everything. By comparison, this plays out as much more of a straight-shooting drama, involving a lot of scenes depicting the day to day life of these characters.
Leonie has a kid who she looks after a lot at home, and while I understand the idea here is to contrast how work and life can be blurred, just like it is for Rami with his friction involving partner Karin, these parts of the show could very easily have been trimmed or tightened considerably. With an 8 episode run, there’s almost a little too much breathing room here, and I can’t help but feel a sharper 6 episode run would have been better.
With all that being said though, The Helicopter Heist is a faithful retelling of the crazy Swedish heist, and a compelling drama in its own right. Its gritty, grounded approach is both its greatest asset and biggest deterrent. With strong characterisation and a couple of excellent episodes late on, The Helicopter Heist lifts off Swedish TV, outshining the sluggish pace midway, making for a solid recommendation overall.
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Verdict - 7/10
7/10