toddabearsf

I had high hopes for this show, since I'm a Swedish-American on my mother's side of the family and I've been to Sweden twice. I stayed for a few months on my last visit. The thing is, Sweden isn't a difficult country to live in if you have manners. Bruce, unfortunately, is a horse's ass and, after the first episode, I started liking this show less and less, primarily because Bruce is such an idiot. For example, Bruce showed up one morning in a konditori and finally figured out what the delicious pasty or bun he likes is called, but couldn't pay for it since his credit card was declined and he didn't have any cash. By the time he believes that his credit card is maxed out, he has stuffed the bun into his mouth while standing in front of the cashier. Who does that? You complete payment first, take your receipt when it's handed to you, walk away with your purchase and then eat it. Another cringeworthy event was when Bruce was getting driving lessons -- he doesn't know how to drive a stick (all right, almost everyone I know in the U.S. does know how, but a lot of Americans don't, I suppose), and then he makes a right turn on a red light without stopping at the red light first -- he rolls right through the light and almost has an accident as he completes the turn, since he didn't wait until it was safe to turn. Then he says he thought right turns on red lights were legal. Sorry, but in New York (where Bruce supposedly drove all the time) as in every other state that permits right turns on a red light, you have to stop at the red light first, then proceed with the turn when it is safe to do so. So, suddenly, Bruce is in Sweden and doesn't make right turns the way he had to in the U.S.? I rented a car in Stockholm, by the way, and drove a number of hours up the coast to Umeto visit friends and had no trouble at all driving on my U.S. license. Also, I can't stand the fact that, suddenly, Bruce's ability to comprehend English is impaired. An immigration official is interviewing him (separately from his bride to be) and when he is asked, "How did the two of you meet?" he suddenly can't answer the question, because he doesn't know what it means. He keeps evading answering because "What does it mean, how did the two of us meet?" Funny, but when he's asked that very question in a previous episode by a member of his fianc's family, he answers readily. A similar asinine situation is in the first episode, where his interaction with a Swedish customs official almost gets him in hot water when he responds to a question as to whether he has any illegal substances in his luggage by saying, "No, I don't do drugs. Well, except for marijuana." Who in the world would say that to a customs official when you're trying to get into the country? Then there's the whole thing about the language. I can't think of a language easier for a native English speaker to learn than Swedish. Yeah, the nouns are difficult with 9 different ways to form a plural, and two arbitrary genders, common and neuter, requiring the correct indefinite article, but the verbs are easier than English and the compound tenses are formed the same way. Tere are so many cognates between English and Swedish, too, and the grammar and syntax are pretty close, though not identical. I did run into some idiots from the U.S. when I was in Sweden, but even they weren't as dense as Bruce or as purposely rude. Add all that to the fact that Greg Poehler can't act and I've stopped watching this show. It's just too annoying. But the worst thing of all is that the show runs in 4 or 5 minute segments punctuated by long commercial breaks. It seems that in its 30-minute time slot, there's about 16 minutes of actual TV show and 14 minutes of commercials (or is it 14 minutes of show and 16 minutes of commercials?). I guess they can't have just one commercial break in the middle, because that one break would have to be ridiculously long, but I can't stand such short increments of TV show with such frequent and long commercial interruptions.