Beartown (Björnstad) - General Discussion

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

A community in Sweden places its dreams of revitalization on the teenage shoulders of its junior ice hockey team; the team finally has a shot at securing a national title until a violent act threatens to destroy Beartown entirely.

Based on the #1 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Fredrik Backman, who also serves as an executive producer on the series.

Promo:

 

Edited April 2, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The first episode was very hockey heavy, which I guess was to be expected since they needed to establish the jock-centric culture of the town and how everyone in town worships Kevin because he can get a puck into a net.

But things really took a turn in the second episode with Kevin. He went from bandaging Maya's elbow and trying to flirt (badly) with her to raping her pretty quickly, and that's what is so terrifying about boys/men. The fact that they can go from pleasant and seemingly harmless to "you're going to turn down a winner?" and holding down a girl while she says no while crying in just a matter of seconds is what girls fear as soon as they're old enough to realize it can happen.

[Haleth]

I thought the series was well done but as usual so much was left out from the book. I’ll put my remarks in spoilers although nothing I said gives away anything about the story.

Spoiler

The written version allows you to get into the heads of more of the kids, especially Benji  who was as much as main character as Maya and Kevin. Plus there was a greater divide in the town. 

 

[meep.meep]

I watched the series and thought it was well done.

I was listening to the audiobook of Anxious People by Backman and couldn't believe they were both by the same man.  Anxious People is funny.   I assume that all the quirkiness of the townspeople was taken out of the show?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I was listening to the audiobook of Anxious People by Backman and couldn't believe they were both by the same man.  Anxious People is funny.   I assume that all the quirkiness of the townspeople was taken out of the show?

I haven't read Anxious People, but I have read several of Backman's books (off the top of my head - A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here) which were humorous and full of quirky people but as far as I remember, the characters in Beartown did not have Backman's trademark quirkiness. I read Beartown in 2017 so I don't remember all the details of the plot and the writing, but I do remember thinking that he had decided to play it straight with the characters for this book because of the subject matter.

There's also a sequel to Beartown but I haven't read it yet. When it came out, I remembered how angry and frustrated Beartown was (because of the subject matter, not the writing) so I wasn't ready to dive back into that emotional state and then it kind of fell off my radar so I still haven't gotten around to reading the sequel.

[Haleth]

Anxious People is more like Ove, sweet and quirky. Beartown and Us Against Them (its sequel) are a lot heavier. All are great for different reasons. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm on the third episode and I'm remembering why I had such a hard time reading this book. It's painful and frustrating and infuriating to watch it all unfold and happen exactly like you know it will.

[tearsandhysteria]

I watched the whole series and I loved it. I wish it had been even longer. Never read the book. I didn't even mind the subtitles and usually that annoys me because they're so small that I can't read them from where I sit while watching tv.

Spoiler

I was so impressed with how even when I found out it would be Kevin that hurt her, I kinda still forgot, when it happened my jaw still dropped.

Like, he just seemed to really like her and then he just turned on her. The acting was so good. When I watched whatever episode Kevin was left in the snow, it was severe winter weather pretty much nationwide and it made me have some real hatred for his father. I got a lot of feelings during this show. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It's been so hard for me to watch the later episodes. I can usually stomach about half an episode before I have to stop and take a break. It's so enraging to see it all play out - the slut shaming, the victim blaming, the way everyone rushes to the defense of the athlete.

Thankfully I'm on the second half of the fourth episode so I'm in the home stretch. It's been a few years since I read the book but is all of this stuff with Kevin's dad not wanting to marry his mom a deviation from the book? I thought his mom was the one who ended up covering for Kevin but I might be thinking of a different book.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Although this show was not the easiest to watch, I felt like it somehow lacked the strong emotional wallop that the book had. I don't know if it's because they cut some stuff or because we didn't get as much of the characters' inner monologues or what. I'm not sure why they cut so much of Benji's plot either.

One of the main things that remained the same between the book and the show is that people would rather believe that a girl lied than believe that an athlete did anything bad. Even once Amat came forward, there were still people saying that Maya made Amat say that he saw what happened because even with an eye witness, they still refused to believe that she was telling the truth. Truly sickening.