Is Beartown playing on HBO in the U S. Aas we have now on HBO Canada?
.The 1st episode aired February 22nd here in Canada on our HBO...it is a very good Swedish language production with English subtitles with a hockey theme...An ex-NHL Swedish player just retired returns to his home town up in the North of Sweden to take over as coach their pro men's team which has been relegated several times in recent years such thatvit now is in the lowest division and still losing ...The recently retired NHL star,Peter Andersson finds out he has been deceived when orpinised financial support to add better players and in fact discovers the team is on hard financial times and has had to let several of its better players go so tgat what us left is pathetically bad ...Basically factory guys playing for a bit extra money after theirir regular shifts at work end..So Peter Andersson the retired ex-NHL star refuses to coach that team...instead he insists he only will stay if he can coach the junior squad ...who is also not doing well but somehow Peter sees some potential in the kids to turn it around and build up a winning program with them and then maybe also graduate them to improve tgecseniir team.
When Peter came back home to take on a coaching job,he brought his family with him to live tgere..
It turns out the star talent of the junior squad,a boy named Kevin who is 18 has a Dad who sponsors junior team and thinks he knows how giidchis son shoukd be but ibstead constantly criticizes everything Kevin does..this amounts to constant verbal abuse .. Kevin,despite his skill is never goid enough for his dad..
Bit Peter recognizes tge talent and thinks he can build tge junior team around Kevin and a few others with some special abilities he can encourage and mouldcto pkay for watch other.
The team loses a few moregames under coach Peter but eventually tgey do win a game with Kevin scoring both goals for them.
But meanwhile other things were happening in the plot..
Peter's 16 year old daughter goes to the same
High School as Kevin and you can see sparks growing as they trade glances...
Also they've accross the street from each other andone night she sees him shooting pucks at a net filled with target bulls-eyes ...she goes out and challenges him to a target contest with the loser to "eat snow"..she wins and insists he get down on his knees while she feeds him snow... But before hgat happens,Kevin's dad comes out spewing anger at them to break up the fun...he does nit want Kevin near Peter's daughter because years ago when both he and Peter were juniors on the same hockey team they had a fight...Peter smacked Kevin's dad down and hurt him and he then quit hockey whike Peter went on to become an NHL pro...so ever since the man who became Kevin's dad has resented and held a grudge agaivst Peter and he does not kije tgat Peter woukd coach the teamnow ..he threatens to pull his sponsorship...he also berates Kevin for akk his actions on the ice and off.. His son is never goidcenough to please hom...Maybe he thinks his verbal abuse of Kevin will somehow make him better but instead Kevin gets moodier and dis orited and Peter knows he must get him away from his Dad's over-bearing control.
When Kevin's dad came out to break up his son and Peter's daughter in their game they played, so did Peter conevout to see why Kevin's dad was ranting at the kids ...he and Kevin's dad almost gotvto blows again.
Later in the episode,Kevin's dad argues in his car with Kevin...Kevin has had enough abuse. and finally tells his father off.. this infuriates tge Dad who tells Kevin to get out of the car ...the implication to walk home in the cold on a lonely back road or maybe even a threat to not bother coning home...
When Kevin fails to conevhonevtgat night (it isx35 bekiw) Kevin's parents start panicking and call in a town search for missing Kevin...
Peter and hus daughter drive tge back roads looking for Kevin...find him shooting pucks into a snowbank he fashioned into a net ...Tgey worry he may have damaged his hands with frostbite......they drive him back to his home informing his parents..
Eventually tge episode endsxwhere it started...in the opening scene we saw a person fleeing in deeonsnow trying to run from someone chasing then and shottongva rifle at them..but tge view is long distance and we do nitcsee their faces...
At the end of the episode this opening scene is is re-played for us foreshadowing some future episode we realize now and thus time we see who the shooter and the prospective victim are ...the shooter is Peter's daughter...the victim is revealed as Kevin!
Intrigued now?
Gotta watch? Is the shooting "event" real or sone dream ?Did Kevin rape or tryptophan rape Peter's daughter such that she finds she mist kill him?Or is this Kevin dreaming that if he gets away from total concentration on his hockey development by makingvtome forca girlfriend that she is metaphorically killing his chance at a pro career?
Or is she realky just a psycho when we thiughtvshecwas a normal nice girl?
So hooked? Gotta watch more episodes to find out .
This is a well made series.. Good plot..Good acting...Nice Northern Swedish scenery ..
If you do not mind engkishvsub-titles you may want to watch this .
