The creators of the series titled Katla, or The Mysterious Ice in Hungarian, don’t spend much time, they start with a mysterious scene in the opening series: In the shadow of an Icelandic volcano, a naked woman with a body covered in ash.
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Naked and covered in ash from head to toe, more and more people are stumbling from the shadow of Katla volcano / Image: Netflix
From the first episode, we learn that a small Icelandic town called Vik has been struggling with a particularly long volcanic eruption that has been going on for a year, with toxic gas and smoke pouring out of Katla, but despite the impossible situation, there are those who refuse to leave their homes. Among them is Grima (Guðrún Eyfjörð), for example, his brother Asa disappeared at the beginning of the natural disaster, but the hero of the series has not lost hope to this day. Grima’s father, Thor (Ingvar Segurosun), asks his daughter to move to Reykjavik instead, but he finds deaf ears.
The first Icelandic series on Netflix Immediately in the pilot episode gives a comprehensive overview of the desperate mood in the small town, and it starts at a very slow pace, which can roughly be considered a Scandinavian business brand. One of the characters also makes a memorable statement that in you is like a graveyard. Accordingly, the production is recommended mainly for those who want to escape from the scorching summer a little, because the boiler atmosphere has turned out to be cold. Like the dialogue and story, photography also puts a slow pace on the series, with plenty of permanent crop photos as photographers show off the special Icelandic landscapes. But at least you can enjoy good ones at these discounts, even if you’re a buyer of something like that.
Grima (Gudrún Yr Eyfjörd) is one of those who refuse to leave Vike, who has been hit by a natural disaster / Image: Netflix
The production producer, Baltasar Cormacor, had previously worked on the two-season series, which was also a mystical story. The drama, like Katla, began boldly: the police found a body of water lacking limbs, and the scene was so rough that many policemen vomited. Katla begins as a similarly scary series and is already in the middle of the first part. The book shocks us with a major twist.
The naked woman, covered in ashes from head to toe, stumbles into civilization and is found to have lost track of nearly 20 years and is called Gunhild (Aliette Opheim). Katla is a science fiction series in its genre, and for stories like this that are based on mysticism, it is best for the viewer to discover the backbone of the plot himself, so we won’t reveal more about Gunhild’s return. It is noteworthy, on the other hand, that the lives of the inhabitants of Vic will be turned upside down later, as more and more people who are believed to have been lost come back to life.
Evaluation:
There’s a mystical small-town series on Netflix that can hardly be stopped, and Stranger Things, Dark, or even Ragnarok fall into that category. Compared to these, Katla requires patience on the part of the audience, but as we get closer to the main characters and their motives and immerse themselves in the frosty Icelandic environment, after the end, one voluntarily or inadvertently begins searching for Scandinavian works to fill in the void left. The Boiler is the kind of series that’s hard to tune in, especially in the hot 30-degree summer, but once you get it working, your Icelandic medium won’t leave stifling.
7/10
