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Hockey is the last beacon of hope in Beartown and being responsible for it is a heavy burden. The day of the semi-final match is also the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil.
...the show distinguishes itself much earlier-as a patient portrait of a stiflingly small place with a long memory; an investigation into the perils of masculinity; an icy Scandinavian take on Friday Night Lights...
The ability to communicate to the audience that there's more at stake than just a hockey game or a season is what will make viewers continue to watch Beartown - though the hockey scenes aren't bad, either.
Takes the honesty of Friday Night Lights to an even deeper and much darker level. The five-part drama, based on the 2017 novel by Fredrik Backman, floored me with its realism, as it digs into the people of a struggling community.
Beartown works as an athletic drama, too. This ingredient and all others cohere seamlessly, and you're left with a show that transcends noir even as it elevates it.
It makes no difference in the consistent power of Beartown... that every crucial element of its drama, every crisis, every resolution, is familiar and entirely predictable. There are reasons films like this keep showing up.
By being a sports drama that spends equal time both on the rink and off the rink, the series is able to capture the viewer's attention - and keep it, in a variety of ways.
For all its elements of disillusion and despair, it is thrilling, wrenching drama, at times unforgettable, like the best of hockey can be, even while human nature drags it down to the worst of us.
Despite its predatory namesake, Beartown is more like a set of some small creature's footprints in the snow: there and then gone, leaving only the most minor and fleeting impression.
Perhaps "Beartown" is too blunt in its execution, too familiar in its narrative arcs, but it's also wise enough to acknowledge those traits are also part of its tragedy.