Stream It Or Skip It?

When we looked at the description of the Swedish series To Cook A Bear, we groaned when we saw that it took place in the 1850s and featured a pastor that made fiery speeches about temperance. But we were pleasantly surprised when we saw that the pastor is actually as much a detective as he is a priest, and that the show is working on a couple of different levels.

Opening Shot: A montage of scenes involving the woods, wildlife, and a pastor (Gustaf Skarsgård) writing a sermon. We hear him in voice over say he “found an evil I’ve never encountered before, one that I fear I cannot conquer.”

The Gist: “NORTHERN SWEDEN, 1852.” The pastor and his family arrive in the village of Kengis. Among the family members is Jussi (Emil Karlsen), a Sámi teen whom the pastor brought in as his foster son when Jussi was a boy. The pastor is under the impression that Kengis has some wealth, but is disappointed at the disappointing quarters that serve as the rectory for the town’s pastor and his family.

The pastor’s goal is to save the townspeople from the vices that are keeping them down, namely the abundance of alcohol that permeates the village. There is also a hatred towards the town’s indigenous Sámi population; they’re derisively called “Lapps” by the non-natives. The pastor’s fiery first sermon certainly shocks the more protective of the townspeople, like Brahe (Magnus Krepper), the sheriff, and Madame Sjödahl (Pernilla August), who runs the iron mill and is the village’s de factor mayor.

When a maid named Hilda (Eleonoora Kauhanen) goes missing, the family who owns the farm where she works go to the pastor instead of Brahe, given the fact that the sheriff is often drunk. As the pastor and Jussi survey the spot in the woods where Hilda usually goes when she milks the cows, there’s evidence that she was alone and she ran from the scene. But claw marks on a tree suggest that she might have been the victim of an attack by a very aggressive bear.

As word spreads around the village, Madame Sjödahl offers a reward to anyone who finds and kills the bear. In addition, a mysterious painter named Beronius (Simon J. Berger) shows up at the rectory, offering to paint a portrait of the pastor. All the while, the pastor doesn’t buy into the idea that Hilda was attacked by a bear, especially after he and Jussi find further evidence in a nearby hay barn, where she likely took refuge.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? To Cook A Bear (original title: Koka björn), based on a novel by Mikael Niemi, is part frontier drama like, well, Frontier, and part murder mystery.

Our Take: To Cook A Bear is trying to pull off a dual narrative, and tie both narratives together as the pastor (so far unnamed) and Jussi try to figure out what happened to Hilda, and probably other young maids as the series goes on. There’s the mystery, where these young women’s deaths are going to be blamed on some mythical bear when the pastor thinks differently, but there’s also a story about the blatant racism against natives that permeated the villages in the Swedish wilderness back in the mid-19th century.

It’s an interesting mix that we’re not sure will be able to be tied together well. The pastor is trying to change the culture in Kengis in the holier-than-thou way that usually comes with religious-based temperance movements. It also means that he’s experienced evil in his fellow man, which is likely what drives his view that there is no bear to chase, and that Hilda and others were attacked by someone from the village.

But there are also scenes where the pastor acts less like a priest and more like a detective, clamping a pipe in his mouth like Sherlock Holmes, examining indents in hay and tufts of hair. We do know, via his love of horticulture, that the pastor has attention to detail. But the moments when some notion comes over him that leads him to investigate an area no one has been to makes us wonder where those notions are coming from.

Of course, the more intriguing story is how the pastor incorporated Jussi in his family and how the fact that he’s Sámi and has faced virulent racism his whole life has made the pastor even more protective of him. He wants Jussi to become a priest himself one day, a notion that would rile the non-Native population who is convinced that Sámis are not Christians. We do know that Jussi has a bit of a violent history, given a quick flashback we see when he’s confronted by a man named Roope (Jaakko Ohtonen) when Jussi tries to talk to a maid named Maria (Tyra Wingren). Leaning on that part of the story, instead of the murder-mystery aspect, will help the show stand out a little more.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: With Jussi’s help, the pastor dives under the water in a small bog, and pulls out Hilda’s body.

Sleeper Star: Simon J. Berger is appropriately creepy as the mysterious Beronius.

Most Pilot-y Line: It was hard for us to figure out if everyone in town had lots of freckles on their faces, if they were just dirty, or both.

Our Call: STREAM IT. To Cook A Bear has an intriguing-enough murder mystery to carry the story, but we hope that we see more of the racism and tribalism the native population of the village of Kengis faced back in the 1850s.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.