Series will appeal to young adult niche
AT THE recent Netflix See What’s Next event, media guests were treated to a special screening of coming Scandinavian series The Rain. An original series for Netflix, the show focuses on two siblings, Simone and Rasmus, who have been hiding in a bunker for six years after their parents took them there for safety, after discovering the rain contains a virus that kills people as soon as it touches their skin.
Alba August plays the role of Simone and Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen as her younger brother, Rasmus.
Before dad goes on a quest to find others who know about the virus, he tells Simone to look out for her brother and to never leave the bunker. Fastforward six years and dad is not back.
Flashbacks to the past have Simone eavesdropping on conversations between her parents talking about how to save Rasmus, who was suffering from a life-threatening disease.
Before her father left them in the bunker he told Simone that Rasmus was the key to it all – which leaves the audience to come up with their own ideas as to what Rasmus’s father did to keep his son alive all those years ago.
The duo eventually come out, only to find no human life until a group of survivors knock on the door of their bunker and the series starts to unfold.
The coming-of-age drama is one of the many young adult features Netflix is set on continuing. Global hits like 13 Reasons Why and Stranger
Things are breaking records and opening up an even bigger market for the service.
Shot in Denmark and Sweden, The Rain was an opportunity to make a show in a different format to what the production crew was used to, which was short-form stories. “That’s mainly because of limited resources, so we need to tell stories in specific ways. I think Scandinavian life – dark and melancholy – piques the interest of people,” said the show’s producer, Janik Tai Mosholt.
For the cast, shooting a longer form series was an interesting process.
“Time is a big difference. In Denmark (usually) we have like five weeks to do it and here (with Netflix) we had five months, so we had so much more time to develop characters and story,” said Mikkel Boe Følsgaard who plays Martin, the leader of the survivors.
August found it tricky to shoot for a longer period. “I didn’t have the experience of doing a TV show like this, to be shooting for so many months. It was hard to keep my focus and my energy up.”
The young adult movement is something Tønnesen was proud to be a part of.
“Starting off with a Netflix series is huge; it’s been amazing to be part of it. I grew up with
13 Reasons Why and Stranger Things, watching with my family.”
Christian Potalivo, the show’s producer, wanted to keep the show authentically Danish.
“We wanted to hold on to what we know and what we come from. We come from a country where we are a very well-structured society, and in many ways fortunate. To tell a story about coming from that part of the world and what we would do when that security wall is changed… feels good.
“Doing a show like this, that connects to people worldwide, connects the themes that all young adults have troubles with.” The Rain premiers on Netflix on Friday.