Common Sense Media Review
By Gemma Agravante
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Clever Norwegian time travel concept has violence, drugs.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Beforeigners
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In BEFOREIGNERS' nonspecific near future, an unexplained phenomenon occurs: Following mysterious flashes of bright light in bodies of water around the globe, groups of time-refugees from the Stone Age, Norse era, and late 19th century begin to appear. A few years after these time-migrants begin arriving, what was once a thriving, economically stable Oslo, Norway, is now rife with homeless encampments and municipal neglect. Now, humans from multiple time-planes struggle to navigate co-existence. When a Stone Age woman's body, covered in suspicious wounds, washes ashore, police detective Lars Haaland (Nicolai Cleve Broch) suspects she was murdered. He is then reluctantly partnered with Alfhildr Enginnsdottir (Krista Kosonen), who is not only a first-day-on-the-job rookie, but also the department's first "multi-temporal" recruit.
Is It Any Good?
Somehow, this high-concept Norwegian TV series that blends time-travel science-fiction with buddy cop, murder mystery, and police procedural actually works. Beforeigners, a dark satire from Lilyhammer creators Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, explores the effects a surge of time-travel refugees from the past would have on society. One advantage of time-travel is its ability to ask its audience to wonder, what if?, and that's what happens here. If you want to tackle big questions with your teenagers, watching this will give them a storyworld to consider how they might respond to similar circumstances with empathy and compassion.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about prejudice against refugees, migrants, and other displaced peoples around the globe. How might prejudice hinder acclimation efforts?
What do you think of the show's genre-blending. Does it strengthen the series?
Do you have any peers whose families have migrated from another part of the world? What does learning about their experience teach you?
TV Details
- Premiere date : August 21, 2019
- Cast : Krista Kosonen , Nicolai Cleve Broch
- Network : Max
- Genre : Science Fiction
- TV rating :
- Last updated : March 5, 2022
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