30 Degrees in February - The Complete Series

This incredibly drawn out drama about three delusional Swedes, all of whom find themselves in Phuket, Thailand, for reasons best known to themselves, would have benefitted from a much tighter storyline.

The protagonists in question are all mentally challenged to say the least. We have separated parent and architect Kajsa (Maria Lundquist) who, after a stroke brought on by stress and anxiety, decides to return with her two young daughters to the Thai island of Happiness where some years before they had spent an enjoyable vacation filled with frond memories. Her two daughters in question are teenager Joy (Hanna Ardéhn) and little Wilda (Viola Weidemann). Upon arrival, the increasingly neurotic Kajsa makes it clear that she intends to purchase a ramshackle holiday inn (make that a hut) by the beach, which had formerly belonged to local Chan (Thomas Chaanhing) who also intends to re-purchase it. Initially offering shared ownership to Kajsa, the paranoid woman refuses and soon the pair are at loggerheads. Meanwhile, daughter Joy rekindles her romantic feelings towards former holiday friend Pong (Sanong Sudla) who is Chan’s troubled son and ex-drug addict now training to become a Bhuddist monk at his caring father’s behest. Suffice to say Pong’s feelings for Joy is mutual and soon he is lead astray.

Next in line is overweight, unattractive and not overtly bright loner Glenn (Kjell Wilhelmsen) who plans on travelling to Thailand in order to find a wife and finally start a family. However, things don’t go off to a good start when he emails his details with a photo of a George Clooney lookalike instead. Enter his potential bride to be who not only turns out to be a lap dancer but is obviously a little put out when she finally meets Glenn and can’t help but noticing that he bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Hollywood movie star. Things are destined to go terribly wrong here and they do! On his never-ending quest to find true love (just why it has to be a Thai woman is never explained but we can guess) he encounters various others of the female species, including that ‘special lady’ called Oh (Djuangsai Hirunsri) but who turns out to be not a ‘lady’ at all…

It gets even more tragic with the long-suffering Majlis (Lottle Tejle), wife to the crippled and permanently bullying brute of a husband Bengt (Kjell Bergqvist) who the poor woman waits on hand and foot for no reward save further abuse. Her idea that a holiday in Phuket might improve things proves futile. Once again things can only go wrong for our third protagonist when an unexpected accident radically changes the course of fate for the hen-pecked and put-upon Majlis. Even diving instructor and part-time police officer Sara (Rebecka Hemse), the one new friend that Majlis has made in Phuket, is unable to help her out of the situation – a situation that has been brought about mainly by her unbelievable stupidity and lack of hindsight.
As our anti-heroes go from one disaster to the next a real storm is a-brewing and further shatters their very hopes and illusions.

It is difficult to feel any kind of sympathy for any of the three Swedes simply because they all have serious mental problems: Kajsa is a neurotic and generally short-tempered woman, Glenn is quite frankly a naïve drip who also drinks far too much, and as for Majlis… why did this woman stay so long with her unfaithful asshole of an husband? Despite the fact that the individual plotlines are not lacking in interest (neither are the performances) it is rather difficult to sustain an interest because it’s all so stretched out. Clocking in at ten episodes, each of almost an hour’s duration, six episodes perhaps would have done the trick. That said, 30 Degrees In February is good to look at – in particular the underwater sequences.