Lilyhammer - Season 3

Steven Van Zandt is back as everyone’s favourite ‘Fixer’ Frank Tagliano, ex-Mafioso who is now living under the name Johnny Henriksen – and a new identity – in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer. If you think that Frank’s life in the Norwegian woods is any less exciting than his former New York days then you are very much mistaken! Season 3 of Lilyhammer once again keeps us entertained with an array of colourful characters, and a killer cameo by Van Zandt’s buddy Bruce Springsteen!

The first episode of the new Season kicks off in the considerable hotter Rio de Janeiro, where Frank’s right hand cum business partner Torgier (Trond Fausa Aurvag) and brother Roar (Steinar Sagen) make a holiday out of the fact that Roar has met Brazilian beauty Alex (Maria Joana Chiapetta) online and now hopes that the ‘romance’ would lead to more serious things. However, for those of you who are familiar with the first two Seasons you know that a) this is highly unlikely and b) that trouble will be lurking just around the corner! Indeed it does and it comes in the shape of a double-whammy! Back in Lilyhammer, Frank gets wounded trying to save a damsel in distress and upon learning that his friend is in hospital severely wounded, Torgier heads back to Norway and can no longer be the best man at Roar’s wedding. Enter Oscarito, the younger brother of the bride-to-be who volunteers to take over from Torgier. However, he just happens to be involved in drug dealing and ask the naïve Roar to do him a ‘favour’… and within no time Roar finds himself banged up in a filthy prison in Rio… and the situation looks grim. Back home, Frank makes a miraculous recovery but celebrations at his Flamingo Club don’t last long, for he and Torgier find out on the local news that “Norwegian citizen Roar Lie has been arrested for alleged drug smuggling in Brazil”. What ya know, Frank and Torgier are on their way to Rio and thanks to Frank’s string pulling and dodgy connections Roar finds himself a free man, though by this time his beloved Alex and Frank have got it together.

In Lilyhammer, Frank and friends have to deal with a rival gang of Lithuanians, and former NAV worker Jan Johansen (Fridtjov Saheim) has turned Muslim after a series of misfortunes (and a murder). Meanwhile, Dag Solstad (Nils Jorgen Kaalstad) lies comatose in hospital thanks to one of Jan’s blunders… but the tables are about to turn.
With Alex arriving from Brazil and Roar still smitten but not having an inkling that Alex arrived to see Frank and not him, domestic affairs can hardly get messier. They do, however, when Frank’s ex Sigrid (Marian Saastad Ottesen) demands better childcare skills for their little twins and is told by Frank that Alex is in fact the new ‘nanny’. Oh dear! As for our Torgier – after briefly doubting his sexuality - he finally seems to have found true love in the shape of a sassy female new doorman for The Flamingo, but a bloodclot in his brain evokes the vengeful spirit of murdered Cockney psycho Duncan Hammer (a riotous performance by Paul Kaye) and things could hardly get more surreal!

Private troubles for Frank aside, he encounters serious competition from ruthless young hit man Tommy Mangano (Rhys Coiro), himself embroiled with the real Mafia ethic. This is one bad dude who initially was sent to Scandinavia to bump off Joey Salmone (Michael Badalucco), an author who fell foul of the Mafiosi after publishing some of their ‘Sacred’ recipes in a cookbook. Yes, you read that correctly! After the assassination attempt went pear-shaped Tommy has to go to Frank for help and shelter, but sees an opportunity here and decides to help himself to a big slice of the cake, much to Frank’s chagrin! He sees no other option then call on the help of his brother Giovanni Tagliano (Bruce Springsteen), an undertaker in more ways than one!!!
Is this enough action? You gotta be kidding! Things get even more bizarre when sex-mad loner and liar Jan – having renounced Islam – is up to his old naughty shenanigans again and causes a fatal road accident in which Sylfest Haugli (Viggo Sandvik), father of Sigrid and former ‘father-in-law’ of Frank gets killed. Vowing to find the culprit, Frank and Torgier take matters into their own hands but thanks to Torgier’s colour-blindness the situation gets off to a rather bad start – which is no less than you can expect from this bunch of likeable dopes…

After watching several episodes of this comedy-drama, one can’t help but feeling like a member of the ‘family’. Lilyhammer is pretty much Van Zandt’s baby – not only is he the main man of this Nordic saga but he also co-wrote, co-produced, co-directed and supervised the music. The whole shebang is extremely well cast and the actors deliver the goods to the full (in particular Van Zandt), and we get a hilarious performance by Trond Fausa Aurvaf as ‘Torgier’, Frank’s ever faithful but none too bright right-hand man.
The series is extremely well photographed and makes maximum use of Norway’s frozen landscape – one can almost feel the cold! Go and get LILYHAMMERED now!