I made some new friends last year, a Danish family called the Grønnegaards. Quite an odd family if I’m honest - arty-farty types, and all damaged, in various ways and to different degrees. They don’t always get on very well with each other, sometimes the opposite in fact, but there is some kind of familial bond in there, if you can find it beneath the bitterness and squabbling. Not the easiest friends then – most of the time I don’t even like any of them very much. But one thing they certainly never do is bore me, the Grønnegaards are endlessly fascinating.
Which is why I’m delighted to be seeing them again. The Legacy (Sky Arts) – the surprise television treat of last year – is back for a second season. With a new member, a baby girl. Whose though? Signe’s? No, she’s more interested in growing her hemp than cultivating a family. Gro’s then? She wishes. No, baby Melody belongs to Isa – who appears to be suffering from some serious postnatal depression, and Thomas who’s Thomas (old, hopeless, generally stoned, but quite endearing). No matter, there are plenty of hands to help out at the house: the big, bohemian, shambolic house in the country with an old aeroplane in the drive.
Meanwhile, Frederick is having some anger issues with his family at the lakeside cabin they live in. And Emil is banged up abroad, in Thailand. They are less relaxed about drugs over there.
Maybe there isn’t that single narrative drive of the first series, which was basically one big quarrel over a will (who’d have thought that that, in Danish, could be so utterly compelling). But new strands are unravelling – the Thai story, Signe’s farming adventures, the game of pass the baby.
What makes it though – again – are the characters. Complex, flawed, real characters having complex, flawed, real relationships, that are allowed time to grow, and that inevitably lead you to ponder your own family. I don’t know if my own sister is reading. Probably not. But if you are, then you know that picture you’ve got up at yours – you know the one I mean – well it’s mine, and I’m going to get it back. Also, can you lend me some money?
