The Vaktaserían: Næturvaktin / Dagvaktin / Fangavaktin / Bjarnfreðarson | Ragnar Bragason | 2007-2009
Possibly a few “niche” posts coming up. I don’t know how well known the “Vaktaserían” are outside of Iceland, or whether perhaps I have any Icelandic followers, but I recently managed to track them down and they’ve been swiftly added to my list of personal cult TV shows..
I first saw Næturvaktin (AKA The Night Shift) about a decade ago as part of an Icelandic season on BBC4 and I loved it! Some internet research revealed there were two sequel series Dagvaktin (AKA The Day Shift) and Fangavaktin (AKA The Prison Shift), and a movie Bjarnfreðarson (AKA Mr. Bjarnfreðarson). The BBC never showed the sequels however and didn’t even repeat Næturvaktin to my knowledge. There were DVDs available (with English subtitles even) from Icelandic online retailers but the prices plus shipping were prohibitively high. So Næturvaktin remained a happy memory and from time to time I’d recall it and search online for the series or the DVDs with little success - until now!
The versions I’ve found aren’t perfect and there’s room for improvement in the subtitles, but they’ll do for me until the dream if the DVDs is realised! I love these shows even though there’s probably some Iceland-centric humour going over my head and I know I’m not appreciating the Icelandic celeb cameos which are scattered through the three series. Björk turns up in an episode of Dagvaktin but she’s about the limit of my expertise when it comes to Icelandic star spotting (I’d possibly recognise Einar and a couple of the other Sugarcubes and maybe that guy from Gus Gus). Highly reccomended!