Review: Welcome to Sweden, NBC's Sitcom Import
There’s a recurring joke in Welcome to Sweden, a new half-hour comedy airing on Thursday nights on NBC, about how Americans are short. The show stars Greg Poehler as Bruce, a milquetoast accountant from Ohio who moves overseas to be with his Scandinavian girlfriend, Emma. “He’s average?” asks Emma’s mother, played by Swedish actress Lena Olin, upon meeting our Midwestern straight man. She answers her own question: “Maybe if you include children and Asian people!” There are also gags about how Swedish people drink a lot, sing weird songs at dinner, and like to take saunas naked. Bruce prefers to steam in board shorts.
This humor might land better if U.S. viewers had strong views on Swedish stereotypes, but most of our familiarity comes from Ikea desks and that zany Muppet chef. And in the first episode, at least, meatballs and Kermit don’t make an appearance. The action switches back and forth between English and subtitled Swedish, and during a bit in which Bruce is humiliated yet again for not understanding the language, it becomes clear that the series might play better elsewhere. Like, in Sweden?