Welcome to Sweden is a new summer sitcom on NBC created by Greg Poehler — yupp, that’s Amy Poehler’s brother. She guest stars in the first episode and that alone was enough to get me interested. The trailer is also very promising, full of awkward humor and strange culture shock.
In practice though, Welcome to Sweden falls pretty flat. It’s pretty clear why NBC chose to burn this off during it’s slow summer season. The show centers around Bruce (Poehler), a New York accountant for celebrities, who decides to quit his job and move to Sweden with his Swedish girlfriend. All that awkward humor is slow-paced and the culture shock turns out to be pretty typical, predictable stuff.
Honestly, the show isn’t bad. I’ve seen much, much worse (*cough*Dads*cough). But it’s certainly not the type of show you should go out of your way to watch, and it’s definitely not laugh out loud funny. This season originally aired in Sweden, and I read that NBC cut a lot out of the episodes, dumbing them down a bit, which explains some of the slow pace and awkward commercial breaks.
In my professional opinion, I give Welcome to Sweden a resounding “Meh.” But if you’re bored out of your mind on a hot summer night, and you don’t know what you should watch… this wouldn’t be the worst thing to turn on.
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Marla Pachter is a comedic writer, obsessed with all things television. She doesn’t discriminate against TV shows, which either results in pleasant surprise or an eviscerating review for your reading pleasure. Marla loves Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine Nine, and she will probably be watching new seasons of Grey’s Anatomy until she’s 90. Sometimes she writes TV shows herself, but they don’t air on television. She also likes big butts and she cannot lie. (That was a lie). @MarlaPachter
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