When things go wrong for successful Helsinki real estate agent Linda Saarniluoto (Helsinki Syndrome’s Laura Malmivaara), they really go wrong. Lavish, high-society lifestyle one minute, deep in debt and looking for food in the bins of a gourmet restaurant the next …
When her husband disappears, presumed dead, she’s left facing a huge debt. As things get worse and worse, she turns to an old friend for help. Drawn into a world of shady business deals and sometimes-violent crime, Linda soon discovers she’s rather good at it. As series director-writer Tdiina Lymi puts it, she “falls in love with success on the dark side”.
“Queen of F*cking Everything is a comedically high-tuned crime series with sometimes dark undertones. We follow how the cornered Linda must choose a life of crime, turns out to be a natural talent in it." Lymi says.
“She becomes part of a world saturated with violence and even ends up killing a person.
“In the end, all decisions can be taken into the grey area, if you properly justify them to yourself. Stealing drugs from a crime lord can be seen as a heroic act. Selling them on, on the other hand, is wrong, but justifiable [to Linda] as a way of moving forward in a world that unfairly kicks you in the head.”
Linda keeps her real estate job alongside her growing success in a world of money laundering, shady construction deals, lies and murder. It’s handy to have a front for your nefarious undertakings…
Linda (Laura Malmivaara) has some unexpected choices to make. Credit: Jaakko Kahilaniemi
If you’re thinking this had echoes of acclaimed American crime drama Breaking Bad, you’re not alone – Lymi has made the comparison herself. But as she points out, Queen of F*cking Everything is its own beast, not neatly slotted into a genre.
It’s from the part of the world that has given us Nordic Noir, but it’s not quite that (indeed, series director Minna Haapkylä has said she has “no interest in Nordic Noir”). It’s a crime drama, but we’re not on the side of the police. It’s got moments of dark humour, but it’s not just a comedy.
And the characters aren’t cut-and-dried either. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ depends on your point of view, or perhaps what life has thrown at you.
Linda (Laura Malmivaara) with Marke (Katja Küttner). Credit: Jaakko Kahilaniemi
Big Börje (Kristo Salminen) is a crime boss who grew up in rough neighbourhoods and drifted into his shady and sometimes violent way of life. Linda’s long-neglected former childhood friend Marke (Katja Küttner), on the other hand, has remained warm-hearted and optimistic, despite her life barely above the poverty line. And Linda is about to discover she’s not who she thought she was either.
“We easily live our life in our own bubble. In a world we take for granted,” says Haapkylä, who also appears on-screen, playing Linda’s colleague Anna. “We have our own apartment, health services, a weekend at a cottage and expensive hobbies for our children. It’s a standard made possible by our good professions or family. We might even think that this luxury is possible for every Finn. When our main character, Linda, loses her assets and is trapped in debt for the rest of her life, her whole life collapses. She imagines, like many of us, that happiness depends on the things we own and social status. A delusion.
“This series is a journey into the innermost part of a person, when all the show has been stripped from the outer shell. Linda breaks, falls apart, puts herself back together and becomes even stronger. Her concrete journey from the elite neighbourhood to the suburbs is also a journey from superficial acquaintances to true friendship and helping loved ones. It is a journey of a law-abiding citizen to the borderlands of darkness and beyond.”
The six-part series was a huge hit in Finland and it’s easy to see why. A strong performance from Malmivaara, a pacy storyline combining dark humour, high-stakes deals and unexpected connections, and a woman finding an unexpected talent: Linda’s journey through Helsinki’s criminal underworld is a revenge tour of sorts. Betrayed and broke, she might just end up as The Queen of F*cking Everything.
The Queen of F*cking Everything will be streaming at SBS On Demand from 1 January.
Upcoming On Demand
Queen of F*cking Everything
series • Dark comedy • Finnish
series • Dark comedy • Finnish
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