People are voting emotionally.

One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely amazing

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Horrible piece of hate propaganda. Russia freed Norway from Nazi rule under ww2. where thousands of Russian's people and other east European's died. and now Norway "thank" with hateful and misleading propaganda. Norway has invited US troops.. to occupy.Norway payback for a Russian good deed in ww2 -- hatred and falsehood to Russia and east European's.... Norway are the worst people in the world. Never not help them because it will turn against you!! Norway has one of the highest debt in the private and the corporate sector. Who would have just attacking indebted people... and such other illogical elements there is more.

If you've never heard of this series before and skim the summary to decide whether to watch it, your first reaction is to probably guffaw and laugh it off. Norway turns away from fossil fuels, shuts down oil & gas production to promote thorium as an alternative energy source. The Green Party prime minister Berg is quite proud of his achievement until he is kidnapped by Russians in balaclavas and spirited away in a helicopter for a reality talk via Skype. He learns that his EU buddies have aligned with the Russians to use as their muscle to force Berg to resume oil production. Alternative energy is nice, but we must think about the economy, climate change be damned. Berg decides to go along with all this to avert a war and publicly pretends to Norwegians that the Russian "guests" who've moved into the country to force the oil flow aren't occupiers and will leave in a few weeks. His cooperation doesn't go as planned, and almost immediately a resistance, first among the military then the people, is formed to fight the Russians and protect Norway's sovereignty. This is no farce and the story as told instantly convinces you of its plausibility.Still, there are some aspects of the story that are a hoot. I'm told the Russians didn't like this series very much and complained about always being cast as the heavy in films and TV. The Americans, whom Berg believes are friends to Norway, come off badly...as usual. So much for the principles of sovereignty and commitment to solving climate change. Berg, as the cooperative prime minister, just loses it, decerebrating as the occupation becomes undeniable. He is chastised by his govt for undermining the party's original principles and therefore losing credibility. Credibility is very important to Norwegian politicians and the media. The woman who plays the Russian ambassador is magnificent! She knows how to play the game and push Berg and the other men around. I'm eagerly awaiting Season 2.

How on earth $11 million came to be spent on this ludicrous rubbish is something only the Norwegians can explain. Apparently an original idea dreamt up by a leading Norwegian fiction writer, 'Occupied' is about how Norway is led by a half-wit Prime Minister who struggles almost single-handedly against "the EU" which, it seems, has decided that Norway should be taken over by, er, Russia.Words. . . fail. Fail so much that it's probably a waste of breath to even point out that back on April 4, 1949, Norway was one of the founding partners of NATO, along with the USA, the UK, Canada, France, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and (bizarrely) Iceland.As a NATO partner, pledged to the defence of the sovereignty of its fellow partners -- of whom there are now considerably more than the original founders -- Norway is an active member whose participation in the organisation has consistently marked it out as a lead nation.According to 'Occupied', however. . . it isn't. It's a chunk of land Somewhere Up North whose fortunes are to be decided by something called 'the EU', an organisation which has no power in international defense and strategic alliances. Even its Prime Minister doesn't know about NATO.That anyone could even embark on a TV series 100% devoid of credibility beggars belief, the sheer witlessness of the concept mitigating against just about every word of dialog and every episode plot line. Evidently, the awful reality of just how profound a mess 'Occupied' truly is dawned on one of the original financial backers of the project; it ran for the hills and left the budget with a large hole that couldn't be filled until some new investors came along who've evidently never heard of NATO either. The embarrassment of it all also led one of the show's principal producers to issue a rambling statement to the effect that ah, well, no, it's not meant to be realistic, it's just, er, stuff about Norway and Norwegians. It's absolutely not about Russia invading anyone or about international politics or even about. . . reality.Russia rightly complained about the show when it first aired but has since ceased to bother, as aware as everyone else is of how utterly fatuous 'Occupied' truly is. Significantly, neither the BBC nor any commercial company in the UK picked up 'Occupied', leaving it instead to satellite TV to so ill-advisedly fork out for the rights. I look forward to the next 'original idea' from the creators of this daft folly, perhaps a story of how the USA is re-claimed by the UK and the Pentagon can do nothing against the arrival in Boston Harbor of 300 tea drinking British Redcoats armed with muskets and a couple of cannons. Now, there's plausibility for you -- Norwegian-style, of course. Verdict: unwatchable.

If you can get past the original premise, you find that the story develops in a logical manner. While I admit that the Swedish prime minister calling the Norwegian prime minister, to inform him that his sovereign resources will be seized, feels wrong. But once you accept this, and the EU working with Russia, everything that ensues makes far too much sense.This is a human tragedy, and a geo-political one. Global warming is real, and a hurricane hitting Norway is, unfortunately, merely very unlikely - not impossible. Regardless of any possible warning, a country that has never had an extreme weather event will be caught unprepared.Reaction to such an event would be unprecedented, and perhaps draconian. Turmoil in the middle east is a constant since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and yes, oil production and shipping could be affected quite dramatically. With British oil just a trickle, Only Russia (in the area) is an oil producer. Probably why the EU asked for their aid.Nevertheless, the EU would never do anything stronger than use trade sanctions, and Russia would prefer to pacify the middle east (pacify = occupy ? )