The old Bert series from 1994 beats all modern Swedish youth series released today (including the new Bert series from 2021).

The reason why the old Bert series from the 90s was so good was because they didn’t try to be overly realistic. It was freaky in just the right way and is a series that got its cult status precisely because of this. I myself was born in 2002 and have seen the series long after it premiered. I’ve watched the series several times and still think it holds up without wearing the nostalgia glasses.

That’s why I’m so disappointed at how much worse many youth series are today. They should always be overly dramatic and overly realistic. The acting in series such as Festen and Värsta gymnasium feels enormously stilted and the “conflicts” and “humor” just feel forced.

The old Bert series took advantage of the fact that it was a fictional series and freaked out in just the right way and people bought it because the series was entertaining and it was understood that a lot was in Bert’s imagination. The new youth series are always supposed to seem so “mature” and goofy but usually just end up being silly because you only bother with the characters who usually have only one character trait in the series and ideally you want all the characters to just keep their mouths shut (I’m looking at you Zafirah with all your cursed zodiac signs).

Bert the series from 1994 seems more superficial at first glance but is actually more complex, while a series like Festen seems deeper but is actually much more superficial.