Lillyhammer

When word broke that Netflix was going to start airing original programming one wondered what they had in mind. The first show I had heard about was the pending Kevin Spacey drama House of Cards.

That is something to look forward to as Spacey rarely swings and misses, but first out of the box is the show Lillyhammer starring Steven Van Zandt, otherwise known as Little Steven in his day job as Bruce Springsteen's guitar player.

Van Zandt who of course earlier played Silvio in The Sopranos does not have to go too far out of his range for this series. Playing former gangster Frank " The Fixer" Tagliano who has turned state's evidence and enters witness protection. The strange thing however is that he chooses to be placed in Lillyhammer, as in Norway. When asked why he admits he loved the Olympics.

With all eight episodes instantly available for streaming it will not take long to watch them and as people become more and more used to watching shows when they, not network programmers, choose it becomes even more clear where the future of programming is.

Frank is given a new name, Giovanni Henrickson, and a backstory claiming his father had been Norweigan. He quickly becomes busy. In the first two episodes he: meets an attractive woman on a train, teaches a rowdy youth how to be respectful to his elders on the same, goes to his new home and is surprised at how poorly set up he is, meets his neighbor who happens to be the Sheriff ( a woman in a Fargo imitation), finds a lost sheep as he is out driving his electric car, returns the sheep to it's home which happens to be the home of the woman he met on the train who, yes , happens to be single, enters into an immigration program, crosses swords with the agent in charge of his case, goes out hunting ( illegally ) for a wolf that had killed the sheep that he had earlier saved thus making son of new woman friend sad, killed wolf and spent the night in his new companions friends camp. While at camp he uncovers incriminating pictures of the agent in charge of his case and when presented to him the agent asks if this is blackmail. Johnny's answer is " Definetly. This does not even cover half of what happens in the first two episodes.

This is a great show. Is Van Zandt a great actor. No. However he suits this role, it is comfortable on him and the writing is sharp. With subtitles for the Norweigan you cannot multitask and so become more immersed in the show.

We look forward to the next six episodes and will I am sure be sad to see them end.