Netflix’s A Storm for Christmas sees a group of strangers intersect each other’s lives in the name of holiday turbulence.
Being stuck at the airport due to plane delays or flight cancelations is never a pleasant experience. This unforeseen obstacle can hit especially hard during the holidays when you would much rather be surrounded by family and loved ones instead of being forced to wait around strangers in a crowded corridor. This turbulent event is the exact catalyst for a random group of strangers to come together in unexpected ways during the six-episode, newly released holiday-themed miniseries A Storm for Christmas.
Streaming exclusively on Netflix, this show’s central setting is the Oslo Airport in Norway. A disastrous snowstorm puts the brakes on both would-be holiday flyers and overworked employees who just want the work day to be over already. Over the span of each forty to forty-five-minute episode, the audience follows along with various characters and watches how their suddenly stunted airport excursion goes from one that is filled with gloom and doom to being enthralled and energized by a more magical Christmas spirit.
The series is filled with plenty of interesting characters. Some of these temporary residents include a pianist who finds himself at world’s end because of his plummeting popularity, a singer that has to see through her own emotional obstacles in order to value the people around her, a luggage handler who becomes smitten with an abandoned dog, a mother whose sole quest is to bring her son to a life-changing surgery, and a peculiar traveler who finds himself at the airport on a yearly basis but is unable to actually travel to due to binding memories.
Set against the backdrop of a once hustling airline hub that’s now frozen in time due to a crippling blizzard that is raging through the area, the explicit motives and deep backstories of the personalities featured in this miniseries are given the spotlight instead of the other typically used story building mechanisms. Smoother than one might initially think, all the striking but unique personas that each person possesses do an excellent job of bouncing off of the other stranded travelers. In turn, this underlying link not only reinforces the mantra that people will always pass on the good deeds that others showed to them but that as much as you might think and no matter where you are, you’re never really alone for Christmas.
For example, a disgruntled employee who’s had enough of playing Santa Claus is gratuitously calmed with just a few words by the distraught pianist. That same mellow mindset then snowballs down to ease a little girl whose parents’ incessant arguing becomes too much to handle. An airport employee who ultimately finds companionship in a small dog left behind named Lasso helps him to befriend a female priest who uses the canine’s sense of smell to find an old man who’s gone missing in the airport’s many twisting passages. The female priest is then inspired to take a spur-of-the-moment flight with a man who is burdened by his deceased wife.
Besides there being numerous other relationships throughout the show, all of these connections are bred by the kindness and giving spirit of the holiday season. This underlying motif is not overbearing or cringey, but rather the cast of A Storm For Christmas all share the ability to make these interactions seem natural and inspirational.
You may recognize the cast that brings these relatable characters to life. Dennis Storhoi, who previously starred in Troll, plays the musician Arthur Berg. Carmen Gloria Perez who starred as Linda in a different Netflix production, Young Royals, is also involved in the project. Sus Noreen Jondahl Wilkins is Stine, a woman who finds herself questioning her life path after having to face her own infidelity while traveling. Wilkins was previously in the Danish crime drama Loving Adults and will be in the upcoming In The Name of Love. Ida Elise Broch stars as the previously named pop star Ida. Being in many Norwegian-speaking dramas, Broch was in the Netflix original Lilyhammer, portraying the romantic interest of one of the supporting characters.
A Storm for Christmas was created by acclaimed director Per-Olav Sorensen, who has brought other features to life like The Playlist and the coming-of-age prep school romance movie, Royalteen, which has a sequel in the works. The production company The Global Ensemble Drama helped put together this multiple-perspective holiday drama that shows that even in the most stressful and unexpected of situations, just a little bit of the festive spirit shown by a single person can change countless others’ lives. The drama branch of the production company is based in the same town and country where the show is set and prides itself on being run by the same creative talent that it features in public media.
If you feel like this season’s turbulent winter has you sheltering in place, check out A Storm for Christmas on Netflix. Not only will you be able to travel for the holidays once more without ever leaving your home, but you’ll also start to quickly believe once more that it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Writing many one-page short stories when he was a child that have now been lost to time, Salvatore Cento then ultimately honed his craft as a student at the College of Staten Island where he created many articles for the school's official newspaper, The Banner. As much as he finds value in writing about the latest and greatest trends that are buzzing throughout the entertainment world, his true passion is leading the reader to new movies and shows that they have never seen before.
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