Clark is a Swedish-language miniseries airing on Netflix, based on the life, crimes and multiple prison sentences of the notorious Swedish criminal Clark Olofsson, internationally known for his role in the Norrmalmstorg robbery, which gave name to the Stockholm Syndrome. The series stars Bill Skarsgård as Clark, and follows him from his birth in 1947 up to The '80s.
The series does not pretend to be an accurate retelling of the events, it's rather an embellished story somewhere between a Dramatization and Very Loosely Based on a True Story with Clark serving as an Unreliable Narrator who wants to convince the audience how cool, succesful (especially with the ladies) and popular he is. Its subtitle is "Based on truths and lies".
The series is directed by veteran music video director Jonas Åkerlund, and it shows. Musical montages, creative editing and stylistic hyperboles bordering on Magical Realism abound.
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Clark's alcoholic and violent father, who spends virtually every second on screen either drinking or abusing his wife and son, and most often both at the same time.
- The Alcoholic: Both of Clark's parents.
- Art Shift: The series quite often launches into music video-like montages, and a couple of times into animated fantasy sequences.
- Bank Robbery: Clark's favourite pursuit.
- Composite Character: "Kurre the Fox" is a fictional character who sometimes pops into Clark's life to accompany him on various misdeeds, taking the place of multiple of Olofsson's real life partners in crime.
- The Cameo: Many bit parts are played by popular Swedish comedians and musicians.
- Catchphrase: "Skit på dig!" ("Go shit yourself!")
- Deliberately Monochrome: The flashbacks to Clark's childhood.
- Dream Sue: A variation. The show is mostly told from Clark's perspective, so of course he is making himself look perfect.
- Flashback: Every episode has one or more flashbacks to Clark's traumatic childhood.
- Intentional Engrish for Funny: Clark's English "skills" are atrociously bad, to the point that English-language audience members most likely need English subtitles to understand him. Somehow he still manages to make himself understood whenever he's in a foreign country.
- Lack of Empathy: Clark pointedly does not care about anyone but himself. He gladly uses both lovers and partners in crime for his own goals, and ditches them without second thought the moment he doesn't need them anymore.
- Phrase Catcher: "För i helvete, Clark!" ("God damn it, Clark!") is uttered in frustration by many people who has to do with him.
- Prison Escape: Numerous. Clark actually enjoys being in prison, but he enjoys escaping even more.
- Spontaneous Choreography: The third episode has Clark visiting a nightclub and suddenly leading the crowd in a disco dance.
- Stockholm Syndrome: The fourth episode portrays the Trope Namer.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Tommy Lindström, the police detective who spends decades pursuing Clark, rightfully seeing himself as the only one who can look past the crook's superficial charisma and sees him as the hardened criminal he really is.
- Teen Pregnancy: It's revealed Madou got pregnant with Clark and gave birth to a daughter.
- Unreliable Narrator: The series is told from Clark's perspective which portrayes him as an implausibly perfect and beloved bad boy. But the final scene really breaks that illusion.
