YMMV / Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Are Rasmus's parents homophobes or just worried that everyone else is? Are they jerkasses or just grieving parents?
  • In the books, they are clearly homophobic. At times, they seem almost as much so as Benjamin's parents - who are Jehovah's Witnesses.
• Awesome Music: "Mitt enda liv".
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Paul.
  • Seppo in the TV series.
• Fridge Horror: Actually pointed out by Benjamin in the book, but it applies to those who only saw the TV series. Benjamin knows he has HIV while Rasmus is still alive. He takes care of Rasmus throughout his illness. Not only does he have to watch the love of his life suffer terribly, but he does so knowing that the same fate awaits him - and nobody will be there to take care of him when the time comes. Luckily, the inhibitor drugs come along before the virus develops too much in Benjamin, but he had no way of knowing that would be the case while he nursed Rasmus.
  • Several international critics mentioned an example of this trope in their reviews. Sweden is a liberal country that's been progressive about gay rights and the Swedes in general were fairly early on accepting of homosexuality (it used to be classified as a disease in Sweden until, during the seventies, heterosexual people began protesting by calling in sick to work stating "feeling a little gay today", driving home how ridiculous it was to call it a disease in the first place). Even so Swedish society treated gay men horribly during this period - so what must it have been like in other, far less liberal countries? Many British critics, especially, talk about this in their reviews and emphasize that it's one of the things that gives the series such weight internationally.
    • This is rumored to be the main reason why the show didn't get a Hollywood treatment. Jonas Gardell flew to the US and was in talks with producers who wanted to make an English language adaption, and allegedly Gardell backed down from the deal when said producers insisted on setting the show in America. Not just because the series is deeply personal to Gardell and the city of Stockholm being a key element of that, but precisely because it loses a lot of its weight when moving the setting to a far less liberal place.
• Moral Event Horizon: Rasmus's parents cross this big time after Rasmus died. Having been almost parental substitutes to Benjamin, they turn away from him completely and tell him he's not welcome at Rasmus' funeral.
• Nightmare Fuel: The story is ripe with it. A mysterious disease spreading amongst your community, seemingly targeting people of your sexuality and lifestyle, leading to a painful and humiliating death. Society's reaction isn't exactly a pick-me-upper either. The worst part is that while the characters may be fictional the depiction of the AIDS panic is all too real and the book chronicles a lot of frightening tidbits from the time period.
  • Rasmus's death scene is especially ripe with it, from his boyfriend's point of view. The love of his life dying from a disease Benjamin knows he has himself is just part of it. Rasmus's parents have, up until this point, treated Benjamin well and Sara (Rasmus's mom) even says that he is like a son to them. Then literally as soon as Rasmus is dead they change their tone. Harald (Rasmus's dad) tells Benjamin he's not welcome at his boyfriend's funeral and that he will never be part of the family or even someone they'll acknowledge knowing and he still manages to come off better than Sara.
  • At one point in the book. Benjamin tells Holger about how he took care of Rasmus, changed his diapers, helped him move from the bed to his wheelchair, all the while knowing full well that soon Benjamin would be in Rasmus's state, only with nobody there to help him.
    Rasmus: I don't want to become trash.
• Tear Jerker: A lot of such moments, but special mention goes to the scene where Benjamin visits Rasmus's grave and tells Holger about the last years of Rasmus's life. Björn Kellman's performance is really something.
  Benjamin: I watched the most beautiful thing I had just... be destroyed before my eyes.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Sara becomes downright deplorable on the day when Rasmus dies. She begins to move towards this territory earlier on, but it's at that point where her likeability goes right out the window. The worst of it is probably when she tells Benjamin he is like a son to her and Harald, knowing full well that they have no intention of letting him even attend Rasmus's funeral, and they leave him behind very quickly once Rasmus has been pronounced dead. In fact, once Rasmus has passed away, she changes her tune instantly and outright tells Benjamin that there's no reason for her to keep up the facade anymore.
  • This goes for Harald too, although not quite as much. But telling Benjamin that if he attended Rasmus's funeral it wouldn't be a dignified burial but a "gay spectacle" is pretty damn rough. The one factor that keeps him from being completely unlikeable at that point is his very obvious and devastating grief over his son's death mere moments earlier, making you wonder if he would have been as nasty otherwise. Before he leaves he hesitates and is about to say something to Benjamin, clearly feeling sympathetic, giving you the impression that Sara is the driving force and he's too weak to stand up to her. Stefan Sauk does a brilliant job with the scene.
• Word of Gay: Holger. He is basically there to represent what Rasmus's life would have been like if he never left town and embraced his sexuality.