Netflix’s Love & Anarchy wants to be a smart, subversive comedy about adults playing games with the rules. It mostly gets there, even when the plot strains to keep up with its own ambitions.
The premise is simple and appealing. Sofie Rydman, played by Ida Engvoll, is a married consultant with two children. She takes over a restructuring job at the old publishing house Lund & Lagerstedt, and there she meets Max Järvi, a young IT temp played by Björn Mosten. They start a game where they challenge each other to break social norms, and the game slowly turns serious.
Trailer, via Netflix.
The Game That Runs the Show
The game is the engine of Love & Anarchy. Each episode sets a new rule to break, and the two characters push each other further than either wants to go. It is clever, funny, and occasionally uncomfortable. The show knows exactly what it is doing when it asks Sofie and Max to cross lines they did not know existed.
What does not work as well is the surrounding story. The CEO, Ronny Johansson, played by Björn Kjellman, is supposed to be weak-willed, but the show leans on him being a caricature rather than a fully drawn human. The veteran publishers, Friedrich Jägerstedt and Denise Konar, played by Reine Brynolfsson and Gizem Erdogan, exist mainly to react to the chaos. And Sofie’s husband, Johan Rydman, played by Johannes Bah Kuhnke, feels less like a threat and more like a prop.
The Cast Carries the Weak Parts
Engvoll and Mosten sell the central dynamic completely. Their chemistry is the reason the game works at all. The supporting cast, led by Bah Kuhnke, delivers competent work, but they are given thinner material to work with.
What Holds It Together
- The game itself, which stays sharp and unpredictable throughout
- The performances from Engvoll and Mosten, which carry the emotional weight
- The setting of Lund & Lagerstedt, which grounds the absurdity in a recognizable workplace
- The balance between comedy and drama, which rarely tips too far in either direction
The show stumbles when it tries to be bigger than the game can sustain. The second season stretches the premise thin, and some of the later challenges feel less original than the early ones. But the core is strong enough to pull through.
Final Word
Love & Anarchy is a solid, often funny comedy about adults who refuse to play by the rules. It is not perfect, and it asks more of its supporting cast than it delivers. But the central relationship, built around a game that never loses its edge, makes the whole thing worth watching.
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