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Clark begins in 1947, in Trollhättan, Sweden, where our lead anti-hero is born, even reminiscing about being in the womb and not wanting to be locked up, citing his birth as “my first escape“.
As for how he came to be known by his moniker, his mother named him after the actor Clark Gable, before the intro whizzes through a potted history of his life so far, stating how his most infamous situation came from being a bank robber, holding up a bank at Norrmalmstorg, which is how the term ‘Stockholm syndrome’ came about, where kidnap victims begin to feel an affinity with their captor.
Perhaps this was a result of hanging such an angry man for a father, but either way, we learn Clark (Bill Skarsgård – It Chapter One, It Chapter Two) started his robbing from an early time in his life, and the same goes for charming the ladies, including meeting Madou (Isabelle Grill), the first love of his life.
This period, as we move on to 1965, also sees him being a hedonistic young man and a habitual liar, drinking booze with his friends, and breaking into the Swedish Prime Minister’s house, amongst many other misdemeanours.
There’s a hell of a lot of setup in the opener, before we actually get to their first robbery of a shop, which doesn’t quite go to plan, and so Clark and best friend, Gunnar (Emil Algpeus), go on the run.
As a drama, Clark thrives on quick cuts between lots of scenes, but in doing so, it just makes the story feel very all over the place and I wasn’t grabbed by this. Without going into too much detail – in case it does grab you – I did flick through the second episode because it featured a bank robbery, but in the same style as the rest of what I’ve seen, it doesn’t show the scene in one go, but has to keep cutting in and out between that and the anti-hero talking to a TV crew about how he’s wanting go straight. Based on his behaviour, I can’t imagine his words being too truthful.
I certainly feel like needing a good sit down after what I watched… although I was already sat down. And as effervescent as Skarsgård and co are in making this, it left me behind, and I couldn’t get a handle on it, so I won’t be returning. Based on the comments on the trailer, I’m in a minority, but while I enjoyed the trailer’s fast pacing, the show, itself, didn’t need to move at such a chaotic speed. Less is more.
As an aside, Clark also has some strange closing credits, in that they break convention, by scrolling from the top and down to the bottom.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Clark is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from Thursday May 5th.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 60 minutes per episode (6 episodes)
Release date: May 5th 2022
Studio: Netflix
Format: 1.78:1
Director: Jonas Åkerlund
Producers: Julia Stannard, Börje Hansson, Patrick Sobieski
Writers: Fredrik Agetoft, Peter Arrhenius, Jonas Åkerlund
Music: Mikael Åkerfeldt
Cast:
Clark Olofsson: Bill Skarsgård
Tommy Lindström: Vilhelm Blomgren
Madou: Isabelle Grill
Liz: Malin Levanon
Ingbritt Olofsson: Sandra Ilar
Maria: Hanna Björn
Gunnar: Emil Algpeus
Young Clark: Kolbjörn Skarsgård
Sten Olofsson: Peter Viitanen
Teen Clark: Lukas Wetterberg
Ingela: Agnes Lindström Bolmgren
Madou: Isabelle Grill
Liz: Malin Levanon
Kurre Räven: Adam Lundgren
Hiller: Daniel Hallberg
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.