Marja Pyykkö, director of the thriller’s eight episodes, which premiered last week in Spain on Orange, spoke to ttvnews about the series and a potential second season.
Premiered in February 2020 through YLE in Finland under the name Paratiisi, the eight-episode series Kosta (The Paradise) exceeded two million viewers between its linear broadcast on YLE TV1 and the OTT YLE Arena, a record for a country of five million inhabitants.
40% of viewers actually watched the series at some point.
And now, Orange TV premiered Kosta (The Paradise) on its platform in Spain thanks to an agreement for various contents with The Mediapro Studio, co-producer and distributor of the series.
While official results haven’t been posted yet, everything seems to be on track for the series to have a second season. That, at least, as revealed to ttvnews by Marja Pyykkö, director of the series.
“I hope we do the second season, yes. Here in Finland it was very successful. It was a surprise how well it worked, it went very well, so YLE is already working on a second season,” she revealed.
“The story allows for a second season. It would not be with the same case, but with some of the characters,” she added.
Pyykkö was the director of the eight episodes, a model that’s seldom used on TV and that’s even more rare on Spanish TV. The experience, however, was positive according to the director, who managed to generate more author content.
«Everything has its positive and negative things. I liked this way of working, because I was able to decide where the characters started and where they ended. I was able to control this,” she stressed.
“I’ve also done half-series or just one episode. It is less work, it is true, but in the end one will only execute. When you do everything, it comes from the heart. It is much harder, but I liked it,” she added.
The series stars Spanish actor Fran Perea (Los Serrano) and Finnish actress Riitta Havukainen (Fakta homma, Harjunpää ja heimolaiset).
It revolves around a series of crimes that take place within the largest community of Finnish residents outside their country, located in southern Spain. Two police officers, Officer Andrés Villanueva (Perea), a man affected by a strong feeling of loss, with strong ties to Nordic residents, and Inspector Hilkka Mäntymäki (Havukainen), one of the best police detectives in the city of Oulu, on the verge of retirement and with a complicated family situation, will be in charge of the case.
Although it has a clear thriller story, Pyykkö falls short of the “nordic noir” label.
«I am tired of the Nordic Noir, it is something old, they have been made for more than 10 years. This series is crime and of course it has Nordic Noir things, but when we started I already said that I also wanted humor, emotion, a little more heat for the characters, that they can laugh, cry, scream, things that are not seen in Nordic noir, where the characters are colder and really here in the Nordic countries we are not like that. We can be quieter, more reserved, but not cold. Kosta is a thriller, yes, but not a Nordic Noir,” she said.
Kosta was written by Matti Laine, author of crime novels and the Border Town and Bullets series. He was nominated for this series for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize 2020, which distinguishes the best screenwriters from the Nordic countries. He has also participated in the series Ran Tellem, head of International Content Development at The Mediapro Studio, who is also an executive producer with Laura Fernández Espeso, Javier Méndez and Bernat Elías on behalf of The Mediapro Studio and Jarmo Lampela and Suvi Mansnerus for part of YLE and Marko Rohr and Tiina Pesonen for MRP.
