M/S Romantic is a Finnish four-part black comedy miniseries created by Jani Volanen and Tommi Korpela. Volanen directed the series alone. M/S Romantic depicts one day aboard a cruise ship traveling between Helsinki and Stockholm. The series aired on Yle TV1 from 24 February to 17 March 2019, and all episodes were simultaneously released on the streaming service Yle Areena on 24 February.
The first episode was watched by 574,000 people on television and had over 350,000 views on Yle Areena by 6 March 2019. M/S Romantic won the 2019 Golden Venla for Best Drama Series. Additionally, Volanen received the Best Director Venla, Volanen and Korpela jointly won Best Writer Venlas, and Hannu-Pekka Björkman was awarded Best Actor.
The series' budget was €1,221,058, of which €100,000 was funded by the Finnish Film Foundation.
Contents
Reception
Helsingin Sanomat's Laura Kytölä praised the series for capturing Finnishness with dark undertones, comparing it to Jani Volanen's earlier works, Ihmebantu (2009) and Häiriötekijä (2013, 2015). She commended the series' weaving of six storylines into a cohesive narrative.
Awards
Golden Venla: Best Drama Series 2020
Best Director Venla
Best Writer Venla
Best Actor (Hannu-Pekka Björkman)