A brand-new, four-episode drama series titled A Better Man is being filmed in Lithuania until the end of May. Created, penned and helmed by Thomas Seeberg Torjussen, the show follows Tom, Norway’s number-one internet troll (played by Kon-Tiki [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] star Anders Baasmo Christiansen). He is a smart but angry and frustrated man with misogynistic tendencies, and a prime example of everything that is wrong with the pathetic males who didn’t get the memo about the gender-equality movement. When hackers reveal his identity to the public, he is forced to escape social persecution.

Ridiculed, mocked and threatened, Tom decides to shave off his beard and hide in what he has close at hand: women’s clothing from his mother’s store. Scared, alone, homeless and devoid of his online world, he experiences compassion and warmth from strangers. All the while, Tom transitions from a despicable caterpillar into an outrageous trans-butterfly, eventually blossoming into the titular “better man”.

Speaking to Variety, the outlet that first reported the news, Torjussen said that the idea for the series was planted when he started “digging into the misogyny of men who are left behind in what I believe is the most progressive, gender-equal region of the world.

“I cram a lot of twists and turns into every episode, which I hope will feel like a roller-coaster ride. And it’s also funny. It’s not a comedy, but there is a sense of irony to it: he is a misogynist in female clothing. We take it seriously, but I believe that’s going to be amusing,” the showrunner added.

Other key characters include Tom’s “pet hate” Live (a stand-up comedian whom he considers a representative of “the vaginal state of Norway”) and Audun, Tom’s neighbour, who is “like the poster metrosexual”, Torjussen says, “but has a hidden side to him”. Live is portrayed by Ingrid Giæver, Cineuropa has learnt.

“[Audun] is the guy who’s made it. He has a nice girlfriend, he has a kid and he has friends of both sexes. But he has this incel man inside of him. He says himself that he is the original incel. The male sexuality is tamed in him, and he feels very lonely in his frustration, so he recognises something of himself in Tom. He’s sort of a mirror. So, we don’t tell a story where these men are just lonely, chubby guys with their computers; we show another aspect of it.”

A Better Man was commissioned by Norwegian pubcaster NRK and German pubcaster ZDF’s ZDFneo platform. Producing are Synnøve Hørsdal and Christian Fredrik Martin for Norway’s Maipo Film. Last week, Germany’s Beta Film boarded the project, which will be formally launched on the market in October at MIPCOM, where the first trailer will be released.