Warning, spoilers. The following paragraphs reveal plot elements from the series Families Like Us.
After Xavier Dolan and Xavier Giannoli, CANAL+ relies on another famous director for its prestigious new original creation. Our Families is the first television feature by Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish screenwriter and director known for The Hunt, Feast, Society and Drunk, winner of two Oscars (Best Director and Best Foreign Film).
Airing on CANAL+ from January 6, Families Like Us concludes with its final three episodes, ending a Danish family’s journey at the hands of a major upheaval: an irreversible natural disaster that forces the government to evacuate. country before it is completely flooded.
The Danish people are scattered, leaving behind abandoned houses, schools and streets. While families and friends are separated, in an instant, nothing has a price, fortunes change, and luck favors only a few exiles.
A hopeful ending
Although it is a disaster series, Our Families is above all an intimate drama and a touching family story. And its final episode, full of hope, reflects this bias of Thomas Winterberg.
At the end of the series, everyone is alive (even Elias, Laura’s boyfriend, whose fate was uncertain) and each character has recovered somewhere, far from Denmark buried in water, more or less happy with their new life, but with hope for a brighter future and a rediscovered sense of community.
However, it could have been otherwise. “Elias died in the script four years ago”Thomas Winterberg told us, “J“I felt like Laura and Elias met again”. This hopeful ending was the desire of the filmmaker, supported by his wife Helene Reingard Neumann, also a priest and actress who plays Amal in the series.
When he read the script to our families about four years ago, he offered a touch of hope. At the time, Thomas Vinterberg was in full mourning after the accidental death of his daughter Ida, who is the subject of the movie Drunk. He made this optimistic bias a goal in the series.
“He told me that I have to leave some hope in my show and maybe in my life too. And that has been my main challenge for the last four years. That’s why I’m nervous about showing the series.
Is that optimistic enough? I don’t care if it shocks people enough. In fact, I’m afraid it will shock people too much. But hope is important to me.
But I also had to strike a certain balance because it’s also a refugee experience. So it can’t be entirely optimistic. Refugees die every day. And perhaps it would have been fairer if Elias had died. But I just couldn’t do it.”
Is “Families Like Us” Season 2 Possible?
If the final episode brings a satisfying and hopeful conclusion to the heroes of our families, it still leaves the door open for speculation about a potential sequel. New episodes could follow another family or show what happened to Laura, Elias and others.
The Danish community asks Thomas Vinterberg to continue, as he explained: “A lot of people are flattered to ask, a lot of people ask me, even my 12-year-old son, but I don’t have a second season in mind.”.

The response was very strong in Denmark, a country that tests its work in public more than in France. “We think audience testing is super smart”Thomas Winterberg tells us:
“Drunken tests were carried out 19 times and without these tests it would have been a disaster. During the testing of our families, the community was divided over Laura’s choice to be a student at the Sorbonne in Paris with her family and baby – a friend and an obstacle as a refugee to help her mother.”
The series was a hit in Denmark and many people are asking if a second season of Families Like Ours is on the agenda. The public even questions his wife on social networks! Thomas Vinterberg’s only answer for now “I don’t know, it’s a question mark, maybe?”.
Comments collected by Megan Choquette during a virtual roundtable with other journalists on December 9, 2024.
The series “Families Like Us” is available on CANAL+.
Source: Allocine

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.