"The Enigma of the House of Silfvercrona" is an enticing historical teen drama seasoned with socialist propaganda.
Approximately twenty years post 1968 the Swedish media was heavily influenced by far-leftish views; this is a good sample of this era. The series is based on a British novel for children - The House of Arden - published in 1908. As the novel is referenced several times in the first episode of the series, one can hardly blame the production for being a blatant rip-off.
The main plot deals with two cousins that are brought to an old-fashioned 'castle' (actually more of a manor) together with the father of the male cousin and an architect. The matron of the 'castle' is a rather pungent old lady that conveniently points out certain 'forbidden' parts of the building that the kids start exploring before long. She also tells them a story about a lost treasure.
Although not a proper mystery show, it lends you an exciting atmosphere, partly due to the soundtrack. The setting is rather brilliant too as these old 'castles' appear quite spooky by their nature and almost ecclesiastical design.
The show was re-run several times by the Swedish Government Television before private TV Corporations were admitted to operate.
Entertaining and well produced as the show might be, it does suffer from the far from politically subtle, and frequently inaccurate, relating of Swedish history. The framework is purely socialist, not to say communist, and one soon becomes exhausted by the persistent comments with respect to "the wealth of the Lords and the poverty of the peasantry". The series is solidly in lack of information of other aspects of history, culture, literature, art, music etc.
The suspenseful device of time traveling, borrowed from the British novel mentioned above, and the MacGuffinish treasure hunt somehow cleverly disguise the negative effects of its political message.
I would be surprised to hear that this teen drama was not broadcast by Soviet Television back when!
