If you haven’t heard of, or seen, this 7-episode gem, then what are you waiting for? Originally in Swedish and available on Netflix in the original language and a dubbed English version (I chose the latter as I’d rather see than read the series) Diary Of A Ditched Girl is the kind of rare date experience that goes far beyond the shallow reputation of the genre.
The series is impressively shot on authentic locations, geographical and emotional, to ensure we avoid the feeling of claustrophobia faced by the 30-year old protagonist/heroine (she is so vulnerable and human, it is hard to classify her as any traditional definitions).
Amanda (Carla Sehn, exceptionally credible) is broken but curious after a series of dead end relationships. Her appetite for carnal and emotional satiation is whetted by an unsavoury experience in the park which serves as a trigger for her explorative instincts.
What could have been a monotonous take on serial dating turns into an immersive modern tragedy of a woman’s inability to find a stable relationship. Some of Amanda’s dating experiences throb with real affections and disaffcetion, and when they end in an impasse, Amanda and we the audince wonder, why is she unable to find a man who can give her the constant attention she needs?
Each of her dates is well played by actors who look their part. Writers Tove Eriksen Hillblom and Moa Herngren and co-directors Emma Bucht Susanne Thorson draw a wide roomy arc in Amanda’s life . She is seen in every situation and position that is afforded to her, and we watch the outcome from a afar and yet upclose .
For all its lack of editing tricks and enticing licks , Diary Of A Ditched Girl is dizzying in its entertainment quotient.
I liked the stitching of Amanda’s love life with her family woes. Amanda and her sister Adina (Moah Madsen) are thrown together by default: their father has left them to make another family , their mother is unreliable and fey. The two sister navigate through their combined and individual lives with only each other to fall back on.
In a memorable confrontational moment Amanda challenges their father’s right to a new home and life, leaving the two sisters from his first marriage to look after themselves. The implicit reproach and criticism of broken homes doesn’t overwhelm the narration which remains staunchly devoted to the core ideology: you have no one but yourself to blame for your mistakes in life.
