The Glass Dome Review: Mediocre But Still Worth a Watch

The Glass Dome Review: When Lejla returns to her small Swedish hometown, things immediately feel tense, more so when news spreads that a young girl has disappeared without a trace. She takes this news extremely seriously because, as a child, she was held captive in a glass dome by an unknown perpetrator, and thus she goes out of her way to find the little girl before it’s all too late. Is this history repeating itself, or is this the dawn of a new criminal?

The series has 6 episodes, each with a runtime of around 41 minutes.

The Glass Dome Review

Netflix Swedish series The Glass Dome is a standard thriller entry on the platform that the streaming giant has been churning out over the last few years. I guess it’s good to get more eyes on such important issues, but the series, in spite of having its moments, really gets on your nerves sometimes.

Following a smart albeit gloomy Lajla, who is still suffering from the aftereffects of being abducted by a psychopath when she was a pre-teen, the series makes her go on a chase to find the abductor after her friend is murdered and young Alicia is abducted as well. Lajla is a character you can get behind. She is painted well by the creators, such that it’s easy to root for her. She’s smart and thoughtful and is able to put two and two together. Most of the series showcases her putting the clues left by the kidnapper together to get to the bottom of the mess while the others around her flounder, which feels great to watch.

However, she is human also and struggles a lot with the nightmares from her past and the present coming together. I think it makes her believable and relatable in all the best ways. She’s a little broken and learns to come to terms with everything around her, and sometimes is driven by her trauma to do what’s right. At least it makes her a character who is able to solve the crime, I can’t say the same about the others.

The series also features plot points other than the abduction part. We see the town’s modernisation venture stirring up trouble from the extremists who can’t see anything beyond their own greed and chaos. It’s a little annoying and unnecessary in the context, especially because I think it slows the plot down. It also left me quite annoyed at times. I think the series could’ve benefited from more twists and shocking revelations when it comes to the abduction, rather than focusing on unnecessary characters and their qualms about making their small town better.

That being said, I found the series to be enjoyable, especially during the revelations of the abduction storyline. There’s not a lot, and a lot of the runtime is flat, but the overall vibe is tense, and the characters do a great job of delivering that feeling. I think the most annoying and ridiculous part of the story is the lead investigator in the story, Tomas, whose general dismissiveness and stupid ideas bog the runtime down a lot. He doesn’t add much, and his superiority complex and incompetence take a lot away from the series.

It’s truly ironic, thus, when we reach the end and the truth comes to light. I think that the last twist and how we get to it is quite interesting and are the sole reason I found this series as entertaining as I did. The payoff is great and leaves you hanging by a thread. Although there’s a lot in the story that is clichéd, it comes together well, and the small-town aspect always makes it all the more thrilling.

Final Thoughts

I think I was quite entertained by The Glass Dome because of how the story unfolds. Léonie Vincent is a fantastic protagonist who does a great job of getting things done and connecting the dots. Although the story is somewhat clichéd, it delivers the twist well in the end.

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