Today on TV | The Robber Bank series, about the consumerism of the late 1980s, gets better as it goes on

Economic rose in Finland at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, and money was “free”. A loan was offered and taken without worrying about tomorrow. The economy overheated until it spiraled into billion-dollar losses and massive unemployment. Today's reference interest rates, which are considered high, are only a fraction of the heights at which they fluctuated then.

Eight part Robber bank gets a human grip on those days of drugs and collapse. However, you wouldn't guess it from the start. The strangely dimly shot series looks as if we are already living through a serious energy crisis. Some of the barren Estonian filming locations do not radiate any celebration of consumption either.

The view is so grim that a more hasty viewer might leave the series at the very beginning. It wouldn't be worth it. Robber bank plays sundry and poor for the sake of the narrative as well. The stakes get tougher, and the atmosphere thickens.

Amanda Pilke is 27-year-old Sanna Nurminen, who is the youngest ever candidate for a doctorate in economics. He chooses the Bank Inspection Agency as his workplace, which in those days examined, directed and supervised the operations of banks.

On the way to the interview, Nurminen chats with a man in a suit sitting on a park bench. this is Christopher Wegeliusthe charismatic CEO of SKOP bank.

It is clear that the two will meet again. Nurminen is tasked with specifically investigating SKOP's operations.

Pekka Strang has done fascinating roles before, where something hidden lurks beneath the surface. Slowly, Wegelius' sanded protective shell is cracking a little.

Ville Tiihonen shows off instead Jussi Riikosena in the same way as half of Finland in those days. “There will never be any more poor people,” says SKOP's deputy CEO.

Sanna Nurminen, played by Pilke, is in the middle of everything, like the calm surface of a pond. Still, even this has its secret, and already the first minutes of the series hint that the story has a dull ending. Kotikylä's sobriety has been closed by one company after another. Sanna's eyes are spit on.

Director-main writer Matti Kinnusen the series is not Finnish Succession. It doesn't wallow deliciously in the pigsty of wealth, but it manages to do like a great one Mad Men back in the day: to add a cliffhanger to the end of the first episode, which will kick things off again.

The timeline also takes it with you. Shoulder pads and suits, barracks cars and Kolho-looking computers offer the viewer, depending on the generation, either nostalgia or amazement.

The world still belonged to men in suits. Women were already starting to join the important tables, but even women
older than Sanna were still treated condescendingly.

The robber bank the human side is addictive, but the series is also instructive to watch in economic matters. Although the world has changed since those times, the story is familiar even in the time of bitcoins. Easy money still promises the famous nine good and ten beautiful things. And then change the scenery.

Robber bank has previously been shown on Elisa Viihde Viaplay.

Nelonen and Helsingin Sanomat belong to the Sanoma Group.

Robber Bank, Nelonen at 10:40 p.m.

Henry Ford's dark side revealed

Young Henry Ford broke speed records with his cars. It brought attention to his products. Picture: general

“Job comes to the creator, and not the creator of the work”, was Henry Ford's (1863–1947) key insight.

When Ford introduced an assembly line at its car factory, a car was completed in 96 minutes instead of the previous 12 hours. But Ford had other insights. A historical document tells about them Henry Ford.

Ford's T-model car was aimed at ordinary people, while earlier cars were made for the rich. In order to cope with the lack of workers, he started paying double wages, thanks to which even his own employees became car buyers

Ford factories soon operated all over the world, from Europe to South America and from South Africa to the Soviet Union. Lenin considered Ford's ideas revolutionary.

In the United States, Ford's marketing made films in which the leader was presented as a jovial common man with rural roots.

Everything about Ford was true, but he also had a darker side. Ford demanded puritanical lifestyles from his employees, which his inspectors made house calls to watch. Those who missed them were punished.

“This great man defied the power of Jewish money alone in the United States”, wrote Adolf Hitler about the Ford he admired.

Ford wrote anti-Jewish articles in a magazine he published himself, which were compiled into a book International Jew. It was also published in Finnish.

Ford later had to apologize to American Jews, but accepted Nazi Germany's badge of honor. However, the tanks and bombers produced by his factories helped bring down Hitler. The French documentary has interesting visual material, but it is a bit lecture-like.

Seppo Varjus

History: Henry Ford, Yle Areena.