I must admit, the only reason I saw this series, was because of a pop-up commercial that had redirected my browser to some Indie TV-network site. But the moment I saw the first episode, I was hooked. The whole interpretation of how "heaven" works and the levels of bureaucracy and middle management were hilarious to say the least. I loved to see the emissary Oleg analyze the Icelandic division of "heavens middle management". It's almost as if the writers of the series had sat down and thought how it could work logically if angels had to serve every human being, and there had to be as little supernatural powers over the process as possible.
Plot/Story: The main concept of the story is the Circledrawers being the most low-level of angels who has to complete 1571 deeds in order to be reborn as humans. Furthermore this task being almost impossible, the Circledrawers that complete this task often lose their connection with the living and end up as Human Protectors who live alone and are watched for by a Guardian.
The story is built up in 2 different story lines that twine together from time to time. One story is about Oleg the special emissary following the Icelandic Circledrawers (low-level angels) and watching their curiosities (sleeping in living people's houses, having prostitute-nights despite their wedding tackle doesn't work, and stealing flashlights). In the other story we follow the LBB (late Blooming Boy) Lewis who has been living as a human for 20years. Due to a clerical error or somewhat, he was supposed to become a Circledrawer from birth but now he has to be detoxed and rehabilitated. The two seasoned Circledrawers Marcus and Moses have to teach him up and get him ready for the next part of his journey (as in any corporation where no prior work experience is needed, the buddy system is used) . They visit a suicidal man and help him transition over to "the other side". They also visit The Human Protector who is supposed to help Lewis come to terms with his new way of living. At the same time Oleg is working the bureaucratic angle and trying to get paperwork on Lewis processed while at the same time reviewing the efficiency of the machinery he is working for.
Opinion: I love how half of the story is about how the bureaucracy of heaven is just as messed up as in a super large corporation on earth. Everybody has titles that describe their place in the hierarchy such as: Circledrawers, navigators, human protectors, guardians, emissaries, and from Internal. Maybe not true with the real world but only men become Circledrawers, and middle management (or Internal, as they call it) only consists of women who couldn't care less for their employees or lower level associates. The other half of the story is like a spy movie. Where all contracts and communications have to go through the Icelandic station and they talk about "transmissions" and specific times of the week where they send information and have code names for each other.
The movie is just fantastic and I could write hundreds of pages about this story and how much potential it has, but I will only succeed in writing this lousy review of the story. The story is nonetheless fantastic, and is by far one of the best movies working in and around the theme of "heaven and earth". The music in the movie is just fantastic and it makes me reminisce of movies such as Solaris, Sunshine and Black Hawk Down, where the music amplifies the mood and setting. The only downside is that in 60 minutes you don't get the entire story and although I like movies where you have to think for yourself, I feel I could have used just a couple of more answers. For example why is Lewis a possible "an unenlightened one"? Why is Oleg just a bit too Russian? Is Circledrawers a wordplay on some kind of reincarnation/wheel of life? What happens next?
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