Here’s Why Amy Poehler Appreciates Swedish Death Cleaners: “They’re So Direct”
“The Swedes have this way of just saying, ‘This is ugly,'" Poehler has said. "... And I like that about them.”
Amy Poehler is all about uplifting unscripted TV when it comes to the shows she backs through her production company, Paper Kite. Nowhere is that more exemplified than in Paper Kite's latest series, the Peacock Original unscripted show The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.
Based on the international bestseller of the same name by Swedish author Margareta Magnusson, the series arrived in April and took an approach to helping people declutter their lives and face the inevitable with humor, heart, and a sense of honesty that Poehler was immediately drawn to when presented with the concept.
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In describing the shows she gets behind through Paper Kite, Poehler told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year that she's not interested in projects about "intimidation and humiliation" or "watching people fight." Instead, through shows like Making It and its companion series Baking It, Poehler and Paper Kite try to find a sense of connection in unscripted television, helping people to learn and grow even as they work on-camera to achieve a task.
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning follows three Swedish Death Cleaners — Johan, Katarina, and Ella — as they visit Americans who are hoping to declutter their lives, whether because they're facing death head-on or simply trying to get the absolute most out of the last or latest phase of their lives. The idea of helping people through that process with empathy and kindness was what drew Poehler to the project immediately.
"I love the kind of before-and-after shows and when things are done, but I don't love people getting shamed for the choices they've made in their lives," the Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation alum said on TODAY earlier this year. "It's just not my gig, so we were really interested in... that right tone of just hearing people's stories and helping people figure out what they want to keep and what they want to let go of."
That said, Swedes have a way of getting to the point, which Poehler says she already appreciated, since her brother lives in the Scandinavian nation and has helped introduce her to the culture.
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"The Swedes have this idea about turning and facing the reality that we are all gonna be here," she said in the same TODAY interview. "We are all going to go, and in the meantime maybe we should all enjoy life while we are still alive to live it, and figure out what things are important to us. What things do we want to give away and not burden other people with those decisions after we're gone? So it's kind of like taking a look at life, it's celebrating life, by being very honest about what we collect along the way."
In an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Poehler told the talk show host — her longtime friend and collaborator, whom she shared the "Weekend Update" anchor desk with on SNL — that the Swedish way of speaking directly drew her to the culture right away.
"We have three great Swedish Death Cleaners who come in and are incredibly Swedish in the best way," she said of the show. "I mean that ‘cause they’re so direct — and I think clarity is kindness. I like direct people. They get to the point.”
Of course, getting to the point often comes with some very, very honest language, which helps drive some of the show's welcome and often unexpected comedy.
“The Swedes have this way of just saying, ‘This is ugly,'" Poehler told Meyers. "And, ‘You don’t like it and we don’t like it — and it needs to go away.’ And you’re just like, ‘Wow.’ They say it really fast. And I like that about them.”
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Bravo is set to air three episodes of the show on Thursday nights, beginning with “What Lies Beneath” — about how one man struggles to clean out his parents’ belongings that he’s been storing in his basement since their deaths — on August 17 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.
It'll be followed by “Confessions of a Lounge Singer” on August 24, and “F*ck Cancer” on August 31, in the same time slot.
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning is now streaming on Peacock.
