We Got This was produced by the leading Swedish production powerhouse Jarowskij (The Restaurant, Solsidan, Welcome to Sweden) for SVT, in co-production with Viaplay and Film i Väst.

Musarra won the Best Pitch Prize at Series Mania 2018 for the show. Banijay Rights handles global distribution.  Patrik Eklund, academy-award nominated in 2010 for his short live film Instead of Abracadabra, is director and co-writer with Musarra and Santiago Gil (Veni Vidi Vidi, Torpederna).

Tag-lined as ‘the Big Lebowski meets the Palme investigation’, the 6x45’ We Got This uses as a premise Musarra’s own experience as an American-born Swedish-based writer/actor, who considers for a brief moment the SEK 50 million reward attached to solving the 34-year-old murder of legendary former Prime Minister Olof Palme, as a quick fix to solve his financial problems. 

In the series Musarra plays the odd-ball American George English who lives in Stockholm with his Swedish wife (Sandrea Andreis of The Sandhamn Murders) and daughter (Ida Hedlund-Stenmarck). English sets on a mission to solve the unsolvable Palme case with his best friend - a disillusioned journalist played by Alexander Karim (The Lawyer, Zero Dark Thirty) and a whacky conspiracy theorist (Olle Sarri of Gösta, The Inner Circle). Midsummer’s Anki Larsson joins the ‘fantastic four’.   

After a major discovery George finds himself on a head on collision course with history as their investigation goes from a laughing stock to a very real operation closely-watched by the media, politicians and organisations that stretch far beyond the Swedish borders. 

Musarra spoke to us a few days before the premiere on SVT. 

Tell us about yourself- your background - how and when you had the idea for the show… 
Schiaffino Musarra: I first worked at an actor in Atlanta, US, then took a screenwriting course in Boston, before moving to New York where I met my Swedish wife. We moved to Sweden in 1999. That’s the first time I heard about Olof Palme. 

I started a company, doing documentaries, working in the live jazz community. I got a good year followed by a bad year financially, got into trouble with the tax authorities and started to panic.  In the US it’s kind of easy to make quick money, but not in Sweden. I started googling: ‘how can I make fast money without breaking the law’. I didn’t want to turn into someone like Walter White in Breaking Bad!  

I found a list and at number 6 or 7 was the Olof Palme case with the SEK 50 million reward for anyone who could solve the murder. I said: “What! Are you kiddin' me!!” I did go through a period where I contemplated…what if? But I soon came to my senses. I started thinking of this as a TV series and felt the idea of trying to solve the unsolvable and energy that came out of it was definitely worth exploring. 

When was that exactly?
SM: That was in 2014. People would just say: ”how can you possibly think of making a comedy out of the murder of Olof Palme?” I said: “I’m not saying this is funny, it is a national tragedy, but the failed investigation, crazy conspiracy theories…this is pure comedy of the absurd.” 

Then I came up with the idea of doing a sizzle reel. I teamed up with producer Anna Sofia Mörck. The cast in the original trailer is basically the same cast as in the show. Both Ole[Sarri] and Alex [Karim] are long-time friends and I had worked twice before with Anki Larsson.  We made the trailer, started showing it and it went from something that nobody wanted to do to something everybody wanted to get their hands on.

I believe the Coen Brothers were a big inspiration. I found similarities in tone with the cult US show Get Smart from the late 60s or the fish-out-of-water Lilyhammer that trades on culture clashes. Tell us about your inspirations…
SM: I’m definitely a child of the 70s and love the US shows from that time, like Get Smart, The Streets of San Francisco with the young cocky and funny Michael Douglas. I love that style! But I guess my biggest influence is Hal Ashby. He was such a great storyteller, daring and interesting. I never get tired of watching his movies. 

How did you put together your creative team - writer Santiago Gil, a Swede with Catalan origins and a great sense of quirky humour, and director Patrik Eklund, also known for deadpan humour and sharp dialogues?
SM: I had never met Santiago Gill before. With Jarowskij on board, we started interviewing different writers. He didn’t know that much about the Palme case. At the beginning it was just the two of us in the writers’ room and it was very interesting - with one guy who knew too much on the Palme case and the other guy who didn’t know much. It was a push and pull exercise that worked really well. The Palme case is a huge labyrinth and having someone who didn’t know much forced me to be pickier about the information we really needed to use. Santiago is also great with storytelling structure and knows how to hammer everything in the right place.

Regarding Patrik, we’ve known each other a long time and had worked together on the short film Of Biblical Proportions [2015]. He’s the one who made me grow a beard! He played a big role in polishing the dialogue and making the comedy work in Swedish.

What were the main difficulties in writing the screenplay, balancing the comedy with the thriller and extracting what you wanted from the puzzle of the Palme investigation and conspiracy theories? 
SM: In the early draft of the script, we had tons of technical information from the case. Some stuff was interesting but for the script, it made no sense. We were not going to make a documentary anyway. Ultimately, the show is not about solving the Palme case, but about this guy who struggles to adjust, tries to correct the bad mistakes he’s made and pull out of the financial and emotional hole he’s in.

The difficult part was to deal with the unwritten rules, the dos and don’ts from a legal standpoint, and in terms of the politically correct. What can be said - or not - something I really don’t’ give a shit about as an American, as we are often proud of being politically incorrect. But this is not possible in Sweden.

There is also a classic two best buddy aspect in the series, with Alexander Karim playing the disillusioned journalist. It's refreshing to see him in a comedy role, playing against type…
SM: It was such a dream come true to do this series with Alex. He’s like a brother to me and he understands the outsider’s perspective too - coming originally from Uganda. This is where our connection starts. He has been in the US a lot and understands that mentality as well. We had a playful and wonderful relationship. He definitely played against type and against his own personality. 

How was your relationship with Jarowskij and SVT?
SM: With SVT, it was a real collaboration of push and pull. Obstacles are a good thing and help you become a better writer. Jarowskij were very aggressive with regarding to acquiring the project and very supporting all along.

The music by Göran Kajfes is excellent. Can you tell us a few words about it?
SM: We had kick-ass people in the crew. I had never met Göran before. He and Patrik discussed the music a lot. We wanted something like Hitchcock meets Curtis Mayfield. Göran was so spot on from the beginning. The theme song in the credit is the original song he sent us. 

The series is very timely as the chief prosecutor Krister Petersson said the Palme case would be closed this summer. What is your own take on who killed Palme? What do you think of Stieg Larsson's international conspiracy theory combining South African secret services and right-wing extremists in Sweden?
SM: I like Stieg Larsson’s theory. He was obviously very smart. In the show, we sort of explore a similar theory. But the show was never about presenting my theory. We had to build the tension, work on something that got bigger and bigger, moving in the international sphere.  That said, it is impossible to know at this point who killed Olof Palme. But I don’t believe that such a polarising political figure was killed by accident.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löftven called the Palme murder an open wound in Swedish society. How do you think Swedish viewers will react?
SM: I think Stefan Löftven’s saying is only half true. There is a massive new generation of Swedes who know almost nothing of Olof Palme, therefore it is not an open wound for them. But of course, for the generation who lived with Olof Palme between the 1960s to 1980s, absolutely I agree with this statement. Perhaps more could be done in Sweden to educate the youngsters about why Palme was such a major political figure on a historical perspective.  To answer your question, enough time has gone by. Some people might be offended, but I hope most people will say: this is a funny take on the case.

What's next? What other cases are you going to solve?
SM: Actually, after Series Mania, I got an agent in the US-Anonymous Content. I am discussing the possibility of doing a similar comedy about JFK in the US. But Sweden will remain my home-base with my family.