General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

End of Summer

End of Summer (Swedish: Slutet på sommaren) is a six-part Swedish psychological thriller television series in which a woman's search for the truth about her brother's 1984 disappearance is triggered when a young man in her therapy group recalls a strikingly similar childhood memory. It is adapted from the 2016 novel of the same name by the Swedish crime writer Anders de la Motte, the first title in his Seasons Quartet series.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Slutet på sommaren (Swedish)³
Format	Six episodes of about 55 minutes each²
Source	First book in Anders de la Motte's Seasons Quartet; de la Motte is a crime writer and former police officer¹^•⁴
Directors	Jens Jonsson and Henrik Georgsson²
Lead cast	Julia Ragnarsson as Vera, Erik Enge as Isak, with Simon J. Berger, Torkel Petersson, and Vilhelm Blomgren¹
Production	Harmonica Films in co-production with Viaplay, SF Studios, Film i Skåne, and Paprika Studios²
Audience rating	7.3/10 on IMDb from about 1,900 votes³

Spoilers

Premise

The story opens in the summer of 1984, when a five-year-old boy named Billy disappears one evening in a small town in rural southern Sweden. Despite an extensive search effort, the police investigation fails to establish the truth, and he is never found; rumors spread, and the family is left broken. For Billy's twelve-year-old sister Vera, the disappearance leaves a wound that never fully heals.²

Twenty years later, Vera works as a psychologist and grief counselor in Stockholm. A young man named Isak joins her group therapy session and recounts fragmented childhood memories, including the disappearance of a young boy; the details, such as a black cat weathervane matching the one on Vera's old family home, coincide with Billy's case. Shaken, Vera returns to her hometown and her fractured family to uncover what really happened that summer.²^•⁵

Much of the story is told in flashbacks to the days immediately before Billy's disappearance. Vera's memories of her mother Magdalena, whose mental health problems are evident before her son vanishes and who is protective of Billy but dismissive of her daughter, carry much of the series's atmosphere. A longstanding suspect in the case, Tommy Rooth, was never convicted of a crime but went into hiding and changed his identity.⁵

Production

The series was created by Björn Carlström and Stefan Thunberg, who served as head writers, with episode scripts by Axel Stjärne, Jimmy Nivrén Olsson, Pontus Edvinsson, and Amanda Klintwall Högberg. Per Janérus produced for Harmonica Films, in co-production with Viaplay, SF Studios, Film i Skåne, and Paprika Studios, with support from the Nordisk Film & TV Fond and the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme. Jens Jonsson and Henrik Georgsson directed.²^•¹ Shooting locations included Helsingborg in Sweden and Poland.⁶

Broadcast and release

Rotten Tomatoes lists the series premiere on Viaplay as October 23, 2023.⁷ The series later reached wider audiences through international sales handled by Viaplay Content Sales.² The BBC acquired it from Viaplay Content Distribution for broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer in 2024.⁴ In the United States it premiered on September 10, 2024, on Viaplay partner channels, including Viaplay on Prime Video Channels.⁸ As a SkyShowtime Original, it received an exclusive Nordic premiere screening of its first two episodes at the Stockholm International Film Festival on November 11, 2024, and launched on the SkyShowtime platform on December 26, 2024.¹

Reception

On IMDb the series holds a rating of 7.3/10 from about 1,900 users, with per-episode averages rising from 7.4 for the first episode to 8.1 for the finale.⁹ Reviewing the BBC broadcast for The Guardian, television writer Rebecca Nicholson gave it three stars out of five, calling the central mystery captivating but by-the-book, and noting that the show is stodgy in places and demands acceptance of a steady pace.⁵ Audience reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes similarly described a slow-moving plot built on frequent flashbacks and a large web of interconnected characters.¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026