Lilyhammer is a Norwegian–American television series starring
Steven Van Zandt about a former New York-based gangster named Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano trying to start a new life in isolated
Lillehammer, Norway. The first season premiered on Norwegian
NRK1 on 25 January 2012
[4] with a record audience of 998,000 viewers (one fifth of Norway's population),
[5][6] and premiered on
Netflix in North America on 6 February 2012, with all eight episodes available in full for streaming on the service.
[7] Lilyhammer was promoted as "the first time Netflix offered exclusive content".
[1]
The spelling of the series title alludes to Tagliano's dog Lily that was killed in the first episode during an attempt on his life, and the way that Frank and some other
anglophones pronounce the town's name.
[8] The series produced three seasons; the final episode aired 17 December 2014. On 22 July 2015, Van Zandt posted on
Twitter that the series had been cancelled,
[9] and the following day
Netflix confirmed that they were pulling out.
NRK owns the rights and remained optimistic that a deal could be made with another company for a fourth season.
[10]
Van Zandt's character Frank Tagliano draws parallels with his character
Silvio Dante from the HBO series
The Sopranos. They are meant to be different, but most traits are the same between the two.
[11]
