The eccentric, immature, egotistical supervisor and communist Georg Bjarnfreðarson (Jón Gnarr), has a fond admiration for Sweden and Swedish culture, and is the focus of the series.

Ólafur Ragnar Hannesson (Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon) is a regular employee and a dimwitted, well-meaning man who likes to party and dreams of becoming a successful band manager.

Daníel Sævarsson (Jörundur Ragnarsson) is a former medical student who starts working at the petrol station at the beginning of the series in hopes of getting his controlling parents off his back and find himself.

The series follows the various happenings at the petrol station, as the power-hungry Georg orders Ólafur and Daníel to do inane, unusual and sometimes dangerous jobs.

Georg Bjarnfreðarson (Jón Gnarr) is the eccentric nightshift manager at the Shell garage on Laugavegur, the main road through downtown Reykjavík.

He has five degrees: psychology, sociology, pedagogy, political science as well as a teaching qualification and frequently brings them up in attempt to assert his self-importance.

A fan of bureaucracy, he enjoys putting his subordinates through ordeals over trivial matters, such as how to spend the staff holiday fund (staging an official vote inline with the general elections).

The band quickly becomes fed up of his inability to book gigs and complete lack of knowledge of the music industry, and dump him as manager.

Extremely dimwitted, Ólafur is often on the receiving end of bad situations, becoming involved in advance-fee fraud with a man from Nigeria, printing misspelled promotional posters for his band, and falling foul of a Chinese protein shake which induces lactation.

[3] Howard Owens, the managing director of Reveille, said: The Night Shift is that rare international format that has American sensibility, and we're eager to tackle another workplace comedy after the success of The Office [...] The show has a smart, ironic point of view, which we know will translate well in the U.S.[4][5]In January 2010, the screenplay for the American adaptation was completed by screenwriter Adam Barr.

The character of Daníel keeps his name and is still a medical school drop-out, but his introverted personality has undergone a complete inversion and – according to Iceland Review – he will be "a hunk playing the field".