As others have said, this new Nordic-noir of ten episodes breaks down into two five part stories, so my review here is of the first five.
There's very little difference here to other shows like this which I've watched, by which I mean you get the central cop trying to do his or her job overloaded with personal, usually family-related issues. Naturally being set in a Scandinavian country too, there are lots of shots of bleak, wintry locations often with drone shots from on high.
So far, so predictable. The chief cop in question, Wisting is a widower with a crusading journalist daughter who looks for police favours to help her in her job as well as a younger son who lives and works abroad. Father and daughter don't really get along but it's Christmas time and the son has returned to try and heal the breaches in the family especially between father and daughter. If you really think he's going to succeed in this then you clearly haven't seen many of these series before.
Another common point I frequently take issue with in these shows are the ridiculous coincidences the viewer is expected to accept as the story unfolds. What starts out as two separate stories, one the father's case of an American serial-killer who has now popped up in Norway and is raping and disposing of young blonde women down wells which apparently proliferate every farm in the country, the second, the daughter's newspaper story of a lonely neighbour who apparently died alone in his chair and wasn't discovered for days. What are the chances do you think of these two plot-strands interconnecting further down the line?
Then there are the two U. S. F. B. I. Agents who come to town to assist in the serial killer's capture. What are the chances do you think of the young black detective having a one night stand with Wisting's daughter as she pursues a lead in her story?
Last but by no means least, when the daughter's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, what are the chances do you think of the car behind her being driven by the serial killer himself who promptly attempts to make her his next victim?
I think you see where I'm going with this. Obviously I found the plotting too haphazard to convince and the settings and characterisations just too stereotypical into the bargain.
The acting too was just so-so and I always hate it when a subtitled show drops the dialogue the second anyone talks English. I didn't find Inspector Wisting to exhibit any great charisma or inspire much sympathy or interest on my part either, making me wonder why they named the show after him.
I'll watch the next batch of five, although the reviews I see here indicate I perhaps needn't bother.. I would hope future episodes are more tightly scripted but this particular import seemed more like noir-by-numbers to me.
There's very little difference here to other shows like this which I've watched, by which I mean you get the central cop trying to do his or her job overloaded with personal, usually family-related issues. Naturally being set in a Scandinavian country too, there are lots of shots of bleak, wintry locations often with drone shots from on high.
So far, so predictable. The chief cop in question, Wisting is a widower with a crusading journalist daughter who looks for police favours to help her in her job as well as a younger son who lives and works abroad. Father and daughter don't really get along but it's Christmas time and the son has returned to try and heal the breaches in the family especially between father and daughter. If you really think he's going to succeed in this then you clearly haven't seen many of these series before.
Another common point I frequently take issue with in these shows are the ridiculous coincidences the viewer is expected to accept as the story unfolds. What starts out as two separate stories, one the father's case of an American serial-killer who has now popped up in Norway and is raping and disposing of young blonde women down wells which apparently proliferate every farm in the country, the second, the daughter's newspaper story of a lonely neighbour who apparently died alone in his chair and wasn't discovered for days. What are the chances do you think of these two plot-strands interconnecting further down the line?
Then there are the two U. S. F. B. I. Agents who come to town to assist in the serial killer's capture. What are the chances do you think of the young black detective having a one night stand with Wisting's daughter as she pursues a lead in her story?
Last but by no means least, when the daughter's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, what are the chances do you think of the car behind her being driven by the serial killer himself who promptly attempts to make her his next victim?
I think you see where I'm going with this. Obviously I found the plotting too haphazard to convince and the settings and characterisations just too stereotypical into the bargain.
The acting too was just so-so and I always hate it when a subtitled show drops the dialogue the second anyone talks English. I didn't find Inspector Wisting to exhibit any great charisma or inspire much sympathy or interest on my part either, making me wonder why they named the show after him.
I'll watch the next batch of five, although the reviews I see here indicate I perhaps needn't bother.. I would hope future episodes are more tightly scripted but this particular import seemed more like noir-by-numbers to me.
