FTA-TV Nordic/Scandi noir

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Frank Bunn

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Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or one of the other Nordic countries. Plain language avoiding metaphor and set in bleak landscapes results in a dark and morally complex mood, depicting a tension between the apparently still and bland social surface and the murder, misogyny, rape, and racism it depicts as lying underneath.

I love this genre and pretty much everything I have watched has been quality.

4 seasons of The Bridge, set in Sweden and Norway, created by Swedish writer, Hans Rosenfeldt.
8/10

4 seasons of Wallander, set in Sweden, starring Kenneth Branagh. Is based on the bestselling Swedish crime novels by Henning Mankell.
7/10

Trapped. 2 seasons of an Icelandic murder mystery drama series, created by Baltasar Kormákur.
8/10

This morning I watched the movie The Keeper of Lost Causes. It's the first in a series of adaptations of the novels by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen. It's really well written and put together. 7/10. Next on my list are the other movies in this series - The Absent One, A Conspiracy of Faith, The Purity of Vengeance.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other good stuff in this genre?
 
Before We Die

A crime series set in Stockholm around bikie gangs and a family of Croatian gangsters. I think SBS added the English subtitles.

Season 1 is ok without being anything special. The main plot device is that the detective's son has infiltrated the gangs without her knowledge - but it was stretched a bit too far. The plot twist in the last show was unrealistic. Marie Richardson was good in the lead role.

5/10.
 

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sorted said:
The Absent One

Good but not quite as good as The Keeper of Lost Causes. The main characters are great. It just got a bit far fetched towards the end.
6/10
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TKOLC - is that the film where the Dane(?) and the middle eastern(?) cop team up to solve cold cases? If so, I vaguely remember it and enjoyed it too. They should have made a series of it though.

I can highly recommend a film called In Order of Disappearance with Stellen Skaarsgard. I would describe it as a Nordic Fargo
 
Lyttelton Ranger said:
TKOLC - is that the film where the Dane(?) and the middle eastern(?) cop team up to solve cold cases? If so, I vaguely remember it and enjoyed it too. They should have made a series of it though.

I can highly recommend a film called In Order of Disappearance with Stellen Skaarsgard. I would describe it as a Nordic Fargo
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Loved Stellan going nuts in Order of Disappearance!
 
There are two Swedish series of Wallander, with two very different actors playing the lead. Both are better in my book than the rather awkward English-language Branagh version. But you'll probably see exactly the same stories. The daddy of them all that really started it off in Europe was The Killing, of which there are three seasons. All good, and the first is superb, if harrowing.
 
Agree with the low mark for before We Die. I thought it was pretty dull. One I just remembered which was decent is Occupied, set in Noway after a 'friendly' Russian invasion, tacitly backed by the EU. A topical and interesting premise. It's on Netflix (here, anyway).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4192998/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

As you can, see Norwegian PM bears a remarkable resemblence to Peter Schmeichel :D
 
moto748 said:
There are two Swedish series of Wallander, with two very different actors playing the lead. Both are better in my book than the rather awkward English-language Branagh version. But you'll probably see exactly the same stories. The daddy of them all that really started it off in Europe was The Killing, of which there are three seasons. All good, and the first is superb, if harrowing.
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I started watching a new show called Young Wallander. It's competently made but it's a strange beast. A Swede, Adam Pålsson, plays the lead role but all the other actors are British. It's set in modern times so it's not a prequel to either the original Swedish or British shows. It's set in Malmo but filmed in Lithuania. I find Pålsson quite wooden as an actor. Contrast this with Endeavour, which does a great job of depicting 1970s Oxford, and Shaun Evans is terrific as young Morse.
 
I started watching that, but when I discovered it was in English, sorry, that just seems wrong to me. And it's made dafter, rather than more 'authentic', in my view, by having a Swede with a Swedish accent playing the lead. Like the Maigret series we had with Rowan Atkinson, sitting in a French cafe, with signs in French all over, reading a French newspaper, but talking in English! Just seems wrong! I agree about Endeavour, which was a much better show than the original Morse in my opinion.

Just on Before We Die, i did, somewhat unenthusiastically, embark on the second season, but I did think it perked up quite a bit, and was a big improvement on the first.
 
Not Scandi, but I have just finished Sex Crimes: Code 37, Belgian show set it Ghent (in Flemish), about the local vice squad. Yeah, I know, but it's a lot better than that sounds, goes easy on the titillation, and has a healthy dose of humour and likeable characters. Like a lot of these cop shows, there is a 'case of the week', and also an over-arching plot-line. I don't know if it's available to you guys, but I really liked it, and would recommend.
 
I'm watching a nordic series on Netflix called Deathwind. Its ok. I love nordic thrillers they are so intense and different plus I love seeing the landscape as it so different. On Endeavour I love this show and agree about Shaun Evans he is terrific.
 
Deadwind, is it? Finnish? I've seen that. or a couple of series, I think. According to imdb there's been three seasons, I don't think I've seen as much as that. I liked it, but the lead cop is a tad charmless. The acting, soundtracks, production values etc in Scandi shows is always very good. And as you say, it looks so beautiful.

Netflix also now has (or it has in the UK) the series Borgen, which was shown on the BBC some years ago. There's no forests and fjords, this is all politics in the big city. But again, very well written. Stars Sidse Babett Knudsen, who you may have seen before; she has done a fair amount of English-language stuff too.
 
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Wisting, Norwegian tv show on SBS demand, is excellent.

First season was based on 2 books by crime fiction author Jorn Lier Horst, which I have read, Wisting is the lead character who is a detective, read about 7 books in the Wisting series. Author of the books is a former senior investigating officer.

I have also watched Deadwind (Finnish) and Valhalla Murders (Icelandic) on Netflix, which are both excellent as well
 
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Wisting was on BBC at the same time as I was watching S1 of Deadwind on Netflix. I couldn't help comparing the two, and I did think Deadwind was the better show. I think it was the Wisting character himself who I found a bit underwhelming. I will check out Valhalla Murders, thanks.

[edit] VM does not seem to be available here now.
 
moto748 said:
Wisting was on BBC at the same time as I was watching S1 of Deadwind on Netflix. I couldn't help comparing the two, and I did think Deadwind was the better show. I think it was the Wisting character himself who I found a bit underwhelming. I will check out Valhalla Murders, thanks.

[edit] VM does not seem to be available here now.
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Still get here on Netflix in Melbourne, it’s called
The Valhalla Murders
 
I reckon they took it off in the UK. I've had this before: you can search for a title alphabetically, and it acknowledges it, and shows the title on the LHS of the screen. But in the main pane it just shows "Programmes like The Valhalla Murders". A list of alternatives, in other words. I had a similar thing recently searching for a show I had already watched (I was checking if there was a new season), and it had gone completely.
 
moto748 said:
I reckon they took it off in the UK. I've had this before: you can search for a title alphabetically, and it acknowledges it, and shows the title on the LHS of the screen. But in the main pane it just shows "Programmes like The Valhalla Murders". A list of alternatives, in other words. I had a similar thing recently searching for a show I had already watched (I was checking if there was a new season), and it had gone completely.
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I think that if your search appears on the LHS then it means that someone somewhere has searched for it as well.

There are some top notch shows on Netflix but an awful lot of dross and many, many good shows and movies are absent from Netflix's catalogue
 
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