Die Åre-Morde

Abusive husband busting through a hotel door with an axe to assault his wife and child? Sounds familiar. But it's just a throwaway scene in this rather odd procedural/Scandinoirish series. It's supposed to be a 5-episode season but it's more like two seasons of 3 and 2 episodes respectively, as they pertain to the investigations of unrelated cases. Brevity is the soul of wit or something, and kudos to the show for being efficient and economical. I admit I'm the first to gripe when shows pad the runtime with extraneous twists and goofy red-herrings. Here, however, the show goes to the inverse extreme since the investigations are so truncated and straightforward that their resolutions are banal; plus the characters don't get quite enough development to make an impression.

Just like you want a murder mystery to be. I liked the style of this one, effective and straightforward. The actors then had to show more than tell, and there were plenty of scenes whey they came through loud and clear. Breathtaking scenery about a part of the world we see little of in the States - but then I love foreign films for this very reason. Not everyone behaves like Americans and I love to immerse myself in other cultures' nuances. Of course we share a global commonality: murderers and police departments and family members all inextricably connected which makes for a basic premise that we love to journey through as we try to guess who-done-it also. Good writing keeps it unpredictable and this show delivers.

So what if there was a familiar scene from a famous horror film - a nice tribute to that film while treating it wholly differently. Good show. I would like to see it renewed for season two in order to follow through with the characters storylines - I'm already hooked!

This was a very watchable series. It's a much darker scenario than many others of Viveca Sten's novels or screenplays but still frothy enough not to be depressing.

Yes, there are cliches such as the maverick, suspended, female detective, a male cop whose home life is breaking down and a closeted gay guy but these are woven into the fabric of the story to make a coherent and easy-to-watch narrative.

The plots were fantastical at times with characters doing unexpected or downright dangerous things. A little too much intuition was used in the solving of the cases too. However, in the main, this was worth watching. I saw the lot over a couple of days and it filled in some time very enjoyably. I'd recommend it but don't expect "The Bridge" or "Forbrydelsen".

I agree with the other reviewers, the problem with the series is the script. The location is beautiful and it's nice to have a series not set in Stockholm or Malmo or.... In general I have no problem with the cast. Episodes 1-3 are one story, 4 & 5 a second story.

Hanna is a stereotype of a green detective who goes off on her own and doesn't take orders from her senior partner. She has maturing to do and admits that she should have waited and not gone alone. One would think after her recent Stockholm experience, that she'd look before she leaps.

I'm a big fan of the "Beck" series set in Stockholm, that series has a really good cast and superior scripts. This is not a Beck, but it's better than some other Swedish police procedurals..

I'm also a fan of "Sandhamn Murders" also from Viveca Sten mystery novels. Different cast, writers and different production companies. I'd like to see more Swedish crime dramas from Netflix.

Don't miss these Netflix thriller episodes from Sweden. Three different murder stories well packed and fast paced guessing all the time who the real murder could be. It was not simple to solve but it was interesting to discover with the detectives the traces. It was never boring. Wonderful landscapes offered a special atmosphere for solving these mysteries. The main police woman and the police man delivered a respectable performance and the director had a good hand to create very suspenseful and breathtaking series.

If you like Scandinavian thrillers check out the Valhalla Murders. For all these reasons it deserves 7/10.