Lifjord - Der Freispruch

I absolutely loved watching this, I got so into it I binged watched it on Stan on a work night until 3am had 2 hours sleep and do not regret a second. The only reason this did not get a 10 was because the woman who played Karine's mother drove me crazy, I have no idea if it was the acting or if it was just the constant crazy, either way she annoyed me to no end. Nothing like a bit of Eye Sweetener for a leading man either. The scenery was spectacular made me want to pick up sticks and move there..... then I realised what the temperature would be all year round and put my sticks back in their bag. Just Brilliant, watch it don't diss because of the subtitles, it translates seriously well most of the time anyway.

After reading the announcement of the series on German TV I was intrigued by the theme: A businessman returning to the small village in Norway, where he grew up and, after being a prime suspect in a murder at the age of 18, was acquitted of the crime. He left the town, made a successful career in the Far East, only to return after 20 years or so to save the main employer in the town from going bankrupt. Such a topic offers plenty of opportunities to make an intriguing TV-series. However, already after watching the first episode I was really disappointed. The actors walk, behave, and are dressed like clichés. The investors are of course all smartly dressed good looking young men, who prefer to travel by helicopter, but many of the details have nothing to do with the reality of this world. Their behaviour is irrational, and they take risks that investors would never take, even if they were driven by sentiments. After watching for a while, this gets so annoying, that the basically great theme of the series disappears into the background. There are really much better Scandinavian crime series to watch (like The Bridge), don't waste your precious time on this one.

How many times are they going to bring this guy in for the murder? It's tiresome. It's as if they ran out of ideas.

Good things: The cinematography of the series is impressive. The actors give a solid performance. The music helps the atmosphere of the series to stay consistently gripping. Every second contains an excellent amount of uncomfortable tension that prevents the otherwise overdramatized script from falling into the soap opera category.

At the same time, the script is still plagued by some serious illogicalities. It is simply questionable whether an international high tech company could have been managed successfully by a woman whose behavior is seriously neurotic at worst and someone whose background is such a huge question mark could work as a big shot in an investment company and stay married with the same woman for 17 years.

Moreover, it is nothing short of unconvincing that the small town in which the events of this series take place could be so remarkably void of people who would just listen to reason and act sensibly under most circumstances.

Summary: While I still enjoy to watch the series, I can't help being nagged by the feeling that something just doesn't make sense in the script.

Just based on the scenery alone I can tolerate this 45 minute show (don't know why they advertise it as an hour as it isn't an hour). Anyway, I am only at episode 6, and I really think Tonje did it as it is obvious she is still in love with Aksel. Eva is an awful actress.