Forbrydelsen

This is the third and final season of Forbrydelsen (The Killing). It combines all the best elements of the Nordics thriller tradition: a very good written storyline, superb acting and very good art direction and filming. The main character - Sara Lund - has some way to get back to her rather unorthodox way of policing but gets in her stride after several episodes. The story is an intriguing triangle of murder, politics and business and reveals several corrupting involvements that we so-called sophisticated Europeans (I'm Dutch) think mainly exist in the USA etc.

Highly commendable, both entertaining and something that makes you think about the world at the same time.

I've just finished watching all the episodes and I've not been so engrossed in a series since 24 (the original series) was on TV many years ago. In many respects it does remind me of 24.. 20 episodes spread over 20 days, many twists and turns, the main characters stumble from one wrong turn to another until the final denouement.

But that isn't its main appeal, I'd even go so far to say that it detracted slightly from the series as a whole. The absolute best part of this is just the sublime acting. The whole thing is about characters wrapped up in a mild cliffhanger plot, its how they react to each other and developments that really makes the difference from what we usually get on TV.

The filming is very good, and little touches abound in it - my favourite is still how Sarah Lund can breeze along with her eyes shut, yet Jan Meyer cannot follow behind her without stepping in something. That's a double act that Hollywood will never be able to match.

There are faults with it though. Unless the Danish police are really well funded I found forensics turning up at a snap of Sarah's fingers in the middle of the night to be somewhat unrealistic (they must have good overtime payments in Denmark), similarly a DNA sample would be tested and the results back in less than an hour, and its nearly always dark too - maybe they all sleep during the day. Either way, these are things you just live with as its a TV show and reality has to be strained.

In short - watch it, even with subtitles, you won't miss the developing characters and their reactions to their changing lives.

There aren't many programmes where I feel I mustn't leave the room for a moment for fear of missing something - but this is one of them. As I write, the serial is around the middle of its run on BBC4 (so there are no ad breaks), with two episodes back-to-back each week. I can't remember the last time I saw a twenty-part serial. I didn't think anyone still made them. If they can be this good, there should definitely be more of them.

I don't yet know where the story is going. So far suspicion is falling on one person after another and there is a lot of (not always completely believable) politicking at City Hall. It doesn't sound much, but the direction and acting put this into a very superior category.

Sarah Lund, the main investigator is an obsessive, but a very believable one. I don't know how her more impulsive colleague Jan Meyer avoids strangling her out of frustration with the way she treats him. Her family and boyfriend likewise. Perhaps these are plot developments still to come!

One unusual feature is the focus on the reactions of the family of the murdered girl. The actress playing her mother deserves every award going.

Update 27 March: it ended last night on BBC4. Whew! Saturday nights won't be the same. I stand by what I wrote above, but, if you see it, be prepared to be a bit frustrated with a lot of unanswered questions at the end, and you may be wondering at one or two coincidences. Still, my enjoyment of the serial did not really come from its being a whodunit. The characters and the atmosphere were what really made it.

This amazing Danish series is even more absorbing than MAD MEN (2007, see my review), and may be the most compelling drama series ever made for television. It keeps you on the edge of your seat for 20 hours. (My review is of the complete Series One only, as Series Two is not yet released on DVD and Series Three is being shot as I write.) It is a pity that the title of the series has been mistranslated as THE KILLING, for that gives a false impression of some seedy cop caper, full of violence and murder, sirens and car chases. The Danish title FORBRYDELSEN means 'The Crime'. The crime of this 20-hour marathon takes place before the series begins, and is the mysterious murder of a 19 year-old girl named Nanna Birk Larsen. We never see her except in photos and one video clip. The series is about the incredibly complex and breathtakingly dramatic aftermath, much of which concerns political intrigue and corruption in Copenhagen's town hall. The crime is seen to be much more than just a killing, which is another reason why the English title is wholly inadequate. (It is typical of the inferior nonentities who now run the BBC that they want to sensationalize everything and inject sex and murder into everything they can because they think it will be 'popular'; there are many instances of this. The BBC has no business trying to be 'popular' and aim for high ratings because it is funded by a tax on every TV set in Britain and audience size is not needed for advertisers, as there are none.) The acting and direction for this series are so brilliant there are simply no words strong enough to praise the persons involved. First of all, one must praise the writer Soren Sveistrup and his three co-writers for coming up with the most complex murder mystery plot imaginable, and with fascinating and convincing character studies. Even the smallest parts are of interest, and no attention to detail is overlooked. Five different directors made this series, the chief being Kristoffer Nyholm, and it ties together seamlessly as if all made by the same person. That indicates highly superior producing by the team of three producers. The series also has haunting and highly effective music, composed by Frans Bak. These are all highly talented people, and they are matched by the first class acting of everyone in the series. The acting is rather different from what we are used to outside Scandinavia. The Danes are obviously specialists in silent communication by means of significant looks, both focused and unfocused. The specialists in this art of communicating by non-communication are Bjarne Henriksen and Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, who play the married couple Theis and Pernille Birk Larsen. Henriksen rarely speaks at all, but his silences are enormously communicative, and as for Jorgensen, she conveys much by a manic staring into space as her personality disintegrates and she slowly goes to pieces in the aftermath of her daughter's murder. Her waves of hysteria are like tsunamis of silence. All of this is extremely powerful stuff. The strangest of all the silent characters in the film is the police chief Brix, played with eerie composure, tinged with mute menace, by Morten Suurballe. It is impossible to overemphasize the power of these silent figures in the story, who tower over the action like censorious megaliths. Many Scandinavians have a code of formal politeness like a veneer over their personal conflicts. This is seen in heightened fashion between the urbane scoundrel Poul Bremer, the Mayor of Copenhagen, played with extreme cunning and finesse by Bent Majding, and the young politician who opposes him, Troels Hartmann, played in a breathtaking bravura performance of determined rectitude by Lars Mikkelsen. These two repeatedly insult each other throughout the entire 20 hours in the politest way imaginable, despite the fact that the insults are so vicious and extreme that in any 'normal' culture, the men would be hitting each other with their fists and shouting vitriolic abuse. Scandinavian self-control really has to be seen and heard to be believed. Another amazing performance in the series is delivered by Nicolaj Kopernikus (Yes! Nicholas Copernicus! Can you believe that?) as Vagn. But the series is dominated by the female lead, Sofie Grabol, playing the detective Sarah Lund. Her mastery of significant looks extends to showing in her face and eyes the very formation of thoughts! When she notices something or thinks of something, it is as if a chorus has begun to sing the Magnificat, but we hear nothing because it is all inside her head. She is magnificently supported by Soren Malling as Jan Meyer, her fellow-detective. Their constant bickerings and disagreements overlay a profound sympathy and mutual respect. Grabol reminds me very strongly indeed of Caroline Proust, who plays the female lead detective in the French series ENGRENAGES, known in English as SPIRAL (2005, see my review of the first two series). The choice of the right actress to play the lead female detective can make or break a detective series, and both the Danes and the French got it right. (Various examples of getting it catastrophically wrong can be seen in several British series.) Every actor and actress in this series seems to be perfectly cast and to deliver a perfect performance. It is really an astonishing achievement, and one did not realize that such a mass of perfection existed in Denmark. How do they do it? They really are a strangely introverted and mannered breed. Watching this series is an education in just how different peoples of different countries can be from one another, invisible as that may be on the surface. One should not neglect Marie Askehave as Rie, Michael Moritzen as Morten Weber, Laura Drasbaek as Charlotte, and Jesper Lohmann as Jens Holck, all of whom are excellent. A true masterpiece!

I've seen The Killing I / Forbrydelsen I, and I liked it a lot. Good script, good filming and excellent acting, especially by Sarah Lund, the main character, and by the mother of the murdered girl the story begins with - she really performs brilliantly! There are many characters in the movie, and that was about the only thing I didn't like much - I sometimes had to think hard where I'd seen him or her before...

In the Killing II / Forbrydelsen II that is no problem: there are still a lot of characters, but not as many as in the first movie and as they all logically fit into the story there's no problem there. I think number II is even better than number I: a bit more action, a little more speed, still very fine acting, an even better script and more tension make it a great movie to watch! Basically all you want to do after the first episode is to watch the other 9....