Elven - La Rivière des Secrets

Few words, action, sometimes slow, like the broad open landscape, anything is possible. Following the few characters we enter a world after the Cold War, in our time, with history of countries suffered from it. Still suffering from corruption and duplicity, boarder people trying to get truth from civil and military authorities.

This series would have benefited from being shorter, an injection of pace and some serious cliffhangers. Instead, like a river, it meanders along with some slow twists and turns and eventually arrives at its destination. This could have been so much better but you soon guess who the culprit is but some plot points never truly develop and are only tied up in a rush at the end.

Sometimes there's minor things in TV shows you can ignore. But I'm on Ep 4 of this pretty poor drama and can't forget one of the most hopeless scenes I've ever seen on TV from episode 1. One of the key pieces of the plot is the girl that goes missing... she went missing from the same room that her mother and grandmother was in. . they heard the door go, looked in the room then gave up and called the police. It's almost comical. If they looked out the window they'd see her. The lead cop actor is OK but the rest are terrible. Especially the Army woman that has achieved a high rank without even being able to lift a rifle properly. Also the child's mother.. she comes home from prostituting herself, is abusive to her Mother.. then loses the child without looking for her properly.. then suggests it's all everyone else's fault. Who writes this stuff

Grim and depressing Norwegian crime drama with majestic landscapes but very little talking or acting.

What makes a good crime drama? For me you need a believable storyline, sub plots that are relevant to the main story and characters you can relate to. Unfortunately with Elven it comes up short with all three of these. Which is a shame because in other aspects it has plenty going for it. The story is original the direction and photography are solid and most of all the Norwegian scenery is stunning. The cast do there best with a sub standard script, but it's the gaping holes in the storyline that really let this show down. It's by no means the worst crime drama to come from that part of the world and is still worth a watch. 6/10