The Darkness

We watched other Icelandic crime series before so we had high expectations, especially seeing Douglas Henshall's name amongst the actors, but we were soon disappointed. The conversations were absurd at points, serious plotholes, unexplored themes. The acting was terrible, especially Lena Olin. It was theatrical and ridiculous. The only actor who was almost good was Jack Bannon. We really wanted to believe that it could get better as we watch but no; it got worse and worse, to the point where we could not watch the last 20 minutes. Everything was cringe. It is sad that this story was butchered, it could have been good if it was done differently.

The Darkness: A Nordic noir television series set in Iceland. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir (Lena Olin) is about to retire when she insists on taking over a suspicious death case. A young woman's body has been found frozen in a glacier. Enraged at her colleague who had ignored a missing person's report regarding the girl, she gets a new partner, Lukas, Icelandic born, recently arrived from England. Her search uncovers people trafficking from Eastern Europe, a local mafia, state corruption and incompetence if not more by the police. The darkness permeates her own life as can be expected in such a driven detective, the extent of it will shock you though. As another woman disappears she is struggling against bureaucracy, she fights for resources, even to be allowed to remain in her job as her own life comes under threat. Saw it on Virgin media Ireland. Channel 4 is due to show/stream it. Directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the Ragnar Jónasson novel of the same name. 8/10.

Some absolutely great parts here - the photography, the field locations, Reykjavik looks beautiful. There are also some weak red-herrings in the plot. Also, some real acting talent is available but Doug Henshall from "Shetland" is completely wasted in a nothing and pointless role. But it's all squandered on a poor and poorly stitched-together narrative that felt rushed to a conclusion. Too many plot lines went nowhere, too many ideas thrown in (misogyny, indigenous and migrant bigotry), character motivations were poorly articulated and the lead actress had a cryptically explained personality and background too say the least.

Really disappointing.

Really tried to keep going with this, mainly because I loved Jack Bannon in Pennyworth, and he holds up, but only just against the furious, unhinged and screeching Lena Olin - what has happened to her? She used to be good, maybe she was badly directed, but her character is completely over the top and unbelievable, and every time she's on screen her face writhing with inexplicable expressions, you wonder what part she thinks she's playing. A Vampire?

And I agree, shouldn't have been filmed in English.

I'm Icelandic and worked crew on The Darkness. This was a big one for us, with many local people involved - all the way through to post. Even though it's in English, it still feels Icelandic to me. The silence, the light, the landscape - the feeling.

Most people don't know, but the first scripts had Huldakona - real hidden people - and I loved that. The director tried hard to include things that are deeply Icelandic, even if some parts were cut later (I don't know why). There was more of our culture in this story than what ended up on screen.

I just hope people stop attacking it. If there's no season two, we all lose. It was something good for Iceland. Don't kill it from pride.