Traque en série

Until recently we never saw television programmes that weren't in English; then BBC4 started airing the Swedish police show 'Wallander' after its success is wasn't long before they followed it up with programmes from France, Denmark and Italy; all in the native language and English subtitles. It was only a matter of time before another channel started to showing something from the continent; the channel was ITV3 and the programme was the Danish murder mystery 'Those Who Kill'. Originally shown as ten episodes featuring five two part stories the episodes were combines to make five feature length episodes; probably a wise move as the two hour crime drama is the standard format here.

This series follows the activities of a murder squad whose cases inevitably turn out to involve serial killers. The squad is led by Magnus Bisgaard although the main characters are Katrine Ries Jensen and civilian profiler Thomas Schaeffer. No matter what the case it is a safe bet that one of our protagonists will end up in mortal danger only for them to turn the tables on the bad guy. While the cases are fairly standard for this type of drama they were still enjoyable and while I didn't really expect the protagonists to come to any harm there were plenty of tense moments. Lead actors Laura Bach and Jakob Cedergren performed well in the roles of Katrine and Thomas and the rest of the cast seemed to do well too; although I can't comment on how their accents fitted the roles as I was relying on the subtitles and wouldn't have spotted if somebody sounded wrong! Overall I'm glad I watched this series; it might not have been one of the best continental series I've seen but it was still entertaining; its a pity further series weren't made.

I now get why this show was cancelled after just 1 season. The lead character is insufferable, and the mysteries easy to solve.

The show has a tendency to tell, not show. We are repeatedly told Katrine is "the brightest" cop, but she never does anything remarkable. Any break she gets on a case is directly due to a male colleague's efforts; never her own. She CONSTANTLY makes bad decisions - costing innocent people's lives - yet her boss only gives her a slap on the wrist. In reality, cops like her would be fired.

That isn't a character people will want to root for. I understand the aim of the creators is to write a complicated, screwed-up character. But Katrine can barely function in some scenes. And when she isn't having a mental breakdown, she's acting horribly towards her friends.

We're supposed to empathise with her trauma, even when it is jeopardising her work and the people around her. She is defiant and arrogant towards anyone against her (often flawed, inexperienced) opinion or anyone who genuinely advises her to go to therapy. In her personal life, she is selfish (displayed in the final episode when a workmate decides to quit for valid, personal reasons).

It doesn't help that the actress is not good during vulnerable or nuanced scenes. The mysteries every episode also tend to go out of the bounds of logic - such as when the lead's partner uses a child to trap a serial killer or how said partner appears out of nowhere at the house of a murdered victim (just for the shock effect of him being there during an opening scene). As said, the mysteries themselves tend to be paper-thin, though told enthrallingly for 1 hour episodes. You can often deduce the murderer's identity within the first 15 minutes. There's also much to be said for the cheesy, usually inappropriately timed background music.

Overall, a mediocre show to help pass the time. Seasoned crime show fans will probably be disappointed, while casual fans may be more entertained.

It has been revealed that this show will be renewed with a whole new cast and story. Let's hope the writers actually get it right this time.

Watched the whole series and thought was quite good.... The plot is different in each episode but tends to have a psychological thought behind each of the murders..which the lead is adept at recognizing...of course not before a few lambs have been sacrificed to the killer The direction is pretty good and makes it a fast paced interesting watch The fact that we have to follow the English subtitles probably means we pay more attention and in the process we tend to get less distracted and like it more. Somehow felt better than the various US crime series, much better than the psychic ones. The research done on the thought process of the human mind is what makes this a intriguing series and a must watch for the people who like crime thrillers.

Bit apprehensive at first to watch a movie with subtitles again but these type of movies/series you really need to watch in it's original language (its actually fun trying to understand words, you'll be surprised how much you'll actually pickup). It's a very good series, believable in many ways. There are nut cases out there indeed, maybe not as sophisticated as these in the series but it's filmed in a believable way. It's not about all guns blazing, it's about characters, mistakes, reality which is what makes this so good. If you're after action, car chases, explosions, machine gun fire, you're in the wrong place. If you like mystery, bit of love, bit of human relations, bit of thriller, watch it. It's not a 10 as I think there is some acting that could be improved on and maybe conclusions are sometimes a bit far fetched/too easy found, but a 9 is pretty damn high I would think.

The creators of Den som dræber were apparently willing to combine CSI- type and Mentalist-type of series, but mind-twisting together with genuine slides of malformed dead bodies, villains are serial killers only, and not-so-catchy main characters (Laura Bach as Katrine Ries Jensen and Jakob Cedergren as Thomas Schaeffer) have not attracted so much popularity as e.g. Forbrydelsen, Broen or Ørnen: En krimi-odyssé. True, there are some fine performances - Lars Mikkelsen in all the episodes and Ulrich Thomsen and Kim Bodnia both in 2 episodes, but the overall pace is sometimes uneven, sometimes protracted; there are 5 different stories over 2 episodes each, and the 1st part of every story includes a summary what will happen in the second episode - annoying for a crime drama where moments of surprise carry a significant weight.

All in all, the series in question is not bad, but it is definitely overshadowed by the series mentioned above. So if you have/need a choice, you better watch the others.