Fatal Crossing - Les filles du ferry

After seeing the negative comments I decided to write a review about this series. Well, some of these comments are indeed true, such as being too slow and having plot holes, but if you like big twists and turns, this is one of those series you are looking for. Therefore, the series may not mean anything to the viewers until the sixth episode. Marie Sando Jondal gives a great performance and plays the lead character, journalist Nora Sand. This series is worth watching and I rate it 7 out of 10. Finally, please write a review here after learning the difference between Danish and Norwegian I am not DANISH but at least I know from checking on IMDb and Google that this series is not NORWEGIAN.

I seen some reviews that were critical of the program being far too slow. Apparently, they are entertained by the procedural programs in which after a crime is committed in the first 10 minutes the rest of episode is spent gathering facts and suspects until the last 5 minutes when an arrest is made. Police work often is far more extensive requiring days, weeks or longer to arrive at a resolution. The weakness in this program was the potential police coverup which has become something of a cliche. Also, another cliche is potentially attaching a crime to the wrong individual. Otherwise, this particular program was very entertaining.

I had really been looking forward to this, nordic crime, as so often before, and hopefully as good as usual.

But despite a good story, based on a popular book, a cast that seems to deliver, even if not big stars, it ends up boring, because so little happens, way to many empty pauses, and characters that stare empty into the void. If the series was shorted by one third, it would work.

On top of that, lines that is too much, that no one would say in real life, and is too clumsy. Sometime I wonder if the book has a deeper layer, that the movie never dig enough into and we therefore do not understand. Instead we hear actors say sentences that is not really connected to anything and sound like a cliche.

It is not all bad, after all I watched it to the end. It's just never really good. Maybe I should read the book.

So they skimped on an editor - a shame. Could've worked in four episodes. Way too slow paced. The last two episodes, where you'd expect it to become exciting, 'thrilling' it completely deflates and leaves the viewers in this household yawning and glancing at their phones. The author surely can't be pleased with the result? The actors all do their best to make this glacier-moving narrative work, but have apparently all been told to speak excruciatingly slowly. If you have the time, then give it a go, but if you don't need to have everything repeated and regurgitated for you again and again, then give it a miss.

Before watching something I always check with IMDB for the rating but not for Nordic series which are usually good. This is the exception. Best described as turgid. Fairly convoluted story of missing girls and serial killers being investigated by Nora, a disgraced journalist. The unsmiling Nora is hard work and difficult to warm to and as she is on screen virtually all the time interest soon wanes. Towards the end the long silences between the characters made you think they had forgotten their lines. Overall a poor series which would not be complete without the 'trick' ending which made no sense.