Monster

Monster draws on a long tradition of Nordic family sagas to weave a tale of a contemporary investigation into the murder and ritualistic burial of a young member of a religious cult.

Hedda Hersoug is a police officer on leave in her home town. She's there to look after her ailing father (and escape her ailing marriage), but is drawn into the murder investigation. Soon, another team of investigators arrive to assist with the inquiry. Hedda clashes with Joel Dreyer who is dismissive of her credentials and her local knowledge.

Hedda and Joel eventually manage to work together, only to reveal a connection between the present-day murders and the unexplained disappearance of Hedda's mother when she was a child.

The series explores the entanglements of family and community and the efforts to preserve and avenge family honour, often--as in the sagas--by violent means. The performances are understated and powerful and mirrored in the stark landscape where silence, like snow, blankets much. The character of Margot, a local crime matriarch, played by Goruld Mauseth, was a stand-out for me.

I love Nordic Noir and this is a fairly watchable entry into that canon. Unfortunately, the implausible plot, wooden dialogue and plotlines that are too confusing to hold this snowy saga tightly together, prevent me from awarding it any more than 6 out of 10. The problem is it's trying too hard to be weird and quirky to really engage on any plausible level. The two lead detectives are weird and quirky, the locals are just weird and the plot is lifted from about a dozen better films and tv shows. Mysterious blonde teenage girl is murdered in a ritualistic manner in small Hicksville town and said murder is investigated by inadequate local cops and fish out of water city cops. The city cops both dislike each other and then through mutual blackmail work together to solve a current slew of murders which may be linked to murders 30 years previously. The cinematography is great and the scenery breathtaking but a handful of good action set pieces, including a machine gun shootout at a drugs factory, cannot save this chilly potboiler. On a positive note, the acting is pretty good but the dialogue is very stilted and strange which adds to the off kilter feel of the show. None of the characters are very likeable and seem to have no issues with breaking or twisting the law to their own ends - and that's just the cops! I did like the portrayal of Hedda, a very unglamorous female cop who at least had some dimension to her character. Could have been so much better, the potential was there!

Monster or as I have come to know it, "mord i vildmarken" (murder in the wildernes). Is a Norwegian thriller, that unfolds in the remote, northern reaches of Norway, somewhere near the Russian border. It's a small, isolated community, maybe not as tight-knit, as one might think. With secrecy, religion and more. After a young girl goes missing, the police gets their hands full. And we, the viewers, soon gets introduced to alot of new characters. Everyone with their own story and even agenda, it could seem. And it is surely a challenge, to try and figure out how the whole story fits together, with past events and current stories all entangled. Alot of the story, being told, aren't even important for the actual plot in the story. But then again, that all adds to the mystery and oddness. The cinematography ain't bad, the scenery is convincing and there is a general eerie feel to this story in the arctic north. There are none of the characters that you will "root for", and I'm sure it's intended that way. It adds to the whole story. However, I don't really think any of the characters performed outstandingly, but they weren't bad either. There are certain slower sequences, but not to a point where you start to get bored. I gave this 6 stars, which is typically my cutoff for something worth watching, with so much other on offer. In all, this series has enough to offer, to be worth a watch, good camerawork, decent performances and a mysterious thriller with alot of extra oddness added.

Whilst I agree with most of the negative reviews and the mind numbing stupidity of the script , I also agree that a very good cast made the best of it and I actually ended up enjoying it . No idea WHY but I did.

It is a little difficult to know where to start with this review. There are seven episodes in total of this Norwegian-noir. By the end I think I had just about managed to work out who had killed whom and why, but in the process I had also slightly lost the will to live!

As other reviewers have already observed, seven episodes is far too many for this drama. There probably was potential for a decent thriller here but, sadly, this was sabotaged by a convoluted storyline including the now well worn trope of strange religious and ritual practices, plus some very odd directing choices.

There are a few positives. Despite mixed performances, the actress who plays Hedda is very good, and snowy Norwegian landscapes are always beautiful to look at. I must also commend two actors for their sheer bravery in filming a post-sauna scene outside (not what you might be thinking!).

One final thought. I am still trying to comprehend why two of the younger characters leave with each other right at the end, as friends, to begin a new future for themselves after one essentially tortured the other in an earlier episode. All very strange - much like the entire series of Monster.