Frikjent

How many times are they going to bring this guy in for the murder? It's tiresome. It's as if they ran out of ideas.

I absolutely loved watching this, I got so into it I binged watched it on Stan on a work night until 3am had 2 hours sleep and do not regret a second. The only reason this did not get a 10 was because the woman who played Karine's mother drove me crazy, I have no idea if it was the acting or if it was just the constant crazy, either way she annoyed me to no end. Nothing like a bit of Eye Sweetener for a leading man either. The scenery was spectacular made me want to pick up sticks and move there..... then I realised what the temperature would be all year round and put my sticks back in their bag. Just Brilliant, watch it don't diss because of the subtitles, it translates seriously well most of the time anyway.

despite negative reviews the story is gripping and unexpected turn of events in the very end is delivered only to the patient viewer. it kept my attention and i rated very high for the original surprising ending and interesting plot, not to mention gorgeous lead character and scenery.

In recent years, next to Denmark and Sweden, Norway has produced a number of good crime drama series where events occur in a small and/or distant community, with is vices and virtues. In spite of being one of the richest countries in the world, the human basics are the same, plus thinly populated areas and common solitude make investigations more difficult.

All this we can see in Frikjent as well, with tensions up due to a tragic event taken place decades ago. Sometimes it feels that the depiction is too widespread and the role of some characters and episodes is insignificant (e.g. the company-related ones), but the general atmosphere is well depicted and most important performances are pleasant, particularly Nicolai Cleve Broch as Aksel and Lena Endre (a Swede) as Eva whose mutual communication forms the most intensive verbal scenes in the series. The mentioned persons are definitely worth watching in other films/series as well, which I have managed to achieve.

And what is definitely nicer than in Sweden or Denmark, is nature. Also here, beautiful Norwegian landscape and environment is a kind of supporting actor for creating mood and completeness.

After reading the announcement of the series on German TV I was intrigued by the theme: A businessman returning to the small village in Norway, where he grew up and, after being a prime suspect in a murder at the age of 18, was acquitted of the crime. He left the town, made a successful career in the Far East, only to return after 20 years or so to save the main employer in the town from going bankrupt. Such a topic offers plenty of opportunities to make an intriguing TV-series. However, already after watching the first episode I was really disappointed. The actors walk, behave, and are dressed like clichés. The investors are of course all smartly dressed good looking young men, who prefer to travel by helicopter, but many of the details have nothing to do with the reality of this world. Their behaviour is irrational, and they take risks that investors would never take, even if they were driven by sentiments. After watching for a while, this gets so annoying, that the basically great theme of the series disappears into the background. There are really much better Scandinavian crime series to watch (like The Bridge), don't waste your precious time on this one.