Borderliner

I enjoyed this series, despite the frustrating ending designed to provide a cliffhanger for the next season, not yet available on Netflix. While the series as a whole is quite enjoyable, the silliness of some choices by the lead actor can only be a result of the writers not being clever enough to devise more believable plot twists. You are left a few times feeling cheated and not just by the less-than-satisfying ending, but by the palm-to-forehead choices of the actors. I am looking forward to the next season but not holding my breath. At best a pleasant and sometimes involving diversion, 'Borderliner' needs better writing in terms of plot development to fully achieve its goals.

If they stick to that ending and not shoot a second season I will get massively angry.

Nordic crime dramas are always complex, dark, sophisticated and they drag you into their slow-pacing and excruciating world, where you think there will be no salvation (hint: normally, there's no salvation...)

BUT, Borderliner really can't end with season one. There too many questions to answer, too many characters to explore.

Overall, I was hooked by the way the plot was unfolded throughout the episodes, the impeccable acting from the entire cast and the magical norwegian scenery.

It would have been an 8 or even 9, if the ending did not leave me wondering if there was an episode 9 and netflix has missed it.

On a side note, it was the first series I've seen where a gay character is the protagonist, and is NOT defined by his sexuality. Good job!

Nikolai Andreassen is an Oslo police officer who is given leave after he gives evidence against a popular senior officer accused of murder. He goes to his home town and stays with his brother, also a policeman, and his children. The next day he accompanies his brother when a body is found. It looks like a suicide but he isn't so sure. Before the first episode is out he learns the identity of the killer; it is his own brother and he gives a plausible explanation as to how it was self-defence. Once Nikolai has accepted this and helped cover up certain details he can't easily get out from the lie. Fellow officer Anniken Høygaard-Larsen gets more and more suspicious that things aren't as people claim and more secrets are revealed.

I thought this was a solid series. Early on it seemed obvious which way it was going but as it progressed there are some good twists and turns as well as a sense of danger. The pace might be considered slow by some but I didn't find that to be a problem; some things don't need to be rushed. The cast is solid; most obviously Tobias Santelmann as Nikolai. The ending wraps up many questions but left things open for a second season... although after five years I can't see that happening. Overall a good series that I'd recommend to fans of Scandinavian crime dramas.

These comments are based on watching the series in Norwegian with English subtitles.

First few episodes were great. Loved that the lead character was gay. Great actors. But half-way through, the plot-lines kept changing and moving around so much it got annoying and confusing but mostly boring and repetitive. After investing in 8 episodes, the ending of the last episode 8 just totally pissed me off. Did no-one say "we have to give the viewers some degree of resolution." No. Just a "cliff hanger" to keep us guessing and wondering - ripped off viewers big-time. You can't end an 8 part series with the last scene - as if it has a next episode, next week. There are very few endings of any tv series/movie that made me so angry as this did. Viewers invest so much time in a series - they deserve some partial resolution to a story.

I usually enjoy miniseries that originate in Scandinavian countries as they are more complex and make you think more than American series seem to, and I was hoping this would be one of them. Too bad it ended up being a disappointment. The story had too many slow spots, to the point that I almost nodded off more than once. Also, I don't mind when the main character in a series is gay (and no one in the story seemed to care that he was either), but it seemed to me this was thrown in because it has become trendy to do so. I would have given this a lower rating, but decided to add a star or two, just because it kept me watching until the bitter end; an ending that left me disappointed.