Elven - La Rivière des Secrets

This series would have benefited from being shorter, an injection of pace and some serious cliffhangers. Instead, like a river, it meanders along with some slow twists and turns and eventually arrives at its destination. This could have been so much better but you soon guess who the culprit is but some plot points never truly develop and are only tied up in a rush at the end.

I really wanted to enjoy this, being a fan of the genre, but no. This is my first review, sadly inspired by how bad this was. There are so many plot holes, unnecessary and irrelevant sub-plots, illogical scenes and generally unrealistic characters that struggled to continue watching even in the final episodes.

Coupled with shaky handheld closeups and terrible acting, you would have expected me rate this a 1, but the gorgeous scenery and my increasing amusement at the ridiculous plot and direction kept me going. And hence my 3 rating.

What makes a good crime drama? For me you need a believable storyline, sub plots that are relevant to the main story and characters you can relate to. Unfortunately with Elven it comes up short with all three of these. Which is a shame because in other aspects it has plenty going for it. The story is original the direction and photography are solid and most of all the Norwegian scenery is stunning. The cast do there best with a sub standard script, but it's the gaping holes in the storyline that really let this show down. It's by no means the worst crime drama to come from that part of the world and is still worth a watch. 6/10

Well acted and with fabulous scenery, this series was spoiled by a plot that unravelled and other inconsistencies that began to mount up. The dialogue was also rather bland. I didn't bother with the final episode.

Few words, action, sometimes slow, like the broad open landscape, anything is possible. Following the few characters we enter a world after the Cold War, in our time, with history of countries suffered from it. Still suffering from corruption and duplicity, boarder people trying to get truth from civil and military authorities.