White Sands

Once again a really good crime thriller. (clearly from a Danish source) For me, who also like Norwegian crime thrillers very much, a reason to try this series and I was not disappointed. However, this is not a dark and gloomy Nordic crime thriller as you would typically expect. This one is carried with a lightness of touch and shows the local landscape at its best and weather at its best.

A very likeable leading lady with a somewhat grumpy partner played very well by Carsten Bjørnlund and a heart-warming dog. A perfect mix to solve the murder of a surfer on a snow-white, beautiful beach in Denmark. Everything is so beautiful that we immediately wanted to move our vacation to Denmark :-)

There is no shortage of suspense either. The story is multi-layered and unpredictable, so you want to know what happens next at the end of each episode. Plus a little pinch of local Danish humor. A successful mixture.

So it was a bad decision to choose it as a crime thriller before going to sleep, as there was rather little sleep :-)

A recommendation for all Nordic crime thriller fans.

--------------- Conclusion:

Excellent - This makes crime thrillers entertaining.

Definitely not the usual quality one has come to expect from a Danish tv-series. As a crime show, it's very poorly written. The plot is weak, and the 'investigation' is almost laughable. Some of the dramatic events and their resolve are extremely illogical and makes the main characters seem pretty stupid. The characters overall are very stereotypical and not at all believable. The show feels like a poor-mans version of the british 'Death in Paradise' without the intentional comic relief.

Thought this was a good series with out of the norm story line. The fun banter between the two and Molly the dog was nice. Really enjoyed it. Hope there is a second series.

Last decade or so has seen the rise of Scandinavian series where events occur in a smaller area or community, (e.g. Morden i Sandhamn, Sommerdahl) where beautiful local landscape and dense human contacts have a different approach than in cities or international communication, plus enabling less known actors to star.

Hvide Sande is another example of this, where the beauty of Jutland West Coast is revealed and the solving of the crime itself is not the primary reason for the Series. The plot is yet not too smooth, with several cliches, and I can´t say that the leading performers provided wow-performances (at times, it was funnier to watch the dog... :)) But as the motives of the crime itself and the round-up were interesting and I did not guess the wrongdoer, I can easily rate it with 7 points.

PS Such series are apparently meant to boost tourism - not a single rainy day in the Series (as in Sommerdahl)) but those who have lived-visited Denmark, even in summer, know that it is a big exception :)

Good acting but terrible script and appalling continuity and direction. Really poor quality story line and not up to Danish standards.