The Glass Dome

First up , it was great to see Ville Virtanen back on the scene , albeit in a minor cameo . To know he was in it ( and is a renowned director himself ) was promising from the outset . If you can handle several red herrings on course to its conclusion , then this is for you . It does borrow heavily from The Killing , but in a different way . You'd need to watch it all to get that one I'm afraid. There is also a serious nod to the Hannibal Lecter franchise , which is no bad thing . My only criticism of the show ( and it's not unique to this show but all of the Scandi Noir offerings , inclusive of the American efforts ) are the continuous drone shots of the countryside . We know the area is stunning , but it's boring now and merely "meats out" the running time.

I thought the series was quite good! I was completely off the mark for the ending, so it was a fun surprise for me. It started off a little slow, but I was invested by episode 2. Nordic noir also has a certain vibe to it, so you need to be okay with a slow pace at times since it contributes to the atmosphere. It's a very specific mood that you see in many series like this.

Like the other positive reviewers note, I don't think the acting was bad at all. Being less emotive when you're playing a specific type of character in certain plot/setting has its place and this show is one of them. In everyday life, people aren't overly expressive and in my option, the acting felt very natural. To me Leyla's character was intentionally masking emotions. Sometimes people who have suffered significant trauma cope by numbing themselves out. She was self-medicating so she clearly still had unresolved issues.

I hate to be snarky, but one of the reviewers stated that a lot of questions were left unanswered and there were some plot holes, but had they actually watched the entire show instead of a select few episodes, they would have found that many of their questions would have been answered. I believe I only had one question I was left with at the end, but I may just have missed something.

It's enjoyable if you watch it as a crime-based drama, not as a suspense thriller. It's true it's easy to guess who the villain is, but for me that just adds to the tension, which builds up nicely throughout the show.

I don't get the criticism of the main character. I thought she was effective. She is suffering from childhood trauma and not happy about being back in Sweden for her adoptive mother's funeral, so she is intentionally in a 'going through the motions' type of mood a lot of the time. At some point she says outright she wants to go back to America "because it's suffocating here." However, she livens up when something happens she is passionate about, which is especially children in danger. I thought the actress did that well.

I do agree Alicia, the kidnapped girl, didn't have much personality, but as she doesn't get that much screen time, I don't think it detracts from the show that much. It's also true some things were left unresolved, but as these were not part of the central story, I also don't find that so important.

Giving it 7/10. It doesn't break new ground, it's not a super-brilliant mystery, but it's a solid drama around a kidnapper and kidnappee.

The Glass Dome: A chilling Nordic Noir drama from Sweden. Criminologist Lejla Ness (Léonie Vincent), lives in America, as a child she was kept captive by an abductor who was never identified. Her adoptive mother dies so she returns to her hometown in Granås, Sweden and stays with her adoptive father Valter (Johan Hedenberg), a former police inspector. While she is there a friend is murdered and her her daughter Alicia (Minoo Andacheh) is abducted. The circumstances are eerily similar to Lejla's own abduction. Mixed in with all of this is opposition to a local mine. A psychological drama mixed in with family relationships, Valter as well as mourning his wife's death is still tormented by not catching Lejla's abductor, he sees links with other disappearances. Valter's brother Tomas (Johan Rheborg) is now the local inspector and freezes Valter out of the investigation. An unhappy family indeed. As chemicals leak from the mine and the missing girl isn't found, civil unrest brews. Great performance by Léonie Vincent as she relives past traumas and tries to figure out what is really going on in a narrative full of red herrings, false leads with multiple suspects. The possibility of there being more than one predator at work has to be entertained. Returning in her dreams to the glass container in which she was imprisoned. Good supporting performances by Rheborg, Hedenberg, Andacheh and Seraphine Krystek as the young Lejla. Pay close attention or you might miss an important detail. A few interesting plot twists. Six episodes on Netflix. Directed by Lisa Farzaneh and Henrik Björn, Written by Camilla Läckberg. 8/10.

Many have rushed to criticize the show for being slow and boring. The narrative takes place in a small Swedish town, and many of the cliches of this type of tale-such as tragic family secrets and an evil enterprise destroying the environment-were unavoidable, as in previous top-rated Scandi-noir dramas such as "Katla" and "Trapped". However, this is one of the rare examples where the tiny circle of people playing the roles of suspects and victims served a legitimate goal, which was not to answer the whodunit but to reveal the true relationships between these characters and the real causes of the tragic events. So congratulations to peers who correctly identified the bad person, but this was neither statistically difficult in a pool of a few suspects nor the primary goal of this show.

Giving even a little detail on who, when and where would reveal everything so I will not provide any detail about it since ultimately everything finally seems to play a strong function in the real plot which is not what first seems and which gradually unveils in amazing manner in each of the six episodes.

People also thought the filming seemed emotionless. The Swedish accent makes it difficult for the main characters to experience the feelings they unleash, hence this criticism has only logical grounds-especially for English language viewers. Not only were the laconic dialogues and the characters tense, but I also believe that each part should be closely watched to ensure that what is truly happening is followed. The finest thing about this program is how skillfully it created one of the best character developments of a wicked mind. The story is told under close proximity to a scientific criminologist with the best twists on a warped psyche.

Once more, I want nothing to be spoiled; but, before and after the secrets come to light, pay close attention to the acting of every character to realize how great it is particularly for the three main characters of the show.