The Killing (Forbrydelsen)

This Danish TV series is recommended – we just finished watching the finale episode of Season 3 a few days ago. Apparently, The Killing  has been popular in the UK (BBC4) and you can get the series here on DVDs. Almost everything (99.95%) is in Danish but there is English sub-titles and you’ll get more flavour with the original language. The show features the main character Detective Inspector Sarah Lund and the way they solve murder at Copenhagen Police Department.

Each season focuses on one main case that might be expanded left and right or to the past cases. The first ten episodes of Season 1 is good – the second ten is quite weak and riddled with too many red herrings as they tried to drag the story on to make 20 episodes. They made it ten episodes each for Season 2 and Season 3 which is much better – the plot is tighter with faster pace. Season 2 is much, much better than Season 1 and Season 3 is simply the best of all. Unfortunately, Season 3 is also the finale season.

The creator, Soren Sviestrup seems to like and excel in intertwining crimes with politics. I could see the upsides and downsides of liberalness and feel frustration at many politically correct points of view (and sometimes the sheer incompetence of bureaucrats including the police but I think that's not unusual in real life). It is nevertheless a breath of fresh air – so different from the usual American detective series. The main actress, Sofie Grabol who played Sarah Lund is to be commended not only for her acting but also as the ambassador for many things Danish – especially the sweaters!

Note: The picture of the cover is from Amazon where DVDs are available.