TV: Nørdic/Scandi recømmendations
from nordic crime to the caliphate
Trapped (Icelandic: Ófærð) : Almost a classic Nordic crime drama. Iceland is an island. A really big island. Along that island there are many villages. A ship turns up along with tourists and a dead body to the island. What does this have to do with a fire ten years ago? How will a few under resources village cops solve this ? By calling on their colleagues from Reyjkjavik. Unfortunately, there is a storm that has trapped the village. And they have to simply make do. Reflecting the always beautiful landscape of Iceland and the effort of trying to do the best with what little you have in the midst of chaos, this show was well made, well acted, well directed, well written.
At some point you get tired of the snappy talk-while-im-walking new york style of aggressive crime solving and its much more refreshing to watch what it would be like in real life under strange circumstances, in the always beautiful íslensku.
Caliphate (Swedish: Kalifat) : My favorite part about this show is that it centers brown muslims in Sweden - Kurds, Iraqis, Ethiopians also Bosnians. The terrorists are muslim but so are the members of the security services in Sweden trying to capture them. It portrays very well - the struggle of growing up with a split sense of identity, the operational process of how ISIS recruited teenagers from these countries by lying to them essentially, the struggles to investigate given the rigid privacy laws in these societies. There is a homeland like character but far more likeable as a “gone rogue” agent of Bosnian origin. Solid ending, acting and action and swedish is lovely.
Borderliner (Norwegian: Grenseland) : Starts out as a classic Nordic drama - there’s a murder of course, there’s an investigating cop. BUT there might be family involved. There’s estranged family of course - I mean we’re talking about Scandinavia here. What I liked about this show was that the acting is quite good. Most Nordic noir has understated acting that reflects the culture but this particular one is pretty well done. Its got decent, reasonable twists and plots that make sense. The tension is well placed through the show. Looking forward to S2!
There’s a bunch of other shows that I might write about in the future - I’ve seen the above 3 recently so they’re fresh in my head - but you might wanna check out
Bordertown (Finnish : Sorjonen) - Funny how there’s a border theme. Maybe the border is seen as some deep, dark and mysterious place. Another detective story. Detective’s last name is Sorjonen. On a similar theme you also have Karppi except here the detectives last name is Karppi and its a she. Other than that feel like Sorjonen did a better job. Karppi is worth a watch if you wanna see more of Finland and hear the Finnish language.
Occupied (Norwegian) : Absolutely fantastic show. Funnily enough I can’t find Season 2 anywhere. The premise is that Russia has invaded and is occupying Norway. Because Norway has stopped producing oil. So the rest of Europe kinda teams up and tacitly and overtly supports Russia. This show is so good at so many levels. First - the premise is fantastic. “Russian Invasion” is one of the biggest bugbears in this region for Norway, Sweden and Finland. Norway is a NATO member. But in the show, America has become isolationist. In fact, the Norwegian PM has to shelter at the American Embassy IN Oslo and that doesn’t work too well.
Then it makes you think about the speed of change in society. Instead of oil, Norway focuses on thorium based energy. But a french bureaucrat responds “cars can’t run on thorium today!” I mean - fair enough.
Another issue is that of war. Both countries REALISTICALLY react to such a situation. There is a universal acknowledgment, head to head, norway alone cannot match up to Russia - so much so that its pointless trying. Well, then what do you do?
All of this while also looking at the story of Djupvik, a presidential bodyguard caught in the middle of all this with only good intentions.
There is no ra-ra war mongering here. This is real. And its really something to think about.
