She speaks to her boyfriend who confirms that he has finished packing and is ready for the flight later that night. Her colleagues stage a mock crime scene as a light hearted goodbye and give her a set of skis as a farewell present. Detective Sarah Lund is preparing to move her son to Sweden to join her boyfriend, a university lecturer. The disappearance of Nanna Birk Larsen goes unnoticed until the discovery of some of her possessions in marshland outside Copenhagen. She discovers Nanna's body in an abandoned car belonging to the election campaign of Mayoral candidate Troels Hartmann. Both ran for several seasons.Detective Inspector Sarah Lund is forced to postpone her move to Sweden when she is assigned to investigate the murder of Nanna Birk Larsen. Or you may be interested in the in the English-language remake (also titled The Killing) starring Mirielle Enos as Lund’s US counterpart.
You might wait for the release of its following seasons, in which the crimes at hand are resolved in about half the time, or less. If you’re not geared for that length of involvement, don’t get started. The 20-hour investment will be rewarded for those who have the discretionary time and patience.
Is the idealistic candidate (Lars Mikkelsen) as good as he seems, or involved in the murder and cover-up? Viewers can never be certain about who to believe or trust. The political thread runs deeply and cynically throughout the season, with lines between the ones to like or dislike shifting and blurring constantly. We meet a slew of civilians affected by the tragedy and watch how lives crumble in various ways due to grief, suspicions and frustrations as each seeming explanation gets debunked by some other revelation. The script is highly intelligent, juggling more characters and plot lines than usual for the genre.
#THE KILLING DANISH TV SERIES SEASON 1 SERIAL#
And just for another layer of confusion, this might be the work of a yet-undiscovered serial killer. Perhaps it was a crime of passion there’s a strong chance of some political connection, greatly complicating the hotly-contested mayor election in process throughout the investigation. Suspects rise and fall like a game of whack-a-mole, as each new bit of evidence points the “J’accuse” finger at a different suspect, often seeming to exonerate the last one. This is quite upsetting to both her family and colleagues – especially Meyer, who is something of a jerk, resenting her hands keeping the reins at his expense. The body of the young woman they find shows such prolonged and brutal treatment that Lund just can’t let it go, staying on the job much longer than planned. She’s assigned to one last crime scene to break in her replacement, Detective Meyer (Soren Maling). Sara Lund (Sofie Grabol) is a Copenhagen detective on her last day before moving to Sweden with her beau and son. It runs 20 hours of a single, extremely complicated homicide, compared to the norm of solving such cases in an 8 – 10 episode season. Their fictional cops just don’t get into as many fights and shootouts as our made-up heroes. Like most European crime series, this one is more cerebral than visceral. This subtitled Danish TV crime drama series “The Killing”(original title “Forbrydelsen”) will impress you as either riveting or tedious, depending on how much time you want to spend on this binge. A scene from the Danish TV series “The Killing.” Photo courtesy of Topic Entertainment.