Product
Description in Amazon (UK):
'Who Killed Nanna Birk Larsen? Head
of investigations, Sarah Lund, is about to emigrate to Sweden, but as
the tied-up body of a missing girl is found her plans are put on
hold. In the course of 20 gripping episodes, each chronicling a day
in the investigation, Copenhagen's secrets, corruption and power
struggles emerge as the hunt for the killer intensifies and the truth
becomes ever harder to find. This riveting Emmy-nominated thriller is
one of the finest murder investigation series ever produced.'
This
is the first TV series that I shall be reviewing and before I go on,
I have to mention certain things. I'm no big fan of watching videos
on computer and I seldom watch a series, in fact, Forbrydelsen is
only the third I've watched, the other two being Yes Minister and
Borgen and in fact, I stumbled upon Forbrydelsen when I read
that Borgen was broadcast in the UK following the success of
Forbrydelsen which was also done by the same producer (DR). So, my
review would not be like the conventional sitcom reviews, since till
date, I don't know what exactly is 'good acting'. I can pick out if
an actor's performance is bad but I've never been able to pick out
the good performer. Besides that, some talk good editing, screenplay,
etcetera but I have never understood what the film critics exactly
mean by that. So, this won't be any different from my other reviews,
I shall not say a word about the technical aspects of a film, such as
acting but treat this as any other crime story as though it were a
book (I've felt that Forbrydelsen would have been much better had it
been a book).
Coming to the review, Forbrydelsen,
translates to 'The Crime' in
Danish; though it is known as 'The Killing' in
the English speaking world (I shall be referring to the series only
as Forbrydelsen throughout my review since I don't see any reason to
anglicise the title). It is a Danish TV series, with 20 episodes of
one hour each, starring Sofie Gråbøl as Sarah Lund and Søren
Malling as Jan Meyer and the story takes place in Copenhagen.
Sofie Gråbøl as Sarah Lund
Sarah
Lund is a Detective Inspector and is about to move to Sweden with her
boyfriend Bengt Rosling. However, on her last day in Denmark, Nanna
Birk Larsen, a nineteen year old student is murdered. Her body was
found inside the boot of a car which was taken out from a canal near
the woods. Incidentally, the car belonged to Troels Hartmann, a local
politician, running for the mayor post and elections were just three
weeks away. The case thus had a severe impact on the election
campaign and also on the Birk Larsen family. Sarah Lund's departure
to Sweden is postponed by a week since her chief didn't want this
case to be her replacement, Jan Meyer's first case and Lund,
throughout the case, is assisted by Meyer.
The
series had a perfect mix, politics and crime and the person did a
good job in focussing the story from all the three angles, the police
and sometimes, the personal life of Lund and Meyer, Troels Hartmann
and his associates and also the Birk Larsen family. Also, the
investigations were brilliant along with the twists and turns; the
viewer can't really trust anyone and nearly every suspect has some
reason to hide certain information from the police and especially
after the 5th
or 6th
episode, I became a little desperate to know who did it and the
interest remained till the end. Another good thing was that the
attention was mostly only on the Nanna case and even the sub-plot,
that is the upcoming election, is related to to the story as the case
has a say on the outcome of the election, with Hartmann being one of
the suspects. However, I felt that the scenes involving the Birk
Larsen family were at times boring and I felt that the police too,
harassed the people involved in the case including the family
suffering from bereavement and occasionally they were also being a
little stupid. Not just that, several deaths of the people related to
the case, during the course of the story, was rather unnecessary and
I think it was done just to prolong the series.
Ignoring
those rather insignificant details, I was really disappointed with
one aspect of it, the end. I've always said in my previous reviews
that a crime novel, regardless of the quality of the investigations
and the interest it generates, without a proper end, the whole thing
is rather meaningless. So, that would apply to any other crime story
as well and unfortunately, Forbrydelsen too falls a victim to that.
It is the best crime story that I've witnessed so far, although, only
till the 19th
episode and the last one just took a lousy turn of events leaving not
just a few, but too many questions unanswered leading to loose ends,
which isn't something too positive, especially for a crime story.
Despite
the disappointment, I shan't refuse the fact that I thoroughly
enjoyed it (till the 19th
episode as aforesaid). The reason why I don't watch too many sitcoms
or films on my computer is because I've always felt that there are
several better things to do in a computer and even when I've tried
watching some films, I cut it short and to complete the story, I just
read the Wikipedia plot summary. Despite this personal constraint,
Forbrydelsen managed to defeat my personality, keeping me interested
in the show, every minute of it and after the end of each episode, I
was really desperate to know what happens in the next episode. In
fact, I watched the last seven episodes almost at a stretch,
approximately amounting to six and a half hours. The ending was
unfortunate and I really have high hopes for the second season which
I shall soon be watching.
So
far, in no review of mine have I rated a crime novel without a
fitting end above four but in consideration for Forbrydelsen having
everything else except a proper end, I'd give it a five.
Rating:
5/10
Have
a nice day,
Andy
