It isn’t as if there are no music reviews to write – there are dozens! – but I thought I’d take a break and do something different today.
I’ve been watching many ‘Nordic Noir’ TV cop series here for 13 years since the first episode of The Bridge but not The Killing, which passed me by. Fortunately there are two main outlets for it – BBC4 frequently on Saturday nights in the 2100-2230 hours spot, and Walter Presents on Channel 4.
One that has never been shown here to the best of my knowledge is Sweden’s Thin Blue Line (Tunna blå linjen) which I’m told is brilliant and Irya Gmeyner’s ‘Urban City’ – the atmospheric theme tune for which – we have previously featured.
I got hooked on The Bridge and watched every episode several times including during the pandemic when all four series were shown again by the BBC, one after the other. That kept people indoors.
First time around, the fourth and last series was switched to BBC2 owing to its popularity as the ratings had gone through the roof (it had the highest ratings for any drama, ever, on BBC4). Sofia Helin (‘Saga Norén’) was one of the most popular actresses in the UK, making regular appearances on chat shows here.
That series had some of the greatest moments I’ve ever experienced in TV drama, in the final ever episode for example, when Saga throws her Polis badge from the bridge into the Øresund Strait and then answers her mobile phone with only her name rather than the habitual suffix of “Länskrim Malmö” (Malmö County Police) and then drives off in her infamous green Porsche as everything “goes back to the beginning “ where it all started in the first episode and which is reflected in the series’ theme tune (which is in the article mentioned above).
Then at the end of Series 2, when Saga is saved from committing suicide by the Danish cop Henrik having endured the best-acted mental breakdown I’ve ever witnessed on screen.
And even more so, in the final episode of Series 2, the last 20 minutes of which, from junior detective Pernille’s suicide in a public toilet with her own police gun to avoid a hideous death by incurable virus to the arrest of Saga’s first Copenhagen-based colleague, Martin Rhode, for killing the time-serving criminal that murdered his son – Saga having shopped him – is the finest TV I have ever seen, period.
Much of this used to be available on You Tube but it’s getting harder to find now. Here is that final ever scene, with Saga on the bridge.
And that brings me to the music. Choir of Young Believers’ ‘Hollow Talk’ has to be one of the greatest TV theme tunes of all times, while on two occasions – in the lead up to Pernille’s suicide in Series 2 and during the raid to save one of Henrik’s daughters from the serial killer at the end of Series 4 – the producers used the same piece of incredibly emotional doom laden orchestral music. Absolutely riveting.
Unfortunately I never discovered what it was. If anyone knows, please tell me.
And so, at last, to Justice: Those who kill, the fourth series in that franchise, which has a very similar setting to that of The Bridge; Copenhagen cops calling in Swedish ones in Malmö and vice versa to help them solve a case, which means regular traversing of the Øresund Bridge again although it was never shown. Instead they showed images of the tunnel part instead as if trying to distance themselves from the earlier series.
The ‘Those who kill’ series has always centred on a Danish criminal profiler, the strangely named Louise Bergstein, played by the Danish/Spanish actress Natalie Madueño, who has always brought a bit of glamour to the role.
The storyline was convoluted but show me a Nordic Noir that isn’t. It suggested that a retired gang member had become active again and was bumping off rivals once more.
But via endless twists and turns it was revealed that it was actually a Swedish criminal profiler, Gunnar, who was doing it, and not any old one either, only Louise’s tutor, to whom she regularly turned for guidance and for comfort as her own private life imploded.
And get this, it’s only the same actor who played Saga’s boss in Malmö, in The Bridge (and who ended up being beheaded in that series – after he was dead!)
At times I wondered if the producers were taking the piss out of The Bridge.
Anyway, there was the twist of all twists at the end of Episode 6 when the cop that Louise was working with (technically she isn’t a police officer), called Frederik, who also happened to be her boyfriend but whom she was reluctant to commit to as he had an eight year old son from a previous liaison, and who had been a mainstay of the series, was murdered by the renegade profiler Gunnar to help cover his tracks.
That happened just as Louise was getting to know his son in his flat for the first time and had fallen asleep, exhausted, so she didn’t hear Frederik’s final call. Poignant or what?
But Louise is smart and tough (she’d make a good pick for the Donald’s cabinet) and getting over her grief for Frederik in about 10 seconds and putting Frederik’s successor on the case in his place, she set about finding who killed her lover, and a simple case of observation when she visited the perp’s flat and noticed blood on his shirt (Frederik had nicked him with his own bullet as they exchanged shots) did the trick.
Gunnar had headed off to his summer cabin with his wife as the SWAT team arrived with the intention of killing her and then possibly committing suicide. It sounds improbable but it turns out he had been exacting revenge for the death of his daughter who had been killed in a hit and run accident the year before. Visiting her grave, the young lad who had killed her had also shown up to lay flowers of his own and the perp took the opportunity to run him over!
Then he went on a revenge rampage killing everyone who had been involved in the case one way or another, which just happened to include the aforementioned gangsters and a defence solicitor.
Killing his own wife was justified by his theory that she would never forgive him for what he had done.
But Louise nailed him, figuring out what had happened and preventing Gunnar from gassing his wife to death at the summer cabin before he threatened to kill Louise.
The following verbal exchange, which got quite philosophical, was the highlight of all the episodes of the series but I won’t divulge what was said in case you watch it, or the eventual outcome.
The musical content throughout was disappointing but perhaps I’ve come to expect too much from these series after the brilliance of The Bridge. It’s pretty run of the mill for the most part except for the sequence when Frederik is shot dead.
There were several heart-stopping moments, and the overall acting was good. Episodes three and four proceeded at a snail’s pace but the electric #6 in particular more than made up for it.
It’s available for a while on the BBC iPlayer – https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0023z7k/those-who-kill-justice-episode-1. You used to be able to over-ride the nationality requirement from abroad with a VPN but I don’t think you can do that now.
Putting aside my obsession with The Bridge, the ‘Those who kill’ series has always been a good watch. There are a few shortcomings in this one but these Danish/Swedish productions still remain streets ahead of anything similar that we make here in Britain.
And I defy you not to fall in love with Louise, who, while occasionally demonstrating a tough streak is the most vulnerable ‘good guy’ character I’ve ever encountered in a Nordic Noir and one whom Saga Norén would probably eat for breakfast.
