It’s been several months since I last wrote anything on this blog, and I’d like to start working on it again.  I’d like my first post in months to be a short, somewhat belated (and spoiler-free) post about the stupendously good Danish crime drama, The Killing; a) because it would be remiss of me not to mention on here just how brilliant it is, and b) because until I get it out of my system I won’t be able to write anything else.

The Killing (or to give it its original Dutch title, Forbrydelsen) is a twenty-part Danish crime drama that was shown over the course of ten weeks on BBC4 (in the UK).  It attracted impressive ratings and became something of a cult hit,  sparking much online chatter and speculation, and the sort of rave reviews and fan devotion that one rarely sees for any TV series.

All of the plaudits, all of the praise and fan devotion is richly deserved: The Killing is a remarkable series.

If you haven’t seen it, the show is ostensibly a murder mystery, and the twenty episodes cover a twenty-day murder investigation. The story begins on what is supposed to be Detective Inspector Sarah Lund’s final day with the Copenhagen Police Department – she is due to move to Sweden with her fiancé and transfer to the Swedish police force. However, her plans change when the body of 19-year-old Nanna Birk Larsen is discovered, brutally raped and murdered. Lund heads up the investigation, and along with Detective Inspector Jan Meyer they try to track down the killer. Nanna’s friends and family naturally come under the detectives’ spotlight, but so does a local politician, Troels Hartman, when a link is discovered between him and the murdered girl.

The story unfolds in a ‘novelistic’ rather than episodic way, and it grips throughout. It demands, and amply rewards, the viewer’s attention, and never does it resort to cheap tricks or predictable genre tropes to artificially ratchet up the tension. It’s a murder mystery, a whodunnit if you like, that’s also an intricate political story and a deeply human drama about personal loss and grief. Unlike most murder mysteries or thrillers, never once does The Killing lose sight of the tragedy that lies at the heart of the story, which gives it an emotional resonance that most thrillers lack.

The grief-stricken Pernille and Theis Birk Larsen.

The writing throughout is tight and solid, and it is superbly acted, with all of the cast doing a remarkable job. Ann Eleonora Jørgensen and Bjarne Henriksen, as Pernille and Theis Birk Larsen, the parents of the murdered girl, are astonishingly good at conveying the thunderous, overwhelming grief of bereaved parents and their differing ways of coping with it, without ever resorting to melodrama. It is the restraint and subtlety of their performances that makes their grief feel so much more real and affecting: two people desperately trying to hold it together while a tsunami of grief engulfs their lives.

Another truly great performance comes from Sofie Gråbøl in the central role of Detective Inspector Sarah Lund. Lund is a fascinating character, the glue that holds the whole story together. A woman of few words, Lund is an island unto herself, self-contained, doggedly pursuing fresh leads while battling against pressures from all sides; from her bosses; from the politicians at city hall fearful of a scandal; from her fiancé, son and mother, who are aghast that her plans to move to Sweden have been put on hold; from the bereaved family of the murdered girl, who are understandably hungry for closure, for the culprit to be caught and the case put to bed. And finally with her fractious working relationship with her reluctant partner, Detective Inspector Jan Meyer, whose temperament and approach to the job is very different to Lund’s. Gråbøl conveys so much while seemingly doing so little, in a marvellously understated and restrained performance, you can see the fire of fierce intelligence burning behind her eyes as she single-mindedly pursues her investigation. Lund is one of the most compelling and interesting central characters of any TV series that I have ever seen.

Sofie Gråbøl as Detective Inspector Sarah Lund.

In almost everything it does, The Killing confounds expectation. It always respects the viewer’s intelligence, and although the plot twists come thick and fast, they never feel ‘tricksy’; rather, they follow the logical progression of a police investigation.  And although it is ostensibly a ‘whodunnit’, a crime thriller, the pleasure of The Killing is as much about the journey as the destination.  The murder of Nanna Birk Larsen acts as a rock thrown into a lake, and The Killing tells the story of the ripples that spread out from it, spreading through and affecting many people’s lives and the world of politics.

Crime thriller, murder mystery, political drama, tragedy – The Killing is lots of things. Each episode drew me in and held my attention so firmly that at times it felt like I could forget to breathe; the tension is expertly sustained and builds to almost unbearable levels at times. Overall it’s one of the most satisfying, rewarding and utterly gripping things I’ve ever seen on television.

The first season is now out on DVD, and the second season is due to be shown on BBC4 later this year. A third season is in production.  I can hardly wait.

The famous Faroese jumper.