Category Archives: Danish Detectives

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Department Q (2013)

From Kanopy you can stream 3 full-length episodes of this series of intense crime Danish dramas. Unfortunately each episode will cost you one viewing credit.  There are many more Department Q episodes which are not available on Kanopy.

As you learn in the first episode,  chief detective Carl Mørck is such an oddball, that the police assign him to a dead-end job in the basement running Department Q where he is supposed to merely catalog unsolved cases.  Instead, he and his new partner Assad prove to be determined detectives doggedly solving difficult and ugly cases.

  • The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013) 1 hour 36 minutes

Police inspector Carl Mørck is put in charge of a department of cold cases, joined only by his assistant Assad. They dig into a case about a missing woman.

  • The Absent One (2014) 1 hour 59 minutes

The murder of young twins initially implicates a group of upper class students as the killers, though the case takes a turn or two from its starting point.

  • A Conspiracy of Faith (2016) 1 hour 52 minutes

Two intertwined cases linking the past with the present require the aid of Department Q to catch an elusive serial killer while time is running out.

All these stories involve brutal, ugly crimes. If  you can stand the nasty tension, then

DO NOT MISS!

2021, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Bloody scenes, Brother-Sister relations, Child abuse, Danish, Danish Detectives, Danish Police, Danish Politics, Danish TV series, Disturbing Image, Emotional child abuse, Failed Mother, Foster Care, Missing Person, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Netflix Streaming, Occasional gore, Orphans in Foster Care, Police Culture, Political Campaigning, Politicians, Psychopath, Serial Killer, Suspense, Thriller, Torture, Violent

The Chestnut Man (2021)

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From IMDB:

A young woman is found brutally murdered in a playground and one of her hands is missing. Above her hangs a small man made of chestnuts.

From Netflix:

At a grisly murder scene sits a figurine made of chestnuts. From  this creepy clue, two detectives hunt a killer linked to a politician’s missing child.

From Netflix you can stream the 6 episodes of this Danish serial killer series. Each episode runs a bit less than one hour.

“Seen one, seen them all” is almost a truism about serial killer series. Each such story involves detectives and victim families, many of whom have their own problems. But it is these individual personal touches that distinguish one series from another.  For that reason “The Chestnut Man” is not boring and not a waste of time. Nor is the production anything special.

2021, Abduction, Amazon Prime, Bloody scenes, Clever Plot, Controlling personality, Danish, Danish Detectives, Danish Police, Danish TV series, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Failed Father, Failing Marriage, Father-son relations, Gory, Mother-son relations, Profiler, Revenge, Sadism, Serial Killer, Suicide, Suspense, Torture, Unhappy Marriage, Violent, Wife leaves husband

Blinded: Those Who Kill (2021)

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From Amazon Prime:

Five years ago, a serial killer murdered three young men but was never found. Now, criminal profiler Louise Bergstein is asked by the terminally ill mother of a victim to help solve the case. Teaming up with the police, Louise discovers a distinct pattern to the killings-and the hunt only intensifies as the murderer strikes again in this Danish thriller. CONTAINS VIOLENCE AND GRAPHIC SCENES.

From Amazon Prime you can stream the 8 episodes of this well-done Danish serial-killer series.  Each episode lasts about 45 minutes. English subtitles.

From the very beginning you know who the killer is: Peter is a father with son Johannes . Peter’s marriage has failed and his wife has moved to Singapore.  Louise and Karina are two of the detectives working to solve the case. Louise is a profiler who, in an original plot twist , completely fails to recognize as killer the handsome man whom she meets quite by accident, after which the plot thickens a bit.

Poor Johannes is baffled by the strange behavior of his father. Johannes sorely misses his mother but is prevented by his father Peter from seeing her.

Because Peter kidnaps and tortures his victims,  the crime photographs can be quite gory.  But because the series is done so well, if you can get past the ugliness, DO NOT MISS!

Abduction, Abuse of Women, Bloody scenes, Cancer theme, Car Chase, Could Be Hard To Watch, Danish Detectives, Danish Police, Divorce, Drama, Failing Marriage, Father-son relations, Forensic Psychologist, Gory, Grim, Grisly, MHz Choice, Murder, Psychological Drama, Psychopath, Serial Killer, Suicide, Suspense, Violent

Those Who Kill (2011)

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From MHz Choice:

A criminal investigator and a forensic psychologist team up to track down serial killers in Copenhagen.

From MHz Choice (foreign language only, always with subtitles) you can stream 12 episodes of season 1 which is the only season available . Each episode lasts approximately 45 minutes. Each of the 6 stories encompasses 2 episodes.  Season 2 (2019) is mentioned in IMDB with another 8 episodes, but IMDB gives no further information about season 2.

Overshadowing all the other actors in the series are the criminal investigator Katrine (played by the very striking Laura Bach) and the forensic psychologist Thomas Schaeffer (played by Jakob Cedergren).  Oddly enough Jakob Cedergren also plays a character named Thomas in another MHz Choice offering The Sandhamn Murders. 

Once again, these stories are grim. Someone dreams up really gory crimes for the serial killers to commit. Expect lots of blood. Unfortunately the productions are excellent, well-acted and gripping. Is this some kind of guilty pleasure?

There is another series about serial killers from Acorn TV called “Wire in the Blood” starring Robsen Green as a forensic psychologist Dr. Tony Hill. Whereas Dr. Tony HIll is portrayed as a socially awkward, cleverly intuitive, and very eccentric misfit, Thomas Schaeffer is a loving family man torn between a normal life and his brillantly helpful involvement in horrible cimes.  Both series are downright gory.

Noone is perfect. One of my flaws must be watching this awful stuff.

 

2015, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Belgian, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Child abduction and murder, Child abuse, Child Molestation, Contract Killing, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Danish, Danish Detectives, Dark, Dutch, Emotional child abuse, Extramarital Affair, Failing Marriage, Forensics, French, German, Greed, Grim, Grisly, Incest, International thriler, Made For TV, Marital Infidelity, MHz Choice, Murder, Nudity, Pedophilia, Physical child abuse, Polish, Pornographic Scenes, Prostitutes, Rape, Revenge, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Sex trafficking, Slave trafficking, Sociopath, Spousal Abuse, Suspense, Terminal Disease, Torture, Valium appropriate, Violent, Wife Beating

The Team (2015)

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From MHz Choice:

Lars Mikkelsen (‘Borgen’, ‘1864’) stars as the leader of a joint Danish-German-Belgian investigative team tasked with solving a series of murders in this gripping crime thriller from the writers of ‘The Eagle’.

What makes this one season of 8 episodes streamed from MHz Choice so gripping for me is that the villain Marius Loukauskis  is so vile and so cynically amoral that I could not wait to get to the conclusion. Unfortunately MHz Choice doled out the episodes week after week. Finally you can see now all the episodes at once, which is why I waited to recommend and review this excellent series.

Because the “Team” is assembled from several countries (even though the production is from Denmark), you will hear many languages: French, English, German, and others. As usual they are accompanied by subtitles.

Each member of the team has their own personal story to tell. Often that story is quite unhappy.

WARNING: If you are squeamish, DO NOT WATCH this series (which is not acceptable for young people, let alone lots of adults).

2016, Abduction, Anti-Arab, Arab Culture, Based on a Book, Bloody scenes, Child abduction and murder, Child Molestation, Could Be Hard To Watch, Danish, Danish Detectives, Dark, Disturbing Image, Explicit sex, Grim, Netflix Streaming, Orphans in Foster Care, Philosophic Discussions, Police Politics, Religious Theme, Sadism, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Sociopath, Suspense, Uncategorized, Violent

Department Q (2016)

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From Denmark comes this TV detective series in which each episode lasts most of 2 hours. In other words, each episode is a feature-length film. From Netflix you can stream each episode.  Each episode has its own title. You should watch them in order. One of the reviewers called the series a “top box-office film in Denmark.”   Spoken Danish with English subtitles.

From Decider we learn that there are six books in the series, but that only three have been made into films.

WARNING: Generally speaking, these episodes are grim, violent, and peopled with vindictive, cruel, sadistic, psychopathic villains.  Strong stomachs are advised.

Episode 1: The Keeper of Lost Causes

From Decider:

Precisely. Nikolaj Lie Kaas stars as Carl Morck, a brilliant homicide detective who gets demoted to Department Q. His partner in solving crime? Another detective named Assad (played by actor Fares Fares). Together they delve into the crimes no one wants solved.

Episode 1 introduces us to the two detectives mentioned above. In episode 2 a third member is added to Department Q, which we would call the “Collection of Unsolved Crimes or Cold Cases”.

In this episode a young woman politician in on a ferry with her emotionally disturbed brother when she is abducted and held captive in a barometric chamber. You were warned it could get ugly!

Episode 2: The Absent One

In this episode the detectives uncover a series of brutal crimes planned and perpetrated by students at a posh private high school that caters to the ruling class. Their outrageous behavior continues throughout their wealthy lives as they are protected by a former classmate who is now an extremely powerful lawyer. More Ugly!

Episode 3: A Conspiracy of Faith

Yet another psychopath, this time kidnapping children of fundamentalist Christians and using a type of religious blackmail against the parents.  As we often seen in such films, the sociopath does his damage calmly and with a bland or smiling countenance. But still ugly!

One characteristic of all three stories is the suspenseful and action filled final scene in which our heroes confront the villain. You might even hold your breath in all the (did I mention “ugly”?) excitement. Take a tranquilizer and enjoy.