Another reviewers have said it already - this has some profoundly illogical and poorly conceived plot elements.
I love Scandanavian crime noir, being a near fanatical devotee of The Bridge, and fan of Wallander and the Millenium series, so I was looking forward to this edgy, atmospheric contribution. I wanted to like it, but the plot flaws were too striking for me to fully engage.
Rather than go through all the plot flaws in detail, and it is actually pretty relentless, I will critique just a few of them that really irked me!
* Massive Spoiler Alert*
The first murder is ludicrous. The means of death, strapping someone to a helicopter rotor blade defies description. Where to begin? First, what inertial forces are produced by a rotor in motion? Well, pretty huge actually - and easily enough to kill someone, but you actually need a high differential force to rip a head off. But that doesn't even really bother me. I am an engineer/physicist, and I haven't bothered to work out its feasibility, because it is just so stupid on other levels. As a means of death, well the victim will pass out before they die, and they will die before the massive physical damage is evident. As other critics have pointed out, the unbalance in the rotor would prevent it ever getting up to speed. Then, even if that were all OK, to kill someone this way you have to steal a helicopter (from a small company with 3 vehicles!), fly it to the middle of nowhere, and then presumably walk home - all without being detected in any of the 17 ways this can go wrong! And even if all that is conceded all that, that specific means of death was not a necessary plot/thematic element - so basically it's a pile of rubbish for nothing. It really felt that the show's producers thought it would be very edgy and noir. Am I being picky?
In one of the plot constructions, 10 years previous to the present day, one of the characters has his son murdered (drowned) in front of him, while he is tied down to watch. This murder, in this cockamamie world, was a threat. Like, you tell the cops and we'll...er...kill your son, the most precious thing in your life? Oh wait,we just did that! I would think that to callously murder someone's son in front of them, and then release the guy with this so called "warning" is more likely to incite a vicious, homicidal retaliation! Wouldn't it?
And so it goes. You get the drift. All edge, no sense. Or all tip, no iceberg, as the saying goes.
Other elements of the plot were interesting, but none of the characters ever settled down to something plausible and relatable.
The series' joke was a good one. This is where a wise shaman is asked where another, more elusive shaman, with expert knowledge in drugs and poisons, could be found. Long pause..."Facebook" she replied. Ho ho.
Despite my negative comments here I found the show kind of watchable on a rainy day. hence the 3/10.
I love Scandanavian crime noir, being a near fanatical devotee of The Bridge, and fan of Wallander and the Millenium series, so I was looking forward to this edgy, atmospheric contribution. I wanted to like it, but the plot flaws were too striking for me to fully engage.
Rather than go through all the plot flaws in detail, and it is actually pretty relentless, I will critique just a few of them that really irked me!
* Massive Spoiler Alert*
The first murder is ludicrous. The means of death, strapping someone to a helicopter rotor blade defies description. Where to begin? First, what inertial forces are produced by a rotor in motion? Well, pretty huge actually - and easily enough to kill someone, but you actually need a high differential force to rip a head off. But that doesn't even really bother me. I am an engineer/physicist, and I haven't bothered to work out its feasibility, because it is just so stupid on other levels. As a means of death, well the victim will pass out before they die, and they will die before the massive physical damage is evident. As other critics have pointed out, the unbalance in the rotor would prevent it ever getting up to speed. Then, even if that were all OK, to kill someone this way you have to steal a helicopter (from a small company with 3 vehicles!), fly it to the middle of nowhere, and then presumably walk home - all without being detected in any of the 17 ways this can go wrong! And even if all that is conceded all that, that specific means of death was not a necessary plot/thematic element - so basically it's a pile of rubbish for nothing. It really felt that the show's producers thought it would be very edgy and noir. Am I being picky?
In one of the plot constructions, 10 years previous to the present day, one of the characters has his son murdered (drowned) in front of him, while he is tied down to watch. This murder, in this cockamamie world, was a threat. Like, you tell the cops and we'll...er...kill your son, the most precious thing in your life? Oh wait,we just did that! I would think that to callously murder someone's son in front of them, and then release the guy with this so called "warning" is more likely to incite a vicious, homicidal retaliation! Wouldn't it?
And so it goes. You get the drift. All edge, no sense. Or all tip, no iceberg, as the saying goes.
Other elements of the plot were interesting, but none of the characters ever settled down to something plausible and relatable.
The series' joke was a good one. This is where a wise shaman is asked where another, more elusive shaman, with expert knowledge in drugs and poisons, could be found. Long pause..."Facebook" she replied. Ho ho.
Despite my negative comments here I found the show kind of watchable on a rainy day. hence the 3/10.