Northern Lights - Murderer Without Remorse - DVD

Content: With absolute determination and toughness, police officer Katrine Ries Jensen (Laura Bach) has already made it at 27 to the deputy head of homicide. But right from her first case, the hunt for a serial killer, problems arise and Katrine's boss Magnus Bisgaard (Lars Mikkelsen) unceremoniously takes her off the case again. But the young woman, who was herself a victim of family violence in her youth, doesn't let herself be pushed aside that easily. She sets out on her own to solve the case. During her research, she comes across articles by profiler Thomas Schaeffer (Jakob Cedergren), who has given up his services to the police since a fatal miscalculation. She manages to persuade him to cooperate. Together she pins herself on the sput of the killer, who in turn now sets his sights on Katrine. This first case together will leave its mark on the detective and the profiler. Nevertheless, from now on they work together to put a stop to serial killers. But in the process, their own pasts keep getting in the way...

Nordlicht - Murderer Without Remorse is first-class crime fiction from Denmark, featuring some of Denmark's most successful and acclaimed writers and directors of crime fiction. The stories are based on motifs by bestselling author Elsbeth Egholm (The Man Collector) and author Stefan Jaworski, with Jonas Allen and Peter Bose (Commissioner Beck, Wallander) responsible for production. Birger Larsen, who has already proven his knack for gripping thriller entertainment with Commissioner Lund, took a seat in the director's chair.

First-class talents were also engaged in front of the camera with Laura Bach (The Eagle), Jakob Cedergren (The Eagle, Arn - The Crusader) and also Lars Mikkelsen (Commissioner Lund), brother of the great Mads Mikkelsen. In a gloomy atmosphere they are confronted with cases that are sometimes exciting, sometimes shocking and then again downright moving in their tragic scope. A real highlight of the first season, besides the guest appearance of the great Ulrich Thomsen in episode 3 (Uprising in Block B), is without question the literally explosive season finale, which seems like a drastic conclusion, but nevertheless cleverly leaves a small backdoor open for a sequel.

What makes Northern Lights - Murderers Without Remorse so worth watching, however, is not necessarily the cases themselves, which are exciting but don't stand out much from typical Nordic thrillers. What gives the individual episodes that certain spice are the well-established characters with their own demons and their not always conventional investigation methods. It is the character sketching that makes the series extraordinarily interesting and noticeably increases the already existing tension.

Can a clear line be drawn between good and evil? Are all means permissible to stop a serial killer? These questions pervade the individual episodes again and again and make the series extremely interesting from a moral point of view as well. As a viewer, you can therefore fever on several levels and be entertained in the best possible way. Therefore, if you like gritty Nordic thrillers, you will quickly become friends with this investigator duo. Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The reduced color scheme provides a super-cooled, gloomy atmosphere, which is extremely suspenseful in some scenes. Otherwise, the picture is very clean, sharpness and contrast are on a good TV level. The sound has not much more to offer in the stereo mix, as well-tuned dialogues and the rather decent film music, here and there, however, there are also well-implemented ambient sounds and minor sound effects, but overall they can hardly provide dynamics in the tonal events.

Extras: Bonus material is unfortunately none except for a few DVD trailers on the last disc.

Conclusion: Northern Lights - Murderer Without Remorse is a thrilling crime series, which is not quite without the usual genre clichés, but thanks to good actors and exciting stories knows how to captivate. The DVD box set is technically well made, but disappoints with the lack of any bonus material. Nevertheless: for fans of Nordic-dark crime fare absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp