NORDIC THRILLERS. “The Glass Dome.” / “Land of Sin.” / “The Asset.”

“The Glass Dome” (Netflix) Swedish crime drama. The series takes place in a tiny fictional community in Sweden called Granås, the home town of the series' protagonist, Leijla, who is a behavioural scientist and criminologist. 

       The grey, frozen atmosphere is typical Norse noir but still a finely-written mystery. Leonie Vincent as Lejla Ness creates chilly tension with screaming or opening her eyes wide. Remarkably restrained dramatic flair. 🎥💻📽

“Land of Sin” (Netflix) Swedish crime drama. Two detectives investigate the murder of a local teenager from a rural community. Krista Kosonen is Dani Anttila, the police officer.

       This grim series explores parenthood and original sin in an understated, minimalistic dramatic manner. I can appreciate the non-hysterical navigation of the crime but, in all, this drama still bored me, without undermining Ms Kosonen's concentrated performance. 🎥💻📽

“The Asset” (Netflix) Danish thriller about a young woman undercover in Denmark's largest cocaine ring. 

       Tea Lind is a troubled police cadet who is recruited by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), to go undercover in the criminal underworld. Tea poses as a jeweler to befriend Ashley, the girlfriend of crime-boss Miran, with the goal of infiltrating his organization. But the deeper Tea becomes involved, the more the lines between her mission and her identity blur.

        The story is predictably linear and any amount of dramatic tension is expectedly anti-climactic. Clara Dessau as Tea and Maria Cordsen as Ashley tried to infuse some tension but their attempt appeared as derivatives of genre cliches. 🎥💻📽