The Daily Beast: "The Rise of Nordic Noir TV"

The Duchess of Cornwall is just one obsessive viewer. Nordic Noir—embodied in Scandinavian dramas like The Killing, The Bridge, and Borgen—have become cult hits in the U.K., and are about to become the go-to formats for American TV pilots. I explore the genre’s appeal, its breakout female characters, and why audiences in the U.S. are unlikely to see many of them in their original form (but it is possible to see them!).

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Rise of Nordic Noir TV," in which I explore why these Scandinavian dramas have become cult hits in the U.K., how they are ripe for American adaptations, and their universal appeal.

While AMC’s The Killing has been dumped in a trunk to die like Rosie Larsen, its progenitor, Denmark’s Forbrydelsen, continues to slay viewers around the globe on the strength of its moody wit and strong-willed protagonist.

Forbrydelsen (in English, The Crime) became a cult hit in the United Kingdom when it aired on BBC Four last year, quickly embedding itself within the cultural zeitgeist. Like The Killing, it revolves around the search for the killer of a teenage girl, tightly drawing together political, familial, and personal concerns within its web. Sales of the chunky Faroese sweater worn by the show’s lead detective, Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl), skyrocketed, with the jumper’s maker, design firm Gundrun & Gundrun, reportedly unable to keep up with the insane demand. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, was such an obsessive fan of the series—it’s the only show that she and Prince Charles watch together!—that she visited the set of Forbrydelsen’s third season earlier this year, and was delighted to be presented by Gråbøl with a Faroese cardigan in the style of Lund’s. Gråbøl herself turned up in Absolutely Fabulous’s Christmas special, reprising her role as Lund in a dream sequence. She was, of course, wearing The Jumper.

“Even people who haven’t watched [Forbrydelsen] know about The Jumper,” said Radio Times TV editor Alison Graham. “Now, whenever a new Nordic Noir show is about to arrive, I’m always asked by viewers—wryly, of course—about ‘the knitwear.’”

Sweaters aside, Forbrydelsen and its fellow Scandinavian imports—The Bridge, Wallander, and 2012 BAFTA International Programme Award winner Borgen, which have been loosely dubbed “Nordic Noir” by its adherents—have become bona fide hits in the United Kingdom. And Hollywood has responded in turn. The trail originally blazed by Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and BBC/PBS’s English-language Wallander has resulted in a hunger for more Scandie drama, with viewers on both sides of the Atlantic gobbling up original-language versions, a trend that has continued on the television side. (Scandinavia could be close to usurping the appeal of white-hot Israel, one of the largest exporters of scripted formats to the U.S., with shows like Homeland and In Treatment. A&E is developing an adaptation of Danish crime thriller Those Who Kill, while The Bridge is a likely contender to score a remake as well.)

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

Faceless Killers: Wallander Returns to Masterpiece Mystery

Every now and then a series comes along that features the perfect actor, the perfect character, the perfect scripts, and the perfect setting.

Right now, that series is none other than PBS/BBC's haunting and existential mystery drama Wallander, which returns for its second season on Sunday as part of PBS' Masterpiece Mystery (check your local listings). The series stars Kenneth Branagh as Ystad detective Kurt Wallander, a man gripped by his own concerns as he investigates the grisly and brutal crimes inflicted on the inhabitants of his Swedish port town. (For more on Branagh's take on the character, you can read my interview with him over at The Daily Beast.)

But Wallander's purview isn't just finding the perpetrators of these crimes--which include, in the first installment, the brutal murder of an elderly farmer and his wife--but in examining both the damage that such crimes cause and the fractured psyche that carries them out in the first place. So strong is his repugnance to these crimes that he takes on culpability for them, simply for being a member of the human race, turning a magnifying glass on his own failings.

It's hard not to love Wallander, even as he shoulders an increasingly heavy burden. In "Faceless Killers," the season's first episode, a stray remark sparks an all-out race war in Ystad, even as he comes to terms with the fact that his daughter Linda (Jeany Spark) is dating a man of Syrian origin. Is Wallander racist? Or is he just taken aback by his daughter's ability to surprise him?

Even as he attempts to grapple with his inner conflict, he's presented with further pressure: the condition of his father (the great David Warner) is greatly deteriorating and a series of inexplicable behaviors point towards his Alzheimer's significantly worsening. Can Wallander be the son that his father expects him to be? The father than he daughter wants? The man that he himself wants and needs to be?

Those questions loom large over the action and the wind-swept Swedish landscape, captured in a haunting blue hue that perfectly matches the detective's own psychic malaise.

What follows is an extraordinary season of turmoil, murder, and self-reflection, not to mention some of the smartest and tautest mysteries to air on television. You'd be wise to make room in your schedule for Wallander; once it has caught you in its somber spell, it's impossible to let go.



Season Two of Wallander begins this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery. Check your local listings for details.

The Daily Beast: "Kenneth Branagh's Twists and Turns"

Kenneth Branagh has temporarily traded Shakespeare for serial killers in Masterpiece Mystery’s new Wallander installments and superheroes in his highly anticipated directing effort, Thor.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can check out my latest feature, "Kenneth Branagh's Twists and Turns," in which I talk to Branagh about Season Two of Wallander and its existential hero, directing Thor (and its connections to Shakespearean drama), and whether he'll play Sir Laurence Olivier in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn.

Season Two of Wallander begins this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery. Check your local listings for details.

Crime and Punishment: An Advance Review of PBS' Gripping Mystery Series "Wallander"

"A really good detective never gets married." - Raymond Chandler

Many detectives would take Chandler's edict to heart, given just how married they are to their jobs, and the bookshelves are lined with detective novels about grim gumshoes who forsake their own personal lives in pursuit of catching killers. After all, detectives are prone to seeing the worst of humanity on a daily basis, of seeing the skull beneath the skin, companions as they are of death and murder.

Enter Kurt Wallander (Kenneth Branagh), a detective in the seaside town of Ystad, Sweden who--like many others of his ilk--has his own horrific demons to battle even as he throws himself into chasing criminals with intense abandon. And while we've all seen stories of flawed detectives a zillion times, PBS' Wallander, a co-production between WGBH and BBC which kicks off on Sunday night as part of Masterpiece Mystery, offers a tautly gripping and suspenseful roller coaster ride through the dark heartland of both coastal Sweden and the recesses of Kurt Wallander himself.

Based on a series of best-selling novels by Henning Mankell and adapted by Richard Cottan and Richard McBrien, Wallander is relentlessly bleak, offering some of the most shockingly gruesome crimes ever seen on the small screen. And yet, with Branagh casting his spell as the dogged and damaged detective, it's impossible to look away. So completely does Branagh sink into the role of the emotionally armoured Kurt Wallander that it's impossible to recognize the actor from his previous roles. Exhausted, rumpled, and driven, Wallander might be inherently flawed but you'd want him on the case if anything awful happened to you.

I had the opportunity to watch the three episodes--"Sidetracked," "Firewall," and "One Step Behind,"--that comprise Wallander's first season a few weeks back and I was completely sucked into the dark and twisted world that Kurt Wallander inhabits. These are gritty mysteries that are as far removed from the drawing room crimes of Agatha Christie as much as Ystad is as distant to the English countryside. There's an intoxicating hardness to these cases, which revolve around a serial killer who scalps his victims, a young woman who sets herself on fire in front of Wallander's eyes, two teenage girls who calmly murder a taxi driver, a vast network of conspirators, and a killer who who stalks and murders people engaging in secret rites.

Adding to the grittiness of the mysteries is the fact that the three episodes were filmed on location in Sweden, which gives the piece a verisimilitude that can't possibly be achieved by filming in a studio. Everything--from the stark landscape to the chill in the air--casts an aura of iciness over Wallander and this effect is heightened by the use of blue filters on the film. The three episodes of Wallander, directed by Philip Martin and Niall MacCormick, contain some of the most beautiful imagery seen on the small screen. Each installment is breathtakingly gorgeous and the beauty of the direction and cinematography are at sharp contrast with the darkness of the cases that Wallander tackles.

As I mentioned before, Branagh is sensational and perfectly cast as Kurt Wallander. When we first meet Wallander, he's just separated from his wife and has once again thrown himself into his work, his health (and one might argue, his sanity) are suffering, and he finds himself being controlled by his well-meaning daughter Linda (Jeany Spark) as he deals with his artist father (David Warner), who is succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. Suffice it to say, Wallander feels pulled in an infinite number of directions at once. But Wallander's true issue is that he gets so emotionally invested in his cases--he cares too much for the murdered--that he's dead inside when he comes to his own life. Surrounded by death, Wallander can't remember how to truly live.

The rest of Wallander's cast is equally top-notch. Special attention has to be given to Kurt Wallander's colleagues, played with aplomb by Tom Hiddleston (Suburban Shootout), Tom Beard (Silent Witness), Sadie Shimmin (The Bill), Richard McCabe (Einstein and Eddington), and Sarah Smart (Casualty 1907), as well as the aforementioned Jeany Spark (Tess of the d'Urbervilles) as the sunny Linda Wallander, who carries her own kernel of darkness in her heart. Guest stars include Skins' Nicholas Hoult, Secret Diary of a Call Girl's Ashley Madekwe, Conviction's David Warner, and Mistresses' Orla Brady.

Ultimately, Wallander is a perfect synthesis of its parts and is wholly different from the usual offerings of Hercule Poirot or Miss Maple, offering audiences a series of gripping and brutally original mysteries, each with a dark undercurrent of dread from which it is impossible to escape.



Wallander's three-episode season will air Sundays, May 10th, 17th, and 24th at 9 pm as part of Masterpiece Mystery on PBS. Check your local listings for details.

Channel Surfing: Mindy Kaling Gets Universal Deal, Josh Schwartz Talks "Chuck," HBO Goes to New Orleans with "Treme," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

The Office co-star/writer Mindy Kaling has signed an overall deal with NBC and Universal Media Studios under which she will continue to write for and star in The Office as well as develop a new comedy project which will be a vehicle for the actress. "This is my first step in a Transformers-style way to take over the whole world," joked Kaling. "I've only ever worked for NBC, and I've felt an enormous amount of support from the executives there." Kaling says she is drawn to workplace comedies as well as buddy series such as HBO's Flight of the Conchords or projects focusing on women. (Variety)

There's still no news on the fate of NBC's Chuck, despite a massive fan-based initiative to create buzz for a third season of the action-comedy. The Hollywood Reporter's Matthew Belloni talks to Chuck co-creator/executive producer Josh Schwartz about the series' rabid fan base, Lily, the 1980's-set Gossip Girl spin-off, X-Men: First Class, Bright Lights, Big City, and more. (Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has given out a series order to New Orleans-set drama Treme, from The Wire creator David Simon and Eric Overmyer, which follows the residents of the Big Easy as they adjust to life post-Katrina. It's unclear yet how many episodes HBO has initially committed to as the pay cabler was still working out specifics of the pickup. "We don't intend to make The Wire twice," said Simon of Treme. "This is about people reconstituting their lives after their town was mostly, effectively destroyed... It's not entirely a political show. We're trying to be very intimate with people. And New Orleans is completely unique, there's nothing in the world like it." Treme, which stars Wendell Pierce, Khandi Alexander, Steven Zahn, Kim Dickens, Clarke Peters, Melissa Leo, and Rob Brown, is slated to begin production in the fall for a spring 2010 berth. (Variety)

Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) will direct HBO fantasy pilot Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin's novel series "Songs of Fire and Ice," which is slated to shoot later this year in Belfast. Joining the cast of Game of Thrones is Peter Dinklage (Nip/Tuck), who previously worked with McCarthy on The Station Agent. Dinklage will play Tyrion, the outcast brother of the queen who is shunned because of his small stature. (Hollywood Reporter)

Production has begun on three new feature-length installments of mystery series Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh as Swedish police officer Inspector Kurt Wallander, based on a series of best-selling novels by Henning Mankell. The three new installments will be shot this summer in Ystad, Sweden, and will air on BBC One in 2010. (Meanwhile, the first three will launch this Sunday on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.) "I'm delighted to be back in Kurt Wallander's shoes for three further adaptations," said Branagh. "The character's story becomes ever more complex in these next films. Our entire team relishes the privilege of bringing them to the screen, and to an audience who proved so loyal last time out." (BBC)

Lifetime will launch the third season of drama series Army Wives on June 7th. (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks with How I Met Your Mother co-creator/executive producer Carter Bays about Monday night's shocking twist. "We freaked out a ton of people," said Bays. "We've never really kept a big secret from the audience. And what secrets we do have we usually tell people and there are usually spoilers floating around. And this kind of felt like, 'Let's try and do something that takes everyone by surprise and really blow people's minds.' And I think we did it." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

CBS is said to be considering handing out pilot orders to revivals of classic game shows Let's Make a Deal and The Dating Game, which are being viewed as possible replacements for the daytime slot being vacated this fall by the cancellation of soap Guiding Light. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has cancelled Talkshow With Spike Feresten, which won't be returning for a fourth season this fall. The network is currently in the process of making over its Saturday late night lineup, having ordered a latenight series starring Wanda Sykes at 11 pm, which replaces the cancelled MadTV. (Variety)

Nickelodeon has renewed live-action comedy series True Jackson, VP, which stars Keke Palmer as the teenage exec at a fashion label, for a second season, with 20 episodes on tap for the sophomore season. (Hollywood Reporter)

Bravo has resigned its development deal with Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List producer Picture This Television, under which the shingle will produce unscripted series and specials for the cabler. (Variety)

NBC will air two-hour documentary Farrah's Story, depicting actress Farrah Fawcett's battle with cancer, on May 15th. "This film is very personal," said Fawcett. "At the time, I didn't know if anybody would ever see it. But at some point, the footage took on a life of its own and dictated that it be seen." (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.