Arvingerne

Started in season 2, was exclusive to Volkskrant. But what a cringe-worthy first episode. Did not immediately throw him in the corner, but persisted. Now start on episode 4, and he has already recovered a bit ... Hope this continues ...

While here in the Netherlands the blood drips from your eye sockets when you see train wrecks like Barbie's Baby and Star Jumping, in Scandinavia they have some kind of magic knick-knack from which they conjure up one boss series after another year after year. While many a coffee machine and birthday party have already spoken in mere superlatives about finger lickers such as Borgen, The Killing and The Bridge, in 2014 our northern neighbors will also come up with a ten piece that settles directly in the upper regions of my top 20 series, Arvingerne. If you could only devote one line to Arvingerne, it would be something along the lines of: It's just Festen, but ten hours long. If you get a little more space to explain what this series is all about, it goes something like this… Veronika Grønnegaard is the elderly Damian Hirst from Denmark. In her gigantic mansion she tinkers works of art that change hands for big money. When the artist decides to give up and the battle for her inheritance breaks loose, it becomes painfully clear that her offspring have kept the necessary corpses hidden in the closet. Arvingerne at times evokes the same uneasiness, vicarious shame and amazement as Festen. At the same time, it is even easier to look away than Good Times, Bad Times. NRC reader-proof Good Times, Bad Times, but still… Add to that the typical slow, lingering and cool Scandinavian way of filming and you have another series that the whole of highbrow Netherlands will soon be talking about. Which is therefore completely right.