Mord uden grænser

1992. Borgen. Top Boy. Deutschland 83. The Returned. The neighboring countries have individually proven in recent years that they have mastered the art of series crafting down to the last detail. But what would happen if a number of them joined forces to arrive at a new pièce de résistance together? Would the result be more impressive than the sum of its parts? Would it be the same as if Flea, Travis Barker, Slash and Jimmy Page would get together in Flea's mom's garage every now and then to jam a bit? Would it be more gruesome than your line of attack with Messi, Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic in Fifa 16? You can now make that judgment yourself, because the Danish DR1, the German ZDF and the VTM of our southern neighbors have joined forces in the police thriller The Team. A number of dead prostitutes are found all over Europe. Someone shot them right in the face and then ran off with one of their fingers. This again shows that murderers also need structure and regularity. Because you cannot expect one detective to solve three cross-border murders for a short while, Europol has set up the Dooie Temeiers project team in all its wisdom. Head of the team is Harald Bjørn from Denmark and he is flanked by the German police commissioner Mueller (because that's what they are all called there) and the Flemish Alicia Verbeek. Together they rummage half of Europe with their magnifying glass and soon discover that behind the murders lies an even greater mountain of misery. With dialogues in Flemish, French, Danish and German, The Team is the wet dream for the polyglote series fanatic. The camera dives rapidly from Antwerp to Berlin and from Berlin to Copenhagen and the protagonists adapt their lingo accordingly with childlike ease. Funny concept. The question was whether 1 + 1 would actually be 3 and that is not entirely the case as far as I am concerned. In contrast to many polished American series, The Team is nice and no-nonsense, but it lacks that gripping Nordic Noir vibe that we all enjoyed so well with series such as Forbrydelsen and Bron | Broen. The raw frayed edge that you might know from French must watchers like Braquo and Engrenages is also not really there. This does not alter the fact that you can look at this hat, if only because Lars Mikkelsen is in it. Me gusta Lars Mikkelsen. He's been a boss on just about every series I love (Borgen, Those Who Kill, House Of Cards, Sherlock, 1864, and so on and so forth) and continues that line in The Team tirelessly. There is something cool and stoic about it that makes it very pleasant to look at. I think then. The rest of the cast is broadly doing what it should do, although the German Jasmin Gerat (Jackie Mueller) should have been spared me. I don't know exactly what it is, but something about her is annoying. Not “I'm-a-young-mother-and-I'm-taking-the-bugaboo-to-a-packed-rolling-kitchens-festival-site-to-go-there-just-so-tasty-everyone- shin-bond-and-blue-pounding ”annoying, but it doesn't matter much. Perhaps it is the way she speaks English or perhaps the somewhat arrogant air that adheres more persistently to her character than scandals to Sepp Blatter. I don't know. But hey, you can't have everything. Should Wilders ever be proved right and the European Union to collapse like a house of cards, then we will at least have The Team in addition to the baked pears. www.gumstarr.com

Good danish crimi .. a must for the scandinavian series viewer.