The Danish Nordland '99 is dark and exciting. A mother of a missing teenager is called crazy. After a year, the provincial town is done with it. No one wants to be reminded of that dark period at the time of the disappearance. Certainly not the passive police officer Christian (Troels Lyby, Mord uden grænser/The Team). His research has yielded nothing and he actually wants to leave it at that. When a friend of his son disappears, he denies any similarities to the previous disappearance. Yet he is eventually forced to get back into action. He doesn't like that, but because of his son he can't escape it.
The dark imagery in Nordland '99 fits perfectly with the dark atmosphere.
His son Lukas (Elias Budde Christensen, Når støvet har lagt sig/When the Dust Settles) and friend Kris (Noa Risbro Hjerrild, Thomas14) investigate where their friend may have gone. The farewell to their friend was already striking. He didn't seem to be doing very well. Especially not after he picks a fight with his ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend. It makes this friend of his ex the main suspect. When Lukas and Kris learn more about their missing friend's family, it turns out there's more to the story. In sister Emma (Emilie Kroyer Koppel), the two find a thorough ally. The trio learns things they never expected. Their provincial town is seen in a completely different light.
The dark imagery in Nordland '99 fits perfectly with the dark atmosphere. An intriguing story unfolds. The short episodes of about twenty to twenty-five minutes keep the momentum going. However, this short duration also has a disadvantage. Sometimes the story would have gained more power and tension if they had taken a little more time to develop the story and a number of characters. Now they are forced to work towards a new plot in a short episode in order to promote the next episode. This is partly at the expense of the common thread.
It's a well put together series but it just lacks that little bit extra to make it exceptional.
Nordland '99 therefore does not fulfill its entire promise. It's a well put together series but it just lacks that little bit extra to make it exceptional. It's not the acting, because that's excellent. The base of the story is also good. Due to the short and fast transitions to a new episode, however, it sometimes goes just too quickly to the next plot. As a result, people forget to bring just a little more tension and depth. The atmosphere is excellently captured, partly due to those dark images. The desolate atmosphere of the town and its surroundings help to further reinforce that image. Nordland '99 is a good series but it could have been a little better.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
