Monster

Monster seems to fall under a sub-genre of Scandinavian noir that I've run into far too often: A crime drama set in rural Finland or Norway or Sweden that involves an ultra religious sect. Invariably, these shows have a large number of unlikable, damaged characters doing unlikable things. As a result, it becomes almost impossible to identify with or root for most of the characters. In Monster, even the detectives are hard to root for, with all their flawed and destructive behavior.

I quickly realized that I was getting little enjoyment out of watching the series. Yet, I somehow felt an obligation to see it through to the end. It was like a bad medicine that I had to take in the hopes of finally getting a payoff at the end. When I finished the final episode, I felt like I had run a marathon. I did in fact like the ending, but the journey there it was so filled with bleak and cynical characters that it was a joyless ride.

I watched the series on the PBS Masterpiece platform. Another strange thing about it was that the episode previews that would appear as you start each new episode were often inaccurate in their descriptions of the episode. Strange. While Monster wasn't terrible, I gave it a 6 and would not recommend.