My wife and I watched three episodes but we are now done. The look, the acting, the subject matter are top notch, unfortunately the writing and directing is as dull as the police work it covers. First of all, I don't feel any emotion to any of the characters. The lead, Jens, is a stoic, solid detective, but he's got no emotion and I'm not sure how he feels about anything. It's a problem when the hero has no emotions.
Further, the victim, is a cypher. By the end of the 3rd episode, not much is known about her, and other than her parents we don't get to know anything about her family or friends. Her parents are devastated by the loss of their daughter but they are peripheral characters, and can't be stand-ins for the characters who should be carrying the emotion in a story, be it a TV series, movie, book, or theater.
As a result, I am left feeling nothing. I don't care about the victim because I don't know her. I don't care about the hero, Jens, because I don't know him either. So no matter how great it looks and how well acted it is, if it doesn't make the viewer care, or feel connected to the characters, it's, well, boring.
As for the plotting: there are phone calls where not much transpires, long driving shots, long walking shots, lots of what is called "shoe leather", getting from point A to point B; there are discussions with characters relaying info that the audience already knows. There are scenes in which not much happens but characters ponder. This might be fine in small doses if I cared about the characters, but I didn't.
So far at the end of three hour long episodes, not much has transpired, just like real police work. It's boring, tedious, and not much happens. I get the feeling that this was originally meant to be a feature film but someone thought it would be better stretched out over many episodes. I look forward to the feature coming out so I can see how it ends.
Perhaps one could argue that this is just Danish or European story telling vs American or English story telling. But then I think about amazing Danish filmmakers like Thomas Vinterberg or Las Von Trier. The Investigation would have been a whole other thrilling thing to watch had either of them been at the helm.
Further, the victim, is a cypher. By the end of the 3rd episode, not much is known about her, and other than her parents we don't get to know anything about her family or friends. Her parents are devastated by the loss of their daughter but they are peripheral characters, and can't be stand-ins for the characters who should be carrying the emotion in a story, be it a TV series, movie, book, or theater.
As a result, I am left feeling nothing. I don't care about the victim because I don't know her. I don't care about the hero, Jens, because I don't know him either. So no matter how great it looks and how well acted it is, if it doesn't make the viewer care, or feel connected to the characters, it's, well, boring.
As for the plotting: there are phone calls where not much transpires, long driving shots, long walking shots, lots of what is called "shoe leather", getting from point A to point B; there are discussions with characters relaying info that the audience already knows. There are scenes in which not much happens but characters ponder. This might be fine in small doses if I cared about the characters, but I didn't.
So far at the end of three hour long episodes, not much has transpired, just like real police work. It's boring, tedious, and not much happens. I get the feeling that this was originally meant to be a feature film but someone thought it would be better stretched out over many episodes. I look forward to the feature coming out so I can see how it ends.
Perhaps one could argue that this is just Danish or European story telling vs American or English story telling. But then I think about amazing Danish filmmakers like Thomas Vinterberg or Las Von Trier. The Investigation would have been a whole other thrilling thing to watch had either of them been at the helm.
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