This Danish crime drama opens in the mid-eighties as a police officer enters a remote farmhouse and finds several members of a family dead. In the cellar he finds a surviving child but then he is attacked and killed by an unseen assailant. On a table we see several 'Chestnut Men'; small figures made out of twigs and chestnuts. Cutting to the present day a woman is found murdered, one hand has been removed and nearby there is a chestnut man... strangely is has the fingerprint of the daughter of a senior politician who vanished a year previously. There is a man in jail for her murder although no body was found. The investigation is led by Naia Thulin and temporary partner Mark Hess. To solve the case they will have to reopen the old case and learn more about chestnuts; inevitably there will be more deaths before the case is closed.
I really enjoyed this series. At only six episodes in length it never drags but nor does it feel rushed. There are plenty of genre clichés but that isn't a problem... in TV drama one expects serial killers to leave calling cards, investigators getting in unnecessary danger and powerful people being put off limits officially. The series has a great atmosphere with various shades of brown provided by the autumn leaves mirroring the colour of the chestnuts used to make the chestnut men. The leading characters are fun to watch; as expected they have their own problems; Mark is still coming to terms with the deaths of his wife and children in a fire and Naia has difficulty finding time to care for her daughter. The cast does a fine job bringing these characters to life. When the killer is revealed it wasn't too obvious... I was convinced that it was going to be somebody else altogether. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of Nordic Noir.
These comments are based on watching the series in Danish with English subtitles.
I really enjoyed this series. At only six episodes in length it never drags but nor does it feel rushed. There are plenty of genre clichés but that isn't a problem... in TV drama one expects serial killers to leave calling cards, investigators getting in unnecessary danger and powerful people being put off limits officially. The series has a great atmosphere with various shades of brown provided by the autumn leaves mirroring the colour of the chestnuts used to make the chestnut men. The leading characters are fun to watch; as expected they have their own problems; Mark is still coming to terms with the deaths of his wife and children in a fire and Naia has difficulty finding time to care for her daughter. The cast does a fine job bringing these characters to life. When the killer is revealed it wasn't too obvious... I was convinced that it was going to be somebody else altogether. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to fans of Nordic Noir.
These comments are based on watching the series in Danish with English subtitles.