Wednesday 16 January 2013

Forbrydelsen (The Killing): Season 3 by Søren Sveistrup - Review



This is the review of the third and final season of the Danish television series, Forbrydelsen. In case you haven't watched the second season, click here to read the review of the second season. If you're yet to start watching Forbrydelsen, don't move on to the subsequent paragraphs – the review of the first season is available here.



I believe sufficient warning has been given and now, I'd get into the review, right away. Lund has completed 25 years of service and wants to move into a sundry desk job in the police department. But then, there is an event, several Latvian sailors have been murdered in the Danish ship, Medea. However, Lund is least interested in the case until Mathias Borch, a member of the PET (Danish special branch) gets Lund into the case and incidentally, Borch was Lund's first love. Unlike the other two seasons of Forbrydelsen, here, the police don't initially investigate a murder but the kidnapping of Emilie Zeuthen, the daughter of Robert Zeuthen, the chairman of the most influential company in Denmark, Zeeland, which also incidentally owns the ship, Medea. However, the police are forced to look into an old case regarding the murder of Louise Hjelby, a twelve year old orphan, a case which is somehow related to the kidnapping. Like the other two seasons, this season too, has a political sub-plot, with the elections round the corner, the incumbent prime minister, Kristian Kamper and the leader of opposition, Anders Ussing are willing to do anything to get into power.

Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl), Asbjørn Juncker (Sigurd Holmen le Dous) and Mathias Borch (Nikolaj Lie Kaas)



There are several positives in this third and final season of Forbrydelsen. For starters, it has patched up the mistake in the second season, that is, the political sub-plot is connected to the main plot, that is, kidnapping of Emilie Zeuthen. I also liked the choice of the financial crisis as the background, which affects everyone around, particularly some of the characters in this season. For those who loved Forbrydelsen's first season for the complications in Lund's personal life and her job, the focus is back, with Lund being a to-be grandmother in a few more days and at the same time, she gets into a relationship with Mathias Borch. Nearly every character in this season is filled with problems: Robert Zeuthen's ex-wife screams at him all the time, the board of his company tries to backstab him by relocating the company's operations to Asia; the incumbent prime minister Kristian Kamper has his whole party against him, has no idea on who to trust; Lennart Brix, Lund's chief is under extreme pressure and for a change, he supports Lund throughout and with all this, the case still moves on.



However, while some might praise such events, I always feel that too much focus on the personal lives of the characters in a crime story is digression and in my opinion, this season could have been halved had it not been for all those. I felt several events popped up out of nowhere, changing the entire facts of the case. Moreover, I also felt that it is nearly impossible for a young boy to write down nearly all licence plate numbers that came into his town in Jutland – which became a crucial document for the police. I read in Wikipedia before the release of season three that it is going to be about crimes in the financial circle which got me really excited but it seemingly is only an ordinary crime committed on a person who happens to be in the financial circle. Moreover, regarding the political angle of the story, I was quite disappointed that the politicians from the previous seasons were completely ignored. I thought since it involved national politics, Thomas Buch might have a more significant role in this series.  



To summarise, there was nothing so special about the third season, except for the fact that it is the last one and Sarah Lund is never going to come again. It wasn't too bad either, I liked the investigations, the various twists although in most cases, there is no way that such events could've been predicted by the viewer. I also felt that it had a fine ending, leaving some of the ends to be filled by the viewer. I'd give a rating of six, for the final season.



Rating – 6/10



Have a nice day,

Andy

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the review. I thought this was best of the three. The ending was mildly devastating to me. Whether it was going to be resolved (at least Lund's reputation salvaged a little)was unknown, and would depend on what Borch did with the alibi tip Lund only touched upon in conversation with him. It is tantalising. Will Borch find the 108/312 discrepancy on his own? It was also so unsatifying that so may lies just got buried - like THE photograph of Heljby's killer, in the act! In a way we all want justice and resolution, so it is frustrating that it is all lost.

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