
The killing danish tv series online tv#
The city in the American northwest is perhaps not as chilly as Copenhagen, but it is still evocative of the dismal Denmark gray of winter, and ever-brewing storms that played such a large role in the original Danish TV series. It’s therefore no surprise that when American production companies sat up and took notice, deciding to create their own (not as good, but also not terrible) version of The Killing in 2011, they placed the story of a girl’s body being discovered in the trunk of a submerged car in gloomy Seattle. Gråbøl gets numerous opportunities to gaze out over storm-swept seas in classic “troubled detective who has seen it all” mode, and suffice to say that wardrobe and the show’s costumers relied heavily on grays and blacks for The Killing, as they did for many of these Danish TV shows. Her character squares off against the equally intimidating Lars Mikkelson, who plays a mayoral candidate with ties to the death in the title of the show.

Shots of the chilly, iron waters of the Øresund and the city of Copenhagen presented in grays and washed-out, blue-tinted hues provide backgrounds for endless close-ups of brooding detectives, most prominently the formidable Sofie Gråbøl. The original, Danish version first appeared in 2007, and was the first of many police dramas set against forbidding, gloomy Danish landscapes. The other likely candidate to have begun most non-Scandinavian viewers’ journey into Danish TV series is The Killing.

It’sa story filled with political intrigue centering around the nation’s first fictional female prime minister (reality has since caught up) striving to balance her family life with the complexities of running a modern nation under a coalition government.Īs PM Brigitte Nyborg, actor Sidse Babett Knudsen portrayed her navigating the power struggles between right and left, progressives and reactionary parties, and the scheming men and women around her as she rises to power.Īt the same time that she is gaining power and seeking to control the sprawling and contentious government, her connections with her family become more and more tenuous, making her a woman pulled in all directions trying to hold it all together for not only a household, but for an entire nation. Most importantly, are they hiring non-Danish actors and will they pay for my flight? The birth of Denmark TV seriesįor most viewers from outside of Scandinavia, the first shows from Denmark that they are likely to have come into contact with are probably one of two series, the first being 2010’s Borgen. What do Danish television producers do differently from other nations’ purveyors of series programming? How do they keep coming up with hits enjoyed by audiences around the world? Hulu, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney and scores of other platforms are snapping up series at an unprecedented pace.īut if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that there’s one nation in particular that has been making a massively outsize impact on the landscape of modern television in recent years: that would be the tiny Scandinavian nation of Denmark.įrom productions like Borgen to The Bridge to The Killing, along with newer releases like Ride Upon the Storm starring Lars Mikkelson (of The Witcher and House of Cards) Danish TV seems to be an almost non-stop hit machine. The opening up of the entertainment landscape to all the foreign, independent, and low-budget television series and one-off programs that are out there these days means dozens if not hundreds of new series get green-lighted each year.

Not only are consumers presented with an ever-expanding menu of shows to choose from - actors, writers, directors and other creatives are reveling in the exponentially increased outlets where they can shop around their work. Television has gotten radically more democratized in recent years, and that’s a great thing for you and me, the consumers.īut we’re not the only ones it’s good for. From shows like The Killing to Borgen to The Bridge, viewers all over the world are eating up Danish TV series.
