‘Forbrydelsen’ soothes a Scandinavian noir obsession

In our all-consuming quest to explore Nordic noir, my wife and I continue both to see what the streaming site MHZ Choice has to offer and to rifle through old DVD collections that we never got around to watching.

One recent DVD view? "The Killing," or in Danish "Forbrydelsen," which translates to "Crime."

Released in 2007, the 20-episode series set in Copenhagen, follows the character Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl) as she prepares to leave her job as a police detective and retire to Sweden with her boyfriend and son. Yet she is recruited to stick around to help her replacement Jan Meyer (Søren Malling) work on the murder of a young woman.

Although I'm pretty sure the series, which was created and co-written by Søren Sveistrup, could have been done in half as many episodes, "Forbrydelsen" is a fascinating look not just at police procedure but also Danish politics and the detrimental effects that both crime and the ensuing investigation have on the victim's family.

To steam, the series is available on a range of sites.

By the way, "Forbrydelsen" was remade as "The Killing" in 2011 and set in Seattle. I'm not sure if we'll check it out, though, as we're more interested in the Scandinavian originals. Up next: the Norwegian series "Varg Veum."