From gritty characters to ‘designer porn’, this is what makes Nordic noir TV so watchable

What do the TV series Broadchurch, Marcella and Mare of Easttown have in common?

All of these top-notch shows have been influenced by the Nordic or Scandinavian genre.

And its tropes of disturbing crimes, complex police investigations, bleak urban settings and fantastic winter sweaters have become so recognizable that they almost seem like a parody. Don’t you believe us? See Australia’s Deadloch.

Deadloch is a murder mystery parody series set in Tasmania. (Supplied: Prime Video)

The genre first emerged in the 2000s in Denmark, with the global success of The Killing and then The Bridge, and has spawned countless international imitators.

So how did Denmark, with its population of less than 6 million people, create a genre that reshaped the global television industry?

And just as importantly, what are the Nordic noir shows you can’t miss this summer?

A carefully planned move

Nordic film noir was not born from the brainstorm of a visionary creator.

In fact, it was the result of direct intervention by the Danish government and film schools who were concerned about the quality of Danish productions.

“It was carefully planned from the early to mid-1990s to the early 2000s,” Tobias Hochscherf, professor of Audiovisual Media at the University of Applied Sciences in Kiel, Germany, tells ABC RN Rear Vision.

Film schools began to change their teaching practices, including introducing a concept called scaffolding, which required students to create within a specific set of rules.

“It’s absurd that if you reduce the level of freedom you have for a given task, you become more creative,” says Professor Hochscherf.

The result was Dogma (Dogma) 95, a film movement bound by a set of rules created by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg whose goal was to return Danish cinema to its roots and recover it from the cunning of Hollywood.

Vinterberg’s 1998 film The Celebration and von Trier’s The Idiots from the same year are considered some of the movement’s earliest products.

Professor Hochscherf says Dogme 95 later made its way to television. He was particularly influential in the way DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster, created drama series.

Danish productions hire completely new crews for each show. (Unsplash: brands and people )

In fact, DR developed its own set of “dogmas” after producers spent time in the US studying crime dramas like NYPD Blue and adapted them to the Danish context.

They also focused on fostering local talent by hiring a totally different team for each new show.

“(They say) we want to have two very successful seasons, or even one, and then have a new production with a completely new team,” says Professor Hochscherf.

“And therefore, new people have the opportunity to produce, write, direct and film.”

the murder

The seminal moment for Danish television came in 2007, when The Killing first aired on DR.

The show centers on a troubled detective in Copenhagen, Sarah Lund, as she tries to solve the brutal murder of a young woman.

“The Killing was a breakthrough,” says Susan Turnbull, senior lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong.

The first season of Killing typified what became the Nordic noir aesthetic. (Supplied: SBS)

Then DR, with Swedish public broadcaster SVT, premiered The Bridge in 2011, which follows a Danish detective and a Swedish detective who are forced to work together when a body is found on the bridge linking the two countries.

“Those two (The Killing and The Bridge) side by side are what all commentators have subsequently regarded as the moment when what is now called Nordic noir became Nordic noir,” says Professor Turnbull.

So what characterizes a Nordic noir show?

Aesthetics are one thing: dark, faded colors, landscapes of ruined city outskirts, and what Professor Hochscherf calls “design porn.”

“You have these beautiful homes and great eating areas,” he says.

“It kind of breaks with the idea that Scandinavia is a very welcoming society with very strong social ties.”

The Bridge explores the personal lives of the two lead detectives, Saga Norén and Martin Rohde. (Supplied: SBS)

Another hallmark of a Nordic noir series is the complexity of the characters, with shows always exploring both the personal and professional lives of the main characters.

“If we think, for example, of The Bridge, we also see the interaction between a Danish policeman and a Swedish policeman,” says Professor Hochscherf.

“Because you have all that time, you can address these cultural differences, but also the different characters, in more detail.”

Nordic noir cinema goes global

The Killing, like other Nordic dramas, was shown in Australia on SBS from the beginning.

You’re not sure where to start? Here are some ideas:

The murder (Denmark)
The Bridge (Denmark/Sweden)
Borgen (Denmark)
Thin ice (Sweden)
Midnight Sun (Sweden/France)
Trapped (Iceland)
Jordskott (Sweden)
Busy (Norway)
Broadchurch (United Kingdom)
Mysterious road (Australia)
Deadloch (Australia)

But it didn’t reach a global audience until it aired on BBC Four in the United Kingdom, says Anne Marit Waade, associate professor of media and journalism at Aarhus University in Denmark.

“(The BBC) had been buying American content, it was quite expensive and they were looking for something else,” he says.

“(The Killing) was not produced with the ambition of selling it internationally, (so) the beginning of the series was quite cheap.”

These shows were quickly followed by other DR series, which were not necessarily crime dramas but, with their now characteristic Nordic flavour, still found worldwide success.

For example, Borgen, a drama about a politician who unexpectedly becomes Denmark’s first female prime minister, has been seen in more than 100 countries.

“It was less about Denmark and more generally about democracy and integrity,” says Professor Hochscherf.

“And therefore, I think it could be counted internationally.”

Adaptations and remakes

Denmark’s neighbors quickly sought to take advantage of the growing international interest in Scandinavian television.

Professor Turnbull says Norway, Sweden and Iceland began producing high-quality dramas that attracted similar audiences.

She says the influence of Nordic noir spread to other crime dramas, such as the UK’s Broadchurch, which was inspired by the genre.

“You can see all these ramifications in different countries as people adapt, assimilate and create their own version of what a Nordic film noir would be like.”

Professor Turnbull says one of the best examples of a local take on the genre comes from Australia, in the form of Amazon Prime’s murder mystery comedy Deadloch.

More Rear Vision stories:

The show, created by comedians Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney, follows two very different detectives who are forced to work together to solve a series of murders in the titular Tasmanian town.

It is the formula of The Bridge, which has inspired so many international remakes. But, as Professor Turnbull says, “it turns the Nordic noir genre on its head”.

“What Deadloch did so wonderfully was what (The Bridge did) with the two detectives. But in this case, it was two women: one from Tasmania and then one from the Northern Territory,” he says.

“And it highlighted that… cultural difference in very interesting ways.”