Velkominn guys! Welcome to Iceland, or indeed welcome back if you’re a fan of Trapped. Exciting Netflix news this week in that department as we look forward to a new sequel season titled Entrapped. This nice noir news also neatly heralds the start of The Valhalla Murders, similarly co-produced by Netflix, but available in the UK to watch on BBC4 in their classic Saturday night Scandi slot.
To stalwarts like me it feels familiar as we watch a man meet a grizzly end in an icy harbour, but this is not the backwoods of Trapped – this is the hustle bustle of modern Reykjavik with a cop who has attitude in spades and reminds me for all good reasons Sarah Lund (the original Scandi icon from The Killing). Our detective is the charming, resolute, and self-assured Katrin ‘Kata’ Gunnarsdottir (played by Nina Dogg Filippusdottir) who, at least in the first episode, looks comfortably in control both at home with her son Kari and ex-husband Egill and at work dealing with her colleagues and her journalist pals. How refreshing! A female detective with her life going well and a promotion due to her any day now.
But no! As the serial killer’s victims stack up, so Kata’s life begins to unravel. She’s snubbed at work in favour of Helga, who is made Head of Criminal Investigations. Kata has been in CI for 10 years and Helga is the new girl from Narcotics. She’s younger than Kata and far less experienced but is mates with the National Commissioner. Cue Kata, seething furiously, being ignored and talked over a series of offices. Magnus (played by Sigurdur Skulason), the guy older from the Metropolitan Police temporarily in charge, looks relieved to be stepping back and basically tells Kata to suck it up and get on with it. Will unravelling this knotty case be her stepping stone back to the limelight?
Continue reading “The Valhalla Murders: Episodes 1 & 2 – BBC4”