The Valhalla Murders: Episodes 1 & 2 – BBC4

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?

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It's the Custard TV Podcast!

Luke and Matt from The Custard TV invited me on their podcast. We had a blast talking about new shows on the BBC, ITV and Netflix. Despite the shows themselves being a little lackluster, and one in particular a huge disappointment, we battled through what I reckon was probably a cursed podcast. Between the internet being down, a frightful 24 hour sickness bug, and a lost edit, it was a terrific team effort to pull it off!
Listen to my shocking attempt at their fiendish quiz BoxMaster, and find out which TV characters we’d like to spend a day with. Listen now on the website, ask Google or Alexa to find it for you, or check wherever you find your podcasts.
If you want to hear a particular show we reviewed, check the timestamps below:
TIME STAMPS
00:07.43  REVIEW – The Victim – Episode 1  (BBC1/BBC iPlayer)
00:17.00 REVIEW – The Widow – Episode 1 (ITV/ITV HUB)
00:26.34- REVIEW – Don’t Forget the Driver – Episode 1 (BBC2/BBC iPlayer)
00:35.58 – REVIEW – Quicksand – Episode 1 (NETFLIX)
00:46.23 – BoxMaster – The Ultimate TV Quiz
00:55.25 – REVIEW – Barry  – Episode 1 (Sky Atlantic/NOWTV)
Thanks to the guys for having me on and letting me contribute to the site. Here’s to many more years of talking telly.
 

'Trapped: Series 2' – Episodes 3 & 4

This is a full review of episodes 3 and 4 of Trapped so don’t read on unless you’re up to date.
Welcome to this week’s episodes of Trapped aka racist Lord of the Rings, well sort of.  The Hammer of Thor group are in the ascendency, racing around in the north embroiled in various criminal enterprises, large and small. The director must have heard my complaints about the first episodes; they’ve saved the greatest landscape shots for this week as we see Skuli evade the search team and murder a dog. Two dog deaths now in just 3 episodes. My top tip: never be a dog in a Scandi noir.
The Case
Incarcerated Torfi reveals a vague threat about “what happens today” which gives a real sense of pressure on the whole episode. Could the Hammer of Thor group have set a bomb at the location the Mayor will use to sign the controversial deal with American Aluminium? Could it be another attack on the plant? Rabble-rouser Ketill is delighted to be in front of the TV news cameras on his release from custody but desperate for his son to be found safe. On reflection Skuli’s white horse was a poor choice in a muddy green landscape. When Skuli is finally found he’s given up hiding as he is as sick as a dog (although not quite as sick as the one he stabbed previously). Could this be exposure as he’s been on the mountainside for days, or something more sinister. I immediately thought poison, but I’ve been conditioned by detective dramas. Aha! I was right, and we’ve seen him drinking from a stream. Is this the ecological disaster the angry farmers were predicting?
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'The Lava Field'

This is a super-short Icelandic drama series a friend pointed out to me, and wondered why I hadn’t watched it yet. Fortunately it’s on UK Netflix, and so short you could watch the lot in an afternoon.
Welcome to The Lava Field (the original Icelandic title is Hraunið. In suitable Scandi-noir fashion it grabs the attention straight away with swift shotgun action. This version of the mysterious island is filled with extremely neat well-lit houses, beautiful boxes, like candles against the black bubbly lava field backdrop. The vast majority of the shots are bright and wide; you need to watch it wearing sunglasses. The brightness is throughout – both interiors and exteriors. I suppose Iceland has a complicated relationship with daylight and the sun, in a country where it doesn’t set for four weeks in the summer.
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'Modus'

Modus is familiar even before it begins. It’s an eight part Swedish crime drama shown on BBC4 in the Saturday 9pm slot usually reserved for foreign langauge drama. The credits are familiar again – a nod to the skyline of The Bridge and the grizzly but striking black and white body parts of Trapped. It’s a new tradition that dramas especially must have stylish opening credits, extra points for slow motion and an air of chilly bleakness.
So this is Christmas, in a snow-covered pine forest. A delightful Christmas card scene but it’s cold, lonely and frightening. Euro horror merchants the Brothers Grimm taught us from an early age that monsters live in the forest and they were right. In this case, in a caravan.
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