White Sands

This is not a crime series. This is Romeo and Juliet, located on the sea shore of Denmark. After the classic of all series - Forbrydelsen - new Scandinavian crime series have been produced almost factorywise. Much of these are pretty similar. Highly entertaining, but easily forgotten once you press the 'Next' button. Hvide Sande has all the ingredients of those series: two cops, a young murder victim, and a remote rural region, inhabited by obscure and secretive characters. But Hvide Sande weaves these into a Grand Love Story. Usually, when you watch a crime series, you can't wait to watch the next episode, to unravel the mystery and solve the crime. In Hvide Sande, it's impossible to turn off the screen for quite another reason: it would be like abruptly stopping the most tender of kisses. The dialogues between the two protagonist are on a literary level. And sharp and witty on top. The psychological elaboration of the characters is impressive, making you feel connected to them all the way through the story. This psychological depth characterizes the story as a whole as well. We don't see the usual hardened thugs and creepy psychopaths. Hvide Sande takes us instead to elderly homes, hippie communities, real estate agencies, and university libraries. I read a Danish reviewer here who states that the portrayal of Danish rural life in Hvide Sande is utterly unrealistic. Well, that's a fact. The series unveils a romantic world that even in Jutland never existed. But where we all would love to be, and never would want to leave. Just like the kiss the male protagonist describes. A kiss that never happened. But that made him forget time and space, and that he wanted to never end.

Last decade or so has seen the rise of Scandinavian series where events occur in a smaller area or community, (e.g. Morden i Sandhamn, Sommerdahl) where beautiful local landscape and dense human contacts have a different approach than in cities or international communication, plus enabling less known actors to star.

Hvide Sande is another example of this, where the beauty of Jutland West Coast is revealed and the solving of the crime itself is not the primary reason for the Series. The plot is yet not too smooth, with several cliches, and I can´t say that the leading performers provided wow-performances (at times, it was funnier to watch the dog... :)) But as the motives of the crime itself and the round-up were interesting and I did not guess the wrongdoer, I can easily rate it with 7 points.

PS Such series are apparently meant to boost tourism - not a single rainy day in the Series (as in Sommerdahl)) but those who have lived-visited Denmark, even in summer, know that it is a big exception :)

This series is obviously made to promote Hvide Sande a coastal town with lots of german tourists. That is why Carsten Bjørnlund portrays a german policeman and there is a lot of german dialogues as well.

This is not a typical dark underplayed crime/drama series that we are used to see from the nordic countries. In fact this is the opposite.

The story is not very interesting and not convincing, but the acting is pretty good and the chemistry between the mainactors are good as well.

For me there is to much product placement and a weak story in this series.

This series required one to leave one's brain at the entrance. Fully awake, this would be impossible to watch as it has so many plot holes, coincidences, fortuitous events, impossibilities.

Added to this was the fact that the murderer was clear from the beginning of episode five and there was very little tension left to keep one watching.

The premiss was a cliché - mismatched couple who dislike each other have to pretend to be husband and wife. Their grubbing around and interrogations of locals were enough to raise suspicions that they weren't what they seemed and they did.

I stuck with it to the bitter end but advise others to see something better if it's available.

After watching the first two episodes of this new danish Tv2 serie i'm intrigued enough to see more. It feels like a slightly better and upgraded version of the recent danish tv serie 'Sommerdahl'

Two brought together cops man/woman goes undercover in Hvide Sande a danish coastal town were a german surfer was murdered the year before, and the case is still unsolved.

They now have to operate in a town where everyone is suspicious and no one talks.

Love the german/danish collaberation and the always typical danish local humor.

Carsten Bjørnlunds acting is good.

Check it out.