Monster

Monster seems to fall under a sub-genre of Scandinavian noir that I've run into far too often: A crime drama set in rural Finland or Norway or Sweden that involves an ultra religious sect. Invariably, these shows have a large number of unlikable, damaged characters doing unlikable things. As a result, it becomes almost impossible to identify with or root for most of the characters. In Monster, even the detectives are hard to root for, with all their flawed and destructive behavior.

I quickly realized that I was getting little enjoyment out of watching the series. Yet, I somehow felt an obligation to see it through to the end. It was like a bad medicine that I had to take in the hopes of finally getting a payoff at the end. When I finished the final episode, I felt like I had run a marathon. I did in fact like the ending, but the journey there it was so filled with bleak and cynical characters that it was a joyless ride.

I watched the series on the PBS Masterpiece platform. Another strange thing about it was that the episode previews that would appear as you start each new episode were often inaccurate in their descriptions of the episode. Strange. While Monster wasn't terrible, I gave it a 6 and would not recommend.

Monster draws on a long tradition of Nordic family sagas to weave a tale of a contemporary investigation into the murder and ritualistic burial of a young member of a religious cult.

Hedda Hersoug is a police officer on leave in her home town. She's there to look after her ailing father (and escape her ailing marriage), but is drawn into the murder investigation. Soon, another team of investigators arrive to assist with the inquiry. Hedda clashes with Joel Dreyer who is dismissive of her credentials and her local knowledge.

Hedda and Joel eventually manage to work together, only to reveal a connection between the present-day murders and the unexplained disappearance of Hedda's mother when she was a child.

The series explores the entanglements of family and community and the efforts to preserve and avenge family honour, often--as in the sagas--by violent means. The performances are understated and powerful and mirrored in the stark landscape where silence, like snow, blankets much. The character of Margot, a local crime matriarch, played by Goruld Mauseth, was a stand-out for me.

I love Nordic Noir and this is a fairly watchable entry into that canon. Unfortunately, the implausible plot, wooden dialogue and plotlines that are too confusing to hold this snowy saga tightly together, prevent me from awarding it any more than 6 out of 10. The problem is it's trying too hard to be weird and quirky to really engage on any plausible level. The two lead detectives are weird and quirky, the locals are just weird and the plot is lifted from about a dozen better films and tv shows. Mysterious blonde teenage girl is murdered in a ritualistic manner in small Hicksville town and said murder is investigated by inadequate local cops and fish out of water city cops. The city cops both dislike each other and then through mutual blackmail work together to solve a current slew of murders which may be linked to murders 30 years previously. The cinematography is great and the scenery breathtaking but a handful of good action set pieces, including a machine gun shootout at a drugs factory, cannot save this chilly potboiler. On a positive note, the acting is pretty good but the dialogue is very stilted and strange which adds to the off kilter feel of the show. None of the characters are very likeable and seem to have no issues with breaking or twisting the law to their own ends - and that's just the cops! I did like the portrayal of Hedda, a very unglamorous female cop who at least had some dimension to her character. Could have been so much better, the potential was there!

Monster tries to make the most of the brilliant, mystical Artic circle, but in the end, for me, the script and pace was a massive let down. Monster is the starts with a missing persons investigation. The lead investigators are a combative couple - a prodigal daughter with a curious past who has returned to care for her ailing father, and a young detective battling his own personal demons. Missing turns to murder and the body count rapidly multiplies as the layers of the small community are peeled away to reveal infidelity, religious zealotism, drug trafficking and more. The investigators flounder as the looping plotlines entangle them and they push up against their own inadequacies (at a certain point one concedes that they are pretty hopeless at the job of detecting). The cinematography is lovely and some of the performances are compelling, but the pace is inconsistent and neither the undercurrent of mysticism nor the tightening circle of a murder investigation are fully realised. As the plot tangents multiplied, my suspension of disbelief was challenged by a few too many convenient coincidences, not to mention police work that would make the Keystone Cops feel like an elite force. I'm pretty sure that a 21st century Norwegian police force, even a small one, in the remote northern reaches, wouldn't settle for repeated crime scene violations and un-bagged, unsecured evidence being traipsed about the countryside. I swear I'm not being pedantic. It's those kind of details that serve as a huge distraction, particularly when the plot itself is at risk of sinking. I think Monster tries too hard to do too much, and in the end become so muddied that none of the storylines feel satisfactorily told.

So 'Monster' First of all: This is 'Nordic-horror' We are at 'the Bridge' with Sara, and Saga and humans mutilated for ..fun. Yes, the recipe for 'Nordic-horror' is definitively in the game. But can 'we' cope with more brutal deaths in desolated bare landscapes? From viewing 1. episode, i would say; Jajamensam (yes-we-can:) It has its slow parts.. Not quite as slow as the Islandic horror series 'En Mörder ibandt os' -where we 'famously' not only had to watch the police man brush his teeth, but also watch how he floss each and every one.. -Buuuut we are about there in some scenes.. The environment is more gloomy than even David Lynch, but HE is definitely also *there*. Be a ware of that- some times fat Russian singing women appears for NO reason what-so-ever..! I BET you, if you asked the instructor, he would admit a homice to David Lynch :P So strange things intervene with the plot, and that can be annoying as .... You really need to bolt your concentration-cap securely to the head, and sort the inputs in two buckets: A) That is ..weirdness B) That is important for the plot I kind of wish someone had done that before the release.. But mind you, then it could have been one episode shorter, and slap me behind, if writers aren't paid pr. episode.. Why watch it? Because of the suspense, the oddness of how Scandinavian's does their killings(!) and the landscapes. So far the characters has not convinced me enough. I would say episode 1 is a minor 7 So 6+