The Darkness

Some absolutely great parts here - the photography, the field locations, Reykjavik looks beautiful. There are also some weak red-herrings in the plot. Also, some real acting talent is available but Doug Henshall from "Shetland" is completely wasted in a nothing and pointless role. But it's all squandered on a poor and poorly stitched-together narrative that felt rushed to a conclusion. Too many plot lines went nowhere, too many ideas thrown in (misogyny, indigenous and migrant bigotry), character motivations were poorly articulated and the lead actress had a cryptically explained personality and background too say the least.

Really disappointing.

I'm Icelandic and worked crew on The Darkness. This was a big one for us, with many local people involved - all the way through to post. Even though it's in English, it still feels Icelandic to me. The silence, the light, the landscape - the feeling.

Most people don't know, but the first scripts had Huldakona - real hidden people - and I loved that. The director tried hard to include things that are deeply Icelandic, even if some parts were cut later (I don't know why). There was more of our culture in this story than what ended up on screen.

I just hope people stop attacking it. If there's no season two, we all lose. It was something good for Iceland. Don't kill it from pride.

Was expecting a cheesy theatrical Icelandic cop drama but was pleasantly suprised to find a beautiful, suspensful and unpredictable series. The Icelandic actors really stood out as proper good even though they were not acting in their mother tongue. Björn Hlynur and Thorvaldur were great!

Lena Olin was a bit stiff at first but as the series plays out her character deepens and her acting starts fitting the character better. Bannon was great!

Cinematography and lighting was top notch and the aerials were superb in the low light conditions. Street lights, snow and tire tracks are a suprisingly pretty combo, who knew?

Definitely recommend.

Everyone who reviewed this series so far has a valid point and, taken their individual pint of view, is accurate in his or her review. Not much to add here other than, for me, it was a huge disappointment. Only the addition of Jack Bannon, kept me from watching the series to it's torturous end.

What really got to me was the incredibly bad depiction of the Icelandic police force. If taken at face value, every policeman and policewoman is either an utter moron or too lazy to work. Everything in this series related to police work, police procedures and internal police management is so wrong, one questions the sanity of the person who wrote the script.

This could have been an excellent psychological twister-thriller, if the writer(s) wouldn't have assumed that the general viewing audience is comprised of morons as well.

3 Stars for the otherwise good, not great, performances of the lead actors and, of course, Jack Bannon.

I normally don't leave reviews but felt compelled to write one after watching this series.

The topic itself is an important one. However the execution of the series is only for effect without any background.

The plot starts interesting but quickly gets worse. The last episode is just plain ridiculous to the point where I could hardly bare the stupidity of the plot.. There are gross inconsistencies in the story, the dialog is minimal and the contents just get worse. I watched it with friends and we all felt cheated of a good story in the end. Do not watch it. This is a complete waste of time.