Trapped

The murder drama set is an isolated small town is a well-worn trope, really just an extended version of the locked room mystery, or the country house killing. But when the small town is in northern Iceland, that's an unusually claustrophobic setting and 'Trapped' uses its location perfectly. When the winter storms come in, you feel cold just watching; when the thaw comes, it feels visibly warmer. The stunning scenery is also used to good effect, not least during the chilling opening credits. What I also liked about this story was that, although bad things were done, the motives (and competencies) of those involved are ultimately revealed to be fit to the scale of the world in which they have happened: the story doesn't ultimately depend on some deranged force of pure evil, or inter-galactic conspiracy. The sense of mutual hurt felt in a place where everybody knows everybody else, even if they sure don't all like one another, is also well conveyed. Perhaps there's just a little too much of taciturn people being gloomy in the dark for a perfect drama: it takes time to get to know the protagonists, although perhaps that's just the Icelandic way. Overall, it's very good, and makes one keen to return to Iceland, though probably I'll choose the summer season.

The lead character is engaging and you'll feel for him. Right from his hair to the way he walks to the way he dresses is all so real. And so is his life. The world created is so lovely you'd want to keep going back. Thoroughly enjoying it.

Being a fan of Nordic noir I thought I would give this series a go and I'm glad I did. Trapped is every bit as good as anything Icelands Scandinavian neighbours have given us. Set in a small port on the Icelandic coast a spate of murders take place taking the local police force out of there comfort zone. Not that this stops the local head of police played by the excellent Olafa Olafson. With no help from the mainland due to the freezing weather he single handily attempts to track down the perpetrator. Trapped is well written,acted and beautifully shot so much so it's the first show that's so cold it makes me want to put a jumper on just watching it! Highly recommended 9/10

Ófærð is an amazing, dark, slow-burning drama, where you feel the tension building from the very first moment. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson depicted a single-father (for the time-being), living with his parents-in-law, working as the chief of police with so much details and such psychological depth that it leaves the watcher in awe. He is strong but easily-hurt, he is tormented by his love to his wife and still naivelly believes that maybe, just maybe everything will be fine. The story - wow, so many paths that it takes us on, such tangled connections between closed-knit society of a small community. The scenery - breath-taking; I'm from Poland so we do have some strong winters, but the creepy atmosphere of being completelly cut-off by the snow fall is something I don't know :) And it worked for me - I was binge-watching the series with 38 degrees Celsius outside and I felt frozen to the bone :) It was a combination of the story and scenery that made the film so thrilling. Overall - great acting, good story and somewhat surprising ending.

I was hesitant at first, as I find myself increasingly reluctant to watch anything where I must rely on unblinking attention to the lower region of the screen to catch subtitles in English, (myself being woefully and completely ignorant of the spoken language of Iceland, in this case) However, after the first episode I was hooked. The acting was excellent, the characters believable, the Icelandic backdrop eerie, melancholy and the mountainous backdrop achingly beautiful. I found myself fully invested in the outcome and, indeed, stayed up well past my bedtime to watch as many episodes as I could. Cheers ! 10 out of 10 in my humble opinion.