The Darkness

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.

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.

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.

We watched other Icelandic crime series before so we had high expectations, especially seeing Douglas Henshall's name amongst the actors, but we were soon disappointed. The conversations were absurd at points, serious plotholes, unexplored themes. The acting was terrible, especially Lena Olin. It was theatrical and ridiculous. The only actor who was almost good was Jack Bannon. We really wanted to believe that it could get better as we watch but no; it got worse and worse, to the point where we could not watch the last 20 minutes. Everything was cringe. It is sad that this story was butchered, it could have been good if it was done differently.

I wás a fan of Lena Olin. She had a convincing role in Havana, but she and her coactors play horribly bad in The Darkness. The feeling of discomfort is also created by the choice of the makers to let English be the language in this Islandic story. The whole setting is so not-convincing and laughable at time because of the overacting, that I stopped watching. A pity because these series are well shot in this beautiful picturesque country. But the dialogue is also total crap. Not logical at all. Olin should sue the makers to contract her while not getting support of a good director. But, okay, it was her choice to sign the contract.