Fatal Crossing - As Garotas da Balsa

I can't even begin to describe what a massive disappointment this show is, no amount of words would be too much.

I remember reading an uncomplimentary review and thinking 'it cannot possibly be this bad, I watched many shows that others thought to be bad but I enjoyed', and I started watching the first episode, and it looked bright and well made and I thought 'this is going to be an interesting watch' but then I got to episode two and it's all slow talking and slow thinking and slow standing and slow looking at things, and there is no reality in which a child goes missing and the police doesn't even bother to investigate, that's when I realised I was watching not only the most boring show in the history of television but also the most unbelievable one.

I hope you read this and go 'this was the most boring review I ever read'. I'm sorry, I was only trying to give you an idea what it's like watching this trash.

I seen some reviews that were critical of the program being far too slow. Apparently, they are entertained by the procedural programs in which after a crime is committed in the first 10 minutes the rest of episode is spent gathering facts and suspects until the last 5 minutes when an arrest is made. Police work often is far more extensive requiring days, weeks or longer to arrive at a resolution. The weakness in this program was the potential police coverup which has become something of a cliche. Also, another cliche is potentially attaching a crime to the wrong individual. Otherwise, this particular program was very entertaining.

Journalist Nora Sand has to step back from her prestigious London job after getting romantically involved with a person she was investigating. She returns to her home town in Denmark and shortly after her arrival an unknown person places an envelope containing photographs in her letter box. They are of two girls who vanished from a ferry on a school trip to England in 1980. She determines to investigate; in the process uncovering various long hidden secrets. At the same time another teenage girl goes missing; is there a connection?

I thought this was a decent enough mystery series. It may not be the best of the ever growing number of Nordic dramas available to watch in the UK but the story is solid and had some good twists that I hadn't really expected. The protagonist is a little difficult to like; especially early on as she manages to annoy many people she interacts with. However by the time she was in danger towards the end I did worry about how things would turn out. Early on it is a little slow moving but the finale is genuinely tense and claustrophobic. The cast does a solid job bringing the characters to life. Overall a decent enough addition to the Nordic Noir genre; worth a watch if you enjoy such series.

These comments are based on watching the series in Danish with English subtitles.

I had really been looking forward to this, nordic crime, as so often before, and hopefully as good as usual.

But despite a good story, based on a popular book, a cast that seems to deliver, even if not big stars, it ends up boring, because so little happens, way to many empty pauses, and characters that stare empty into the void. If the series was shorted by one third, it would work.

On top of that, lines that is too much, that no one would say in real life, and is too clumsy. Sometime I wonder if the book has a deeper layer, that the movie never dig enough into and we therefore do not understand. Instead we hear actors say sentences that is not really connected to anything and sound like a cliche.

It is not all bad, after all I watched it to the end. It's just never really good. Maybe I should read the book.

So they skimped on an editor - a shame. Could've worked in four episodes. Way too slow paced. The last two episodes, where you'd expect it to become exciting, 'thrilling' it completely deflates and leaves the viewers in this household yawning and glancing at their phones. The author surely can't be pleased with the result? The actors all do their best to make this glacier-moving narrative work, but have apparently all been told to speak excruciatingly slowly. If you have the time, then give it a go, but if you don't need to have everything repeated and regurgitated for you again and again, then give it a miss.