The Oslo Killing

The previous comment is written by someone I believe couldn't have actually watched this entire series. While frustrating that the case is still unsolved, I found it to be so interesting and truthful. This murder touched me. This beautiful woman brutally murdered in front of her 4 year old daughter who was brave enough to share her story. Well, I thought the series was somehow gentle while also not holding back how gruesome and cruel this crime was.

It probably could have been edited down to two hours or so, but is still a fascinating documentary, following a woman as she tries to "bring closure" to the case of her mother's brutal murder; an event that she half-remembers witnessing in 1974 when she was only four years old. The characters - family, police, etc - are all given plenty of space to express themselves, and grow more likeable as the story progresses. No spoilers, but there's a whiff of political interference here and there.

The footage is pretty much all manipulated, scripted, rehearsed and/or staged, in the cheapest and most transparent way. Supposedly intimate and personal conversations between Norwegians take place before multiple cameras (and their crews), and often in an uncomfortably forced English, presumably for the sake of the US network audience. Scene after scene, characters talk about what may or may not happen in an upcoming scene or episode, but little or nothing of consequence ever happens. The slightest trace of substance gets stretched out beyond all conceivable limits, resulting in an excruciatingly boring and repetitive six episodes in which any and all semblance of pursuing the truth has been compromised, betrayed and sold out. The few uneventful "revelations" could have been covered in ten minutes, and the only "mystery" left is why anyone thought doing it this way would pass for entertainment.