Den som dræber

Recommended and indeed gifted to me by my brother, "Those Who Kill" is another Nordic Noir series putting together a male and female lead to hunt down serial killers in Denmark.

I've just watched the first episode bringing together Katrine Jensen, a young, rebellious and ambitious detective and an outside profiler turned lecturer, Thomas Schaeffer, with unsatisfactory experience of working with Katrine's Super on previous cases. I can't think why, when in this episode, one relatively minor mistake apart, he uses his instincts to track down the murderer just in time to rescue Katrine from his clutches.

The man/woman detective duo fronting the show isn't original, especially in this field neither is the plotting which sees the killer victimising, breaking down and torturing his female prey and Katrine then quickly becoming his next target. The visual style is hardly different from its predecessors either with grisly crime scenes and the pitting of wits between good and evil filmed in a grey, grimy backdrop.

I found the story rather raced to its conclusion and took too many giant leaps in the continuity process with some unaccountable actions by all the major participants. That said, if was grittily realistic and reasonably gripping throughout. I'm sort of hoping there will be no romantic entanglement between the two leads to distract from the detective work although to be fair, this didn't happen in "The Killing" or "The Bridge". I like that the leads too seem to have less "strange cargo" to carry too. I don't mind a bit if background shading but really just want to watch a thrilling mystery show without the sometimes obligatory emotional baggage.

I've the rest of the first series to watch and will do so soon, going by what I saw here.

The creators of Den som dræber were apparently willing to combine CSI- type and Mentalist-type of series, but mind-twisting together with genuine slides of malformed dead bodies, villains are serial killers only, and not-so-catchy main characters (Laura Bach as Katrine Ries Jensen and Jakob Cedergren as Thomas Schaeffer) have not attracted so much popularity as e.g. Forbrydelsen, Broen or Ørnen: En krimi-odyssé. True, there are some fine performances - Lars Mikkelsen in all the episodes and Ulrich Thomsen and Kim Bodnia both in 2 episodes, but the overall pace is sometimes uneven, sometimes protracted; there are 5 different stories over 2 episodes each, and the 1st part of every story includes a summary what will happen in the second episode - annoying for a crime drama where moments of surprise carry a significant weight.

All in all, the series in question is not bad, but it is definitely overshadowed by the series mentioned above. So if you have/need a choice, you better watch the others.

Another great Scandinavian series. The horror that a serial killer roams the streets becomes true. Wonderful suspense great characters who come too life. No in depth characters like e.g. in the killing but still great entertainment and I was sorry to find out that there was no sequence. Like I said these is still plenty too enjoy in these series. I indeed looked forward to every new episode. If you are looking for a well made detective series you will not be disappointed by those who kill. In these years that there are coming wonderful series from the north.You do fall in love with the tormented characters and their problems they face in their private lives Go on Danes and keep on making series like this one.

Finished watching the only season of this Danish TV serial which is being remade for US right now. Every episode is almost 1.5 hrs, characters are same but every episode comes up with a new serial killer to analysis and catch. A female lead detective pairs with a talented but problematic forensic psychiatrist to catch these killers. They all have their share of personal problems to handle. Katrine(Detective) has been abused as a child by her stepfather and Thomas(FP) always grasping to retain balance between his work or job that he desires and his family.

Now the stories. Every serial killer is different, everyone has their own way of thinking and different way of killing. Thomas analysis the methodology of the killer in his own way, links up the puzzles that help Katrine catch the killer. Some stories are brilliant, some are average, but overall there were lots of excitement and intelligent stuff. After watching so many hightech series some might seem quite amateurish but actually they are not. Ratings might not seem that much convincing but its not as bad as rating says.

There's one more thing. I know the Scandinavians were amongst the first to give women empowerment but three Scandinavian serial killing TV series I watched and all three of them has the female lead protagonist. I am not being misogynist or against women empowerment rather the opposite, but sometimes it feels a bit cliché. I love Scandinavian crime production and I can't but to be partial!

Overall my rating: 8/10

Watched the whole series and thought was quite good.... The plot is different in each episode but tends to have a psychological thought behind each of the murders..which the lead is adept at recognizing...of course not before a few lambs have been sacrificed to the killer The direction is pretty good and makes it a fast paced interesting watch The fact that we have to follow the English subtitles probably means we pay more attention and in the process we tend to get less distracted and like it more. Somehow felt better than the various US crime series, much better than the psychic ones. The research done on the thought process of the human mind is what makes this a intriguing series and a must watch for the people who like crime thrillers.