Den som dræber

This TV show is far better than Swedish Beck and the millennium movies. First of all I have come to love the danish language.When they speak it sounds so natural and not like in the Swedish where all are going on like they were in a play at Dramaten. I have seen 4 episodes so far and I have found them to be both suspense and with pretty good stories. All and all"Mordkommissionen" is still the best detective show from Denmark. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes because it's one of the better shows right now. I've heard that they are going to cancel the show after the first season because it has got some bad reviews and that's sad. It deserves more seasons.

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.

After seeing the first episode, I've thought that it's going to be another amazing Scandinavian TV series, in vein of Bron/Broen and Borgen (although the latter one is different genre). But after the second episode I've realized that I just don't care for the main characters. Or to be precise - I'm indifferent about Thomas and I dislike Katrine. OK, she's not supposed to be colorful and amazing person (albeit also asocial) as Saga Noren, I get that, but having a plain, boring and always angry copy of Sarah Lund doesn't help much either. Still, it's very watchable and solid show, but it could have been much more if they had stronger leads (not in the term of acting, they're fine).

Until recently we never saw television programmes that weren't in English; then BBC4 started airing the Swedish police show 'Wallander' after its success is wasn't long before they followed it up with programmes from France, Denmark and Italy; all in the native language and English subtitles. It was only a matter of time before another channel started to showing something from the continent; the channel was ITV3 and the programme was the Danish murder mystery 'Those Who Kill'. Originally shown as ten episodes featuring five two part stories the episodes were combines to make five feature length episodes; probably a wise move as the two hour crime drama is the standard format here.

This series follows the activities of a murder squad whose cases inevitably turn out to involve serial killers. The squad is led by Magnus Bisgaard although the main characters are Katrine Ries Jensen and civilian profiler Thomas Schaeffer. No matter what the case it is a safe bet that one of our protagonists will end up in mortal danger only for them to turn the tables on the bad guy. While the cases are fairly standard for this type of drama they were still enjoyable and while I didn't really expect the protagonists to come to any harm there were plenty of tense moments. Lead actors Laura Bach and Jakob Cedergren performed well in the roles of Katrine and Thomas and the rest of the cast seemed to do well too; although I can't comment on how their accents fitted the roles as I was relying on the subtitles and wouldn't have spotted if somebody sounded wrong! Overall I'm glad I watched this series; it might not have been one of the best continental series I've seen but it was still entertaining; its a pity further series weren't made.

Much as I like Danish crime dramas, for me, Those Who Kill, has some conspicuous flaws that can not be overlooked.

Perhaps the biggest is how easily the criminologist who supports the key female lead in the first episode is "blamed and written off", by her boss when things turn pear shaped. This is in spite of the fact he leads the team to the killer's lair in the first episode and he's in no way to blame for what transpires, thereafter. This is explained somewhat in latter episodes but still, it all seems a bit of a stretch.

There are other examples that are implausible too, such as intentionally taking a child into a dangerous armed hostage situation.

That's not to say Those Who Kill is not watchable. It's well acted and and directed. Some of the episodic stories premises are novel too. That said, those positives are let down to a degree by some not insubstantial weaknesses in the back story.

Six out of ten from me.