Trapped

If you look for one of the most accomplished police drama series search no further. Excellent writing, photography and acting. You'll be immersed in a small Icelandic town where a series of crimes (murders included) need to be solved. Top notch realism. It's awesome how easily you can fall in love with well built/developed characters even if they're not good looking, dysfunctional, exceptionally smart or heroic: just normal. It's even more awesome you can fall in love with a well written police drama even if no child was killed, no supernatural stuff is hinted as possibly present, no worldwide conspiracy menaces mankind, no criminal mastermind always wins. It's a good lesson for all those creators modeling their products on a dumb target audience: you don't need to. There's already youtube and Hollywood and special effects and cartoons for that: if you write series, do it well.

I was hesitant at first, as I find myself increasingly reluctant to watch anything where I must rely on unblinking attention to the lower region of the screen to catch subtitles in English, (myself being woefully and completely ignorant of the spoken language of Iceland, in this case) However, after the first episode I was hooked. The acting was excellent, the characters believable, the Icelandic backdrop eerie, melancholy and the mountainous backdrop achingly beautiful. I found myself fully invested in the outcome and, indeed, stayed up well past my bedtime to watch as many episodes as I could. Cheers ! 10 out of 10 in my humble opinion.

The lead character is engaging and you'll feel for him. Right from his hair to the way he walks to the way he dresses is all so real. And so is his life. The world created is so lovely you'd want to keep going back. Thoroughly enjoying it.

The murder drama set is an isolated small town is a well-worn trope, really just an extended version of the locked room mystery, or the country house killing. But when the small town is in northern Iceland, that's an unusually claustrophobic setting and 'Trapped' uses its location perfectly. When the winter storms come in, you feel cold just watching; when the thaw comes, it feels visibly warmer. The stunning scenery is also used to good effect, not least during the chilling opening credits. What I also liked about this story was that, although bad things were done, the motives (and competencies) of those involved are ultimately revealed to be fit to the scale of the world in which they have happened: the story doesn't ultimately depend on some deranged force of pure evil, or inter-galactic conspiracy. The sense of mutual hurt felt in a place where everybody knows everybody else, even if they sure don't all like one another, is also well conveyed. Perhaps there's just a little too much of taciturn people being gloomy in the dark for a perfect drama: it takes time to get to know the protagonists, although perhaps that's just the Icelandic way. Overall, it's very good, and makes one keen to return to Iceland, though probably I'll choose the summer season.

Ófærð is an amazing, dark, slow-burning drama, where you feel the tension building from the very first moment. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson depicted a single-father (for the time-being), living with his parents-in-law, working as the chief of police with so much details and such psychological depth that it leaves the watcher in awe. He is strong but easily-hurt, he is tormented by his love to his wife and still naivelly believes that maybe, just maybe everything will be fine. The story - wow, so many paths that it takes us on, such tangled connections between closed-knit society of a small community. The scenery - breath-taking; I'm from Poland so we do have some strong winters, but the creepy atmosphere of being completelly cut-off by the snow fall is something I don't know :) And it worked for me - I was binge-watching the series with 38 degrees Celsius outside and I felt frozen to the bone :) It was a combination of the story and scenery that made the film so thrilling. Overall - great acting, good story and somewhat surprising ending.