Sometimes Euro TV shows screen first in the UK, and then the US. At other times, it’s in the reverse order. Likewise, many programs are picked up by a programmer in one territory and not the other, or neither. Will any of these get a spot on an American and/or British channel?
Acquitted (Frikjent)
This ten-episode, character-driven drama broke ratings records when it premiered on Norway’s TV2 in March. Ditto for a Nordic TV series on Sweden’s SVT. So there is a lot of buzz about Acquitted, which has been picked up by TV2 in Denmark and RUV in Iceland. The question is, will it screen in the US and/or UK? I hope so, because the storyline sounds, and trailer looks, like it’s a winner for Euro TV fans on both sides of the pond.
Acquitted stars the Berlin International Film Festival EFP Shooting Star Award winner Nicolai Cleve Broch (Max Manus: Man of War, The Half Brother) as Aksel Borgen, a successful businessman in Asia who is asked to return to his hometown to help save the cornerstone business from bankruptcy. The thing is, the people there are the same ones who turned their backs on him 20 years ago, when he was acquitted of the murder of his high school sweetheart, but still deemed guilty in the court of public opinion. Needless to say, old wounds get ripped wide open upon his return.
Costars include Lena Endre (Wallander), Synnøve Macody Lund (Headhunters), Tobias Santelmann (The Heavy Water War, called The Saboteurs in the UK), and Fridtjov Såheim (Lilyhammer), amongst others.
Blochin – The Living and the Dead (Blochin – Die Lebenden und die Toten)
Might Blochin do for Teutonic noir what The Bridge, The Killing, and Wallander did for Nordic noir on both sides of the Atlantic? Perhaps. I’ll let you know next week in a post dedicated to this new five-episode German detective drama, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and stars Jürgen Vogel (Tatort, Good Bye Lenin!) as the eponymous Blochin. (UPDATE: That post is here.)
In the meantime, here’s the main storyline: Blochin and his polar opposite brother-in-law and fellow cop Dominik Stötzner (Thomas Heinze, Tatort, Marie’s Mind for Murder) get caught up in political intrigue when the former’s criminal past catches up with him and the latter tries to cover up for him.
Modus (Sweden)
Filming is wrapped or about to be on this Nordic noir crime series from Sweden, adapted by the writing team of Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe (The Eagle, Unit One) from Norwegian author Anne Holt’s novel Fear Not, the fourth of five titles in her “Vik/Stubø” series.
The eight-part serial, directed by Lise Siwe (The Bridge), centers on criminal psychologist and profiler Inger Johanne Vik (Melinda Kinnaman, The Eagle) and her pairing with detective Ingvar Nymann (Henrik Norlém, Johan Falk) to investigate a series of murders in Stockholm, after her autistic daughter witnesses one of them. Vik soon discovers a connection between the case and a ruthless international network. Like other series of the noir variety, themes about societal issues are featured alongside the main crime threads.
Modus will air on Sweden’s TV4 this fall, and also on Denmark’s TV2, Germany’s ZDF, Iceland’s RUV, and Norway’s TV2. The US or UK? Stay tuned.
Source: Nordisk Film & TV Fond, ZDF Enterprises
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