Foreign entries, dubbed, with sub-titles. Belt and braces. The sub-titles don't match the dubbed words, but that's a small distraction. Some of this fare is only for the truly desperate, but you can suss out the more interesting stuff by watching the trailers and figuring if there are multiple episodes, or better still, multiple seasons. Eight or more episodes is a good indicator, and if the series is not a completely new one, check the production dates. Season three of something started in 2017 is a good sign that the series met with approval in its native country. Chances are since we're all considered human, you will find it worthy as well.
Having watched a few of these series, not so much as being isolated, but simply retired, I can recommend ZeroZeroZero, a drug trade series that also offers a keen insight to the cocaine trade and how it gets from Point A to Point B via several others points. It becomes a logistical SAT question.
Another one I would highly recommend is Babylon Berlin, now in its third season. This German mini-series from the novels of Volker Kutscher are a delight for insight into Germany just before
WW II and the ascendant Nazis.
The Weimar Republic is recreated in all its Art Deco design. The series is HUGE in Germany, with many millions spent to recreate a Berlin of that era. They've left no small detail unrecreated. The sound track is first rate and available as a double CD, instrumental on one CD, then the vocals that are performed at the Berlin dance hall Moka Eti, a true hot spot of the era. It's Cabaret all over again.
The protagonist is Gereon Rath, a Cologne detective who's been assigned to Berlin. As a crime series it's great to realize how forensic science was being applied to criminal cases in the early part of the 20th-century. They had method in solving cases. And Rath is in the middle of it all, up to his eyeballs of his bad complexion and terribly baggy eyes..
Just recently on Netflix I stumbled on The Valhalla Murders, an eight-part mini series set in contemporary Iceland, again with subtitles and dubbing that doesn't match the words. But the disconnect is not distracting at all.
It's a police mystery involving what looks lie a serial killer loose in Iceland, a country whose police are not armed, but can acquire their service weapons if needed by getting a code to unlock the safe in the back of the vehicle where the weapons are stored.
It's a very modern police squad, inhabited by industrious Nordic women who are of stout mind, body and character. There are men of course, some of which sport the full beards you'd expect for a near-Arctic Circle country.
Divorce and strained family relations are a natural part of policing, not just in this country, but in Iceland as well. The main character, Kata, is a healthy woman who has been a detective for over 10 years. Her pony-tailed dark blonde hair bobs up and down as she energetically pursues her job.
The first scene we see Kata in she is swimming, a sturdy-shouldered, attractive woman whose ability to swim comes in very handy as we will see by the close of the last episode.
Kata is divorced, with a 16-year-old son at home, who is of great concern to her because she thinks he's been involved with the wrong crowd. What Mom doesn't worry?
Kata's Mom is of course always up her butt, so Kata is stressed. And now these horrific murders, badly disfigured victims whose eyes have been sliced through as well.
See enough of these multi-part crime dramas, and you can guess where they're going with this, and this one is no exception. And if you're also quick to pickup an early clue, you can guess that this is going up the command structure of the Icelandic law enforcement hierarchy, because by Episode 6 some of the case is resolved. But only some.
Because of the serial killer look to things, a detective is called in from Oslo Norway to assist Kata, Arnar, a brooding hunk who barely talks and who you're left to wonder is going to bed with who by what episode. Not a complete spoiler. But it does happen.
Kata has been passed over for promotion by another middle-aged Nordic blonde, Helga. Since this is an authentic Icelandic production, we gets actors whose full names are totally Icelandic, mostly ending in "son" or "iur." The credits are full of such names, complete with all those diacritical marks that I never know what affect they have on pronunciation.
Luckily, this series doesn't show Icelanders eating much. There was a series a few years ago which offered some completely disgusting fish takeout selections that would put any of us on a starvation diet for a month. The scenery is rather breathtaking, and there is snow and cold in every outdoor scene. You might want a blanket for your legs watching this one.
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