For this, I am to blame and I know it. Somehow I think all Scandinavian movies and series are top quality in every regard. The truth is, I've seen quite a few, all good and have read Jo Nesbo's books, plus the movies made based on his books and he has risen the bar quite high, which is why this mini series was a huge surprise. I don't want to say shock, but I started with expectations and as we know, expectations lead to disappointment and that's exactly what happened here.
The original title is Post Mortem: ingen dør på Skarnes, it is a 6 episode Norwegian series and if I were to characterize it in one word, I'd say "morbid".
Hours after Live Hallangen is declared dead, she suddenly wakes up with an urge for blood. Meanwhile, her brother Odd tries to keep the family-run funeral home afloat.
The series starts with the police discovering a young woman's body in a field. They identify it as Live Hallangen, a local lady, who is used to be the young police officer's classmate in primary school. They call the funeral service to pick her up, which in this case it's odd as the funeral agency is run by Live's father and brother.
This is how Live ends up in the dissecting table and this is where the first twist happens, as when the coroner starts the autopsy, Live wakes up. Waking up from the dead is not a usual thing, so the police would like to elucidate the case, find out why Live was laying in the field, apparently dead, but Live has no memory of happened.
She's like to continue her life and goes back to work, but notices she's not the same as before the accident. She has this urge for blood, that she can hardly control. She also seem to have some superpower, she didn't have before.
Slowly, she starts to remember small fragments of what happened and tries to put together the pieces, make sense of it and what she finds out is shocking, to say the least.
The police is investigating, they are trying to uncover the truth behind this very unusual story, then Live's dad gets the attention of the police as he ends up dead in the family cremation room. After Live's dad's passing, she discovers some old tapes with her mom and learns some disturbing things about the family's past.
In the meantime, Odd, Live's older brother takes over and tries to run the family business, which is the funeral home, but nothing goes smoothly and he's risking losing their house as the bank is threatening him. He has to come up with 30k in two days, so he's forced to accept a job that is not exactly what it seems.
Things get really complicated for everyone and we see some twists and turns you'd never think of.
While this is not exactly my cu of tea, so to speak and the ending was like "WTF has just happened?" I still liked it and will remember it for some time. The acting was exceptional in my opinion. Whoever cast Kathrine Thorborg Johansen in Live's role made the best decision as the role is a very difficult one and Kathrine Thorborg Johansen plays it exceptionally. Elias Holmen Sørensen, who plays Odd, Live's brother, the useful idiot who can't really see or understand what's really happening did an excellent job too. The two police officers are also not the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they are really needed in the story.
I'm not saying I'm going to watch it again, but it was good enough to say Norwegian know how to keep you in front of the screen. Yes, it was definitely not what I expected, it was different, but good quality. Give it a try if you can find it.
Rating: 70/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.