TV82: Scandinavian Noir 7: Bordertown
Like Occupied, Miiko Oikkonen's Bordertown is a Scandinavian thriller (this time in Finland) on Netflix with a fascinating premise that sometimes gets lost because the show bounces around too much and has convoluted story lines that hinder ongoing engagement.
Ville Virtanen plays Kari Sorjonen, an eccentric but brilliant police detective who moves from Helsinki to the town of Lappeenranta, near the Russian border, to hopefully live a quieter life with his wife and daughter. But horrific crimes seem to follow him around and his daughter is constantly getting involved in his cases (which is too contrived). The concept is great, Virtanen’s performance is terrific, I love the Finnish setting, and the cinematography and score are top-notch, but the writing is too uneven to make Bordertown the classic noir serial it could be. Still, it gets ***+. My mug is up.
Well said. I loved the character and the Finnish setting, but the writing had lots of weak spots - especially all the convenient interactions between the criminal plots and personal lives.
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