Netflix’s ‘Bordertown’ A Fun Scandinavian Drama Starring Cops and Killers
Read Time:2 Minute, 44 Second
If you don’t mind subtitles, and I don’t, you can escape the humdrum of staying at home during the COVID-19 nightmare, by taking a peek at Netflix’s international acquisition, Bordertown. This exciting Finnish language 3-season gem has kept me glued to my television for several days now, leaving my dogs wondering why their walks don’t seem as long as they used to be.
Known in Finland as Sorjornen, the Nordic Noir adds to Netflix’s already impressive collection of international crime dramas. There’s something sweet, intimate, and touching about this fascinating series.
Much like The Americans, can be less about spying, Bordertown focuses more on the family at the center of its story than the crimes that plague them. This edge of your seat thriller follows Kari Sorjonen (Ville Virtanen), a beyond-great detective who decides he needs a break from the daily horrors and seeing as how the first image of the show is a young girl with her eyes and mouth sewed shut, that’s most certainly understandable.
Kari moves his sick wife and teenage daughter to a family house in the relatively tranquil town of Lappeenranta, a town that borders the edges of Finland and Russia. At first, it seems nice. However, if you’re in a crime drama you can never have nice things, which is why shortly after Kari’s arrival, a serial killer starts to haunt his new home. Even more disturbingly, Kari’s investigation reveals the killer is linked to his own family.
Though Bordertown has the brooding, dark environments, and intense acting of similar Scandinavian shows, the series watches more as a family-focused drama with a killer on the loose. There are horrific crimes happening in the background — almost all of which are done to young, sexualized women — but the main narrative is about this one tired investigator who just wants to have dinner with his family.
In this regard, the show hits an interesting balance in its treatment of crime, swinging between the ambivalence of murder-of-the-week procedurals and the deep emotional weight of crime dramas like Broadchurch.
To be honest, and since this is about cops we’re all about honesty, there are several eye-rollingly predictable aspects of this drama. Kari Sorjonen is really good at his job — too good. Much like Sherlock, Psych’s Shawn Spencer, Monk’s Adrian Monk, and so many detectives before them, Sorjonen runs police work circles around his peers. He’s one of those investigative savants who only seems to exist in screenwriters’ imaginations. Do you remember Columbo? While not necessarily a criticism, and only a personal observation, there are a few ‘ghost’ scenes, particularly in Series three, that I think the viewer could do without. I believe ‘ghosts’ takes away from the brutally real scenes which ‘haunt’ the series.
Bordertown is a show that is about brooding, [hard to stop watching] crimes about murder, and various associated nastiness, with subtitles. If you’re looking for a fascinating crime drama, that also helps you understand the incredibly complex Finnish language, which I like, this show is for you. Don’t miss it.
In Case You Missed It: A Word on Netflix’s Groundbreaking and Edgy Freud
Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Mike, I started watching the first series and I plan to return to it. I think I got off on the wrong foot with it. It does seem that many of the crime genre films are often very brooding and almost mysterious at times. There have been several like that and I really enjoy them, but I have to shake myself out of the American version of crime movies. Americans are, or are projected, to be not a bright as many of the foreign movies watchers tend to be. There a number of screens in this movie in which Kari appears to have no social kills at all, but seems to be a crime genius. At the same time he is followed and not particularly liked by the people in his new department. At the same time one would really not see many crime shows in America that would show a cop that would be putting his family’s feelings before “the job.” It is so vastly different from American perception of a cop show but in a pleasant way.
I binge watched this and the Expanse. Expanse only because I was sick and tired of people telling me my boyfriend was Wes Chatham’s doppelganger and wondering why his Air Force crew called him Amos when they spoke with him (hint… he most definitely is and ladies ayup I know how fucking lucky this makes me in oh so many many ways) Oh and I broke me wrist during lockdown because I found a sexy use for netting on a bet. Bf said it could not be done, so I ordered a trampoline while he was at work to sow it could and had it installed only to break my wrist when they were installing it when I got in the way by mistake. AYUP I am THAT clumsy 🙂 I’m ok, hand cast for a few weeks only and a sad firefighter, since it’s my dominant hand, guys know what I am talking about here.
Well thanks, Mike! Because of you, I stayed up until 2 AM, bingeing ‘almost’ the first season. Great show.
LOL! I lost a lot of sleep over three days of bingeing Steve.