More Scandinavian "Noir"

In an earlier post, I noted the growing fascination hereabouts with a genre broadly known as "Scandinavian 'Noir.'" The first glimmerings of this came with the amazing posthumous success of Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy of novels featuring Lisbeth Salander, who is one of the most original - certainly among the most asocial - female characters in literature.

Scandinavian police procedurals, such as the Kurt Wallander series from the pen of Swedish writer Henning Mankell, have also become popular. In fact, British actor Kenneth Branagh was so enthralled by the possibilities in their plots that he obtained Mankell's permission to recreate the original Swedish TV series (shown with English subtitles in the UK) in English, with himself as star. I have viewed both the subtitled Swedish and the Branagh versions and have enjoyed both. Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo has written a series of best-selling crime novels featuring Detective Harry Hole. I have not yet seen any of these novels staged for TV, but with the phenomenal success of the Swedish crime writers, can a Norwegian TV series be far behind?

Last fall, I was introduced to "The Killing," a wonderfully suspenseful Danish series that is extremely popular worldwide, even in the original Danish with subtitles. The lead female role, that of Detective Sarah Lund, is wonderfully portrayed by Danish actress Sofie Grabol, who has also raised global consciousness about Faroe Islands jumpers (pullover sweaters in American English) to an extent that she should receive a commission on sales. I am not alone in anticipating Series III on this side of The Pond this fall.

Earlier this year, another Danish series, "Those Who Kill," introduced another quirky Danish police detective, Katrin Ries Jensen. While local friends and I enjoyed the series, it never enjoyed the viewer share in Denmark that it was expected to receive and thus will not continue beyond this season. We unhappy viewers elsewhere in Europe were slightly mollified when BBC 4, which my local cable channel provides as part of its service, began showing a brand-new Danish-Swedish series, "The Bridge." I viewed the first two episodes last night and was not at all disappointed. Again, a female detective, Swedish this time and named Saga Noren, is in one of the lead roles. She must, however, collaborate with her male Danish counterpart Martin Rohde to solve a series of murders that involve both jurisdictions.

While Sarah Lund will likely remain my preferred Scandinavian female sleuth (Lisbeth Salander is in a class of her own because she does not function within institutional systems or boundaries but rather in spite of them), Saga Noren is, in my opinion, the quirkiest of the three detectives. Her lack of inhibition in matters sexual matches that of Lisbeth Salander. All four females share a single-mindedness that borders on obsession in their quests for answers.

Still, it is refreshing to see female characters who are allowed to be every bit as effective as males in similar positions are usually seen. If some scenes raise eyebrows, perhaps that means that we should finally realize - once and for all - that women are not lesser beings. If their behavior in some circumstances is unacceptable to some simply because they are women, perhaps that same behavior should also be unacceptable when men do it.