These are the 10 best Nordic Noir series on Netflix
Nordic noir shows have become very popular, so we've compiled for you our selection of the best Scandinavian shows you can watch on Netflix.
The Bridge (2011-2018)
'The Bridge' features a joint Danish and Swedish police investigation about a crime scene on the Øresund Bridge that links the Swedish city of Malmö with the Danish capital Copenhagen. A dead body cut in two was found on the bridge, so two detectives, Saga Norén and Martin Rohde started looking for the murderer. Along with the investigation, we follow the personal lives of two main characters. The series has 4 seasons, all of which are available on Netflix.
Duration: 4 seasons of 10 episodes each.
Country: Sweden and Denmark
The Valhalla Murders (2019)
'The Valhalla Murders' is an Icelandic series that follows the classic Scandinavian thriller canons. We all think of Iceland as a calm country with a near-zero murder rate. However, the show plunges us into a cold, harsh and evil world. Three murders close in time alerted the Icelandic police. An Oslo inspector with a painful past returns to his native Iceland to help police officer Kata Eligsson catch a serial killer linked to a mysterious photograph. Kata Eligsson, who leads the investigation, does not welcome Arnar's help, which at first seems intrusive to her.
Duration: 8 episodes of 48 min.
Country: Iceland
Borgen (2010)
'Borgen' is a Danish political drama about the life and career of Birgitte Nyborg, the first (fictitious!) female Prime Minister of Denmark. Borgen is the name of the palace that houses the Danish parliament. The series begins with Birgitte, leader of the Moderate Party, who almost decided to take a step back in her career so that her husband Philip can pursue his business and professional ambitions. Birgitte's plans are shattered when she is allowed to become prime minister. She quickly realizes how gifted she is in politics thanks to her Machiavellian intellect, and develops an insatiable appetite for both personal power and her ability to bring about substantial political change.
Duration: 4 seasons. 38 episodes of 60 min.
Country: Denmark
Equinox (2020)
The series begins with Ida disappearing along with her classmates while riding the bus after graduating from high school. Afterward, her sister Astrid begins to have strange dreams about Ida. Twenty years later, while working on her radio show, Astrid receives a call from one of Ida's surviving classmates, Jacob Skipper, and embarks on a long journey to find out the cause of her sister's disappearance. Together with Astrid, the viewer is taken on a journey set in the present day, but thanks to time jumps, he also accompanies Astrid as a child and Ida before her disappearance to find out what really happened. 'Equinox' is a chilling cocktail of genres, among which we find suspense, mystery and supernatural fantasy.
Duration: 6 episodes of 45 minutes.
Country: Denmark
The Rain (2018)
А happy family, Frederick and Ellen Anderson, along with their children Simone and Rasmus, are forced to hide in a well-equipped bunker by a rain-borne killer virus that has wiped out almost everyone in their region. The bunker was provided by Apollo, a shady paramilitary and research company that Frederick works for. One day, Frederick must leave the bunker to find an antidote for the virus. After he leaves, Ellen is tragically killed by a virus-carrying rain. Simone and Rasmus are left alone and forced to survive while they wait for their father to return. Six years later and without word from Frederick, they decide to go in search of their father. They will travel across Denmark and Sweden along with a group of other young survivors.
Duration: 3 seasons. 20 episodes of 45 min.
Country: Denmark
Love and Anarchy (2020)
Not everything in the Scandinavian genre is crime and horror, and the original romantic comedy 'Love and Anarchy' is a good example of that. The story focuses on a typical married woman who is not satisfied with her marriage. The main character Sophie is hired to save a publishing house in crisis. Sophie is strict and efficient at work, but she also needs sex and romance... Her playful romance with a young colleague Max becomes a series of risky trials and challenges that can lead to the most unexpected consequences... There are a lot of funny episodes in the series and time will fly by while watching it.
Duration: 2 seasons. 16 episodes of 25 min.
Country: Sweden
Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes (2021)
Not much happens in Skarnes. So when the local police find the body of Live Hallangen and there is no indication of what caused her death. Skarnes' tranquility is completely broken when her corpse comes to life on the coroner's gurney. The young woman appears dazed and hungry and has no memory of what happened... 'Post Mortem: Nobody Dies in Skarnes' is an original vampire comedy that allows you to experiment with various film noir and horror clichés.
Duration: 6 episodes of 44 min.
Country: Norway
Rita (2012)
Rita is a 46-year-old teacher who smokes, drinks (quite a lot), and has casual sex. She, her three children (each with very different personalities and problems), her sister-in-law, her mother, her exes, her students and her colleagues from a school on the outskirts of Copenhagen are the characters in this series about the life of a suburb of Copenhagen. We plunge into this world for several seasons, watching teacher bullying by students, difficulties with the integration of expatriates, teenage abortions and cyberbullying. This unpretentious and highly humanistic series tells about the joys and sorrows of everyday life.
Duration: 5 seasons. 40 episodes of 40 min.
Country: Denmark
Deadwind (2018)
'Deadwind' (Karppi in Finnish) is a Scandinavian noir crime series about a recently widowed Finnish police detective with two children. Sofia Karppi returns to her job as a homicide detective with the Helsinki Police Department, looking after her two children after her husband's accidental death. Rookie detective Sakari Nurmi is transferred from Financial Crimes to Homicide as Karppi's partner. The duo's first case begins with a routine disappearance. Women's clothing found at a construction site leads detectives to the body of social counselor Anna Bergdahl, buried with flowers on a shoreline owned by wind energy research company Tempo. Karppi and Nurmi begin to investigate Anna's past, such as her work at Tempo and her high-priced construction project. They soon discover that there are big secrets behind her murder.
Duration: 3 seasons. 28 episodes of 45 min.
Country: Finland
Blood Ride (2020)
'Blood Ride' is a Norwegian anthology series in which all episodes share a common denominator: the bus. These are six different stories that mix mystery, absurdity and morbid humor as some of the passengers are sentenced to a ghost bus ride into the unknown. Each episode begins with a sinister bus driver getting into the car in the middle of a rainy night. Each bus passenger is sent to a scary and unknown destination.
Duration: 6 episodes of 30 min.
Country: Norway
Ragnarok (2020)
A single mother moves with her two children to a quaint mountain town called Edda. There, Magne, one of the sons, gets out of the car to help the man cross the street, unaware that this seemingly chance encounter will change his life forever and put him in the middle of an age-old battle. Gradually, we will discover that this seemingly quiet town is a place of mystical powers and that these brothers are more powerful than they seem, because in fact they are mythological gods. 'Ragnarok' plays with what the gods and other mythological creatures would do in the current context, with the problems they would have to solve in order to save humanity and protect the world from real threats like climate change, corruption and abuse of power.
Duration: 2 seasons. 16 episodes of 45 min.
Country: Denmark