Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The Sommerdahl Murders has been a hit for Acorn TV because it fits into its mystery slate very well; each season contains 4 two-episode murder mysteries being solved by a squad of quirky, easygoing police detectives and officers. But what separates Sommerdahl from the others is the fact that its main character has a messy social life, including working with his ex-wife and the man she cheated on him with, who just happens to be his longtime partner.
THE SOMMERDAHL MURDERS SEASON 5: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: After watching a recap of the overall story arc of Season 4, we see a carnival (or what is called a “fun fair” in Denmark) in the seaside town of Elsinore.
The Gist: A carnival worker named Kim Boelsen (Anders Skov Madsen) takes over a booth for another worker and almost immediately gets shot in the side. The bullet hits his heart and he dies instantly. Kim isn’t just any carnival worker, though; he’s married to Ene Hansen (Simone Lykke), the daughter of carnival owner Carlo Hansen (Bjarne Henriksen) and his wives Lulu (Kristen Legfeldt) and Inge (Helle Dolleris). The couple also just had a daughter.
Elisnore PD police detective Dan Sommerdahl (Peter Mygind) and his partner Flemming Torp (André Babikian) are called on the case, with forensic scientist Marianne Sommerdahl (Laura Drasbæk) at the ready. The three of them have a complex relationship; Marianne and Dan were once married, until Dan found out that Marianne was sleeping with Flemming. As he moved on with his new girlfriend Josefine Sundby (Maibritt Saerens), Flemming and Marianne secretly recorded Josefine negotiating with Otto (Kurt Ravn), a businessman who is known as a drug smuggler. Both Josefine and Otto were arrested, and when Dan found out that his ex-wife and his partner recorded her, he told him he’d never trust them again.
But things are thawing, mainly because Josefine is going to have a hearing where her sentence will be negotiated down to time served. Meanwhile, Otto is scheming with his niece Astrid ( Thit AAberg) to make sure the “coastguard,” as Otto calls Josefine because of where she used to work, either stays in prison or goes back in after being released.
Back to the carnival murder. Dan and Flemming suspect Carlo was behind the murders, given his shady business dealings, but a Ukrainian woman named Juliya (Oksana Gamma) is also involved, as is a hairdresser named Tone (Genie Argiris).
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Sommerdahl Murders is a pretty straightforward mystery series, along the lines of My Life Is Murder, but with a simmering backstory that we wish was the main thrust of the series.
Our Take: What we said about The Sommerdahl Murders before its first season four years ago still holds: The love triangle and all of its implications are at the heart of the show and what keeps us watching. The two-episode mysteries are OK, though the one in the first two episodes of Season 5 is definitely stronger than the one in Season 1.
Sommerdahl’s personal life arc is actually more complex than it was in Season 1, with Dan and Marianne’s daughter Laura (Mia Højgaard) married to Dan’s colleague Benjamin (Mathias Käki Jørgensen) looking to get in the police academy right after giving birth to their son. And while Marianne and Flemming recorded Josefine in an effort to keep Dan from getting hurt, it’s taken time for him to recover from a betrayal that he may think has more to do with their former love triangle than anything else.
As we said, the mystery in the first two episode was decent, but pretty easily figured out, as there’s an extraneous character that keeps popping back up, and just as you start to wonder why this person is still there, it hits you that this person is the killer. There’s some semi-topical material about Ukrainians and the war with Russia, but for the most part the mystery is about the usual things: Money and jealousy. Again, there are a heck of a lot of coincidences and good fortune that direct Dan and the squad towards the killer, but at least we get to see Dan and Flemming ordering and eating food at the carnival while doing their investigations.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Ene Hansen finds photos placed in her trailer that have shotgun sights scratched in over her and Kim’s heads.
Sleeper Star: Lise Baastrup plays Nadia, an officer who’s very good at getting info on the phone. She could be a good newspaper journalist, when such a thing was a solid, fulfilling job.
Most Pilot-y Line: Dan Sommerdahl’s wardrobe for the past five seasons has been an open plaid button-up shirt over a polo shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. He always looks more like he’s about to work on his boat than go out and investigate murders.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Sommerdahl Murders would be given a “skip it” if it weren’t for the cloudy personal life of its main character. The mysteries themselves are kind of “meh” and generally easy to figure out, but everything going on in the show’s continuing stories is what keeps us watching.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
