UA tormented detective, a brutal serial murderer and a corrupt inspector: these are the main ingredients of Detective HoleNetflix series streaming from today with all 9 episodes. It’s about the adaptation of detective novels by Jo Nesbø (king of the “scandinoir”) with protagonist the brilliant and introverted policeman Harry Hole (13 total) starring Tobias Santelmann. A well-made series but which, unfortunately, fails to convey the complexity of Nesbø’s pages. It is not the first time that Detective Hole has been transposed, in 2017 he had the face of Michael Fassbender in The Snowmanfrom the 2007 novel of the same name. A film panned by critics.
Detective Hole: Netflix series, Jo Nesbø, plot, episodes
Harry Hole is an investigator of great acumen, a perfectionist with a tormented personality, even in the alcoholic sense. When Oslo is shaken by the macabre and bizarre murders of a serial killerfinds himself at working with his colleague and longtime opponent Tom Waaler (Joel Kinnaman). A detective corrupt and unscrupulous who would like to bring to justice.
But first there is something to do capture the serial killer, in a two-person quest that develops within the tenuous ethical confines of the judicial system. Meanwhile, the crimes follow one another in very rapid succession, and the killer’s signature – a tiny five-pointed diamond hidden behind the victims’ eyelids – confuses Harry even more.
Luckily for him, the man can count on the love and emotional support of his beautiful and intelligent girlfriend, Rakel Fauke (Pia Tjelta)mother of the teenager Oleg, considered by Hole almost like a son.
Tobias Santelmann and Ellen Helinder in a scene from “Detective Hole”. (Netflix)
The review of Detective Hole
Produced and directed by Øystein Karlsen, Detective Hole it is a series that adapts the 13 volumes on the detective The devil’s star (the fifth). Book that could lend itself to an interesting transposition thanks to the “double track” structure: the investigation into the serial killer and that within the police for a corruption case.
Unfortunately the series, adapted by Nesbø himself, fails to convey the strength of an absolutely unique character like Harry Hole. The dark sides of man, very present in novels, they are somehow sweetened from a screenplay that seems to want to not get its hands too dirty, ed avoid too many references to depression and alcoholismevils that have always afflicted the detective.
Also absent are those cold and dark atmospheres that always permeate Jo Nesbø’s pagesgiving the novels that typically spooky something. Oslo, another key “character” of the saga, is photographed in a decidedly flat mannerwithout the slightest sense of ambiguity that made it the perfect setting for Hole’s complicated investigations.
Detective Hole it remains anyway a solid and enjoyable crime, also thanks to the excellent music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. However, it does not have the strength, especially aesthetic, to remain in the viewer’s memory. A real shame given the excellent source material and an interesting and “lived-in” face like that of the lead actor: the Norwegian actor Tobias Santelmann.
The cast: Tobias Santelmann and Joel Kinnaman
German by birth but Norwegian by adoption, Tobias Santelmann he attended the National Academy of Arts in Oslo and then made his debut on the big screen in 2010. Two years later he was consecrated by the film Kon-Tikinominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Filmwhich also launches its own career in Hollywood. After starring in the remake of Point BreaksTobias became very famous thanks to the role of Ragnar in the British cult series The Last Kingdom.
His nemesis in Detective Hole is the corrupt Inspector Waaler played by Joel Kinnaman. A good actor with an ambiguous face he has starred in films of the caliber of Suicide Squad, Millennium – Men who hate women by David Fincher. Was also directed by Andrea di Stefano in the crime drama The Informer – Three seconds to survive. Soon will star alongside Samuel L. Jackson in the film The Beast by Renny Harlin.
