Detective Forst (Netflix series, 2024)

Detective Forst is a grim but riveting Nordic Noir series from Poland, that you can also describe as a tense (but very enjoyable) serial killer thriller.

So it’s probably fair to say it’s not for the faint of heart. The six-part series follows police detective Wiktor Forst (Borys Szyc), who gets in trouble for his unconventional methods, but then teams up with journalist Olga Szrebska (Zuzanna Saporznikow) to put an end to a gruesome murder spree near Zakopane in the Tatra mountains, on the border between Poland and Slowakia.

The murderer is nicknamed The Beast of Giewont, because he tortures his victims before he kills them.

Even though the police have their best people on it, it is ‘the girl with the camera’ who seems to be ahead of them, when it comes to finding the killer. So it’s up to Olga and Forst to find out that the figure they are chasing is not some cruel and crazy individual, but a well connected person with money and contacts.

The trail seems to go all the way back to 1943, when Poland was still under Nazi occupation.

Forst, meanwhile, has his own problems to deal with. In the past he suffered from manic depression and the authorities think he may pose an even bigger threat than the killer on the loose.

Detective Forst is directed by Leszek Dawid, based on a screenplay by Janek Markiewicz and Agata Malesinska. The latter has an interesting pedigree, as she also was a writer for two Polish Harlan Coben-series (The Woods and Hold Tight) as well as the romantic Science fiction series A Girl and An Astronaut (2023), which I wrote about last year. 

Detective Forst is based on the bestseller series by Polish author Remigiusz Mroz. It’s possible that this adaptation could be the start of a multiple season franchise. I quite liked the first couple of episodes. It’s dark and moody gruesome fun, and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. 

Szyc is an excellent actor, who I already liked in the movie Operation: Nation that I also reviewed last year. He embodies the character of Forst very well. Saporznikow is also excellent, it’s one of those roles where the female lead is not only intelligent but also knows how to kick ass.

Visually, it has the moody look of classic Scandi (or Nordic) Noir, complete with helicopter shots of a car driving through an empty, mountainous terrain, to emphasize  the physical and psychological loneliness of the characters. 

So even though the genre isn’t new anymore, this series practically revels in the Nordic Noir-ness of it all, and it’s always a treat so see something that is as entertaining (in a macabre way) as Forst.