Glaskupan (The Glass Dome - Netflix series, 2025) & Detective Forst (Netflix series, 2024)
I’ve got two reviews for you today: first up, it’s the new Nordic Noir Glaskupan (The Glass Dome). And then, from the Archives, it’s Detective Forst, last year’s Nordic Noir from Poland.
Coming hot on the heels of the Netflix hit series Åremorden, the Swedish Glaskupan (The Glass Dome) is a new Nordic Noir series, that is sure to please, well, fans of Nordic Noir series.
Created by Camilla Läckberg (Ice Princess), this series breathes familiarity, with the kind of high concept that is both contrived and intriguing.
It’s about criminologist Lejla Ness (Léonie Vincent) who returns home from the US because her adoptive mother has died. Soon after Lejla returns to the little town of Granas the daughter of her childhood friend disappears - in exceptionally tragic circumstances, it must be said.
So naturally, Lejla starts to investigate, the high concept part being that she herself was kidnapped as a child - and held by an unknown in the glass dome of the title.
Lejla’s kidnapper was never caught, so is that person up to their old tricks again? Is the glass dome still in use? Are there more missing children? What happened to Lejla’s mother? Why is the nearby mine leaking toxic water? And what do a murder case, a possible divorce and an illicit love affair have to do with everything else? I don’t want to spoil too much, but we, the viewers, do demand answers!
All this and more brings back memories and nightmares from the past that both haunt and help Lejla. She is not just a criminologist but also a behaviorist, so that knowledge of the human condition will help her during her search, even though you can be pretty sure that it will also put her own life in danger.
Lejla gets emotional support and practical help from her father Valter (Johan Hedenberg), who just so happens to be the former chief of police, while his brother Thomas (Johan Reberg) is the current chief.
Some parts of The Glass Dome feel a little bit predictable, but most of the time Läckberg and directors Liza Farzaneh and Henrik Björn manage to steer the plot in unexpected directions and lure you in with the kind of twists and turns that are part of every good thriller slash crime drama.
The series also leans more into the horror genre than most Nordic Noir, which makes it even darker and moodier than most other shows in the genre.
Vincent is excellent as Lejla, and you really start rooting for her character and everything she has to go through. Farzad Farzaneh makes a strong impression as a desperate man who has lost most everything he holds dear, while the supporting cast across the board is equally strong.
If you don’t really care about Nordic Noir, this is probably not for you. But if you are, Glaskupan is definitely worth the binge!
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.