Nordic noir

'Cause then you will be li- your brain will be listening for those sounds, and then your brain will be able to associate those sounds as language, not just as sounds, and tie them to the new words that you're learning.

I went through a phase of being, well, I still am, completely and utterly obsessed with Scandinoir.

I'll watch any-

[laughs]

But this strategy isn't just limited to American historical fiction, though.

If the goal is to capture the darkest elements of human psychology, the streaming platforms naturally turn to the architects of that space, which is Nordic noir.

Oh, absolutely.

The kings of dark crime.

That is a phenomenal cast.

It really is.

I understand the paycheck for an Apple TV series is substantial, but why do actors of this caliber gravitate so heavily toward Nordic noir specifically?

It comes down to the psychological landscape the genre provides.

Yeah.

Nordic Noir, that one is.

Nordic Noir, yes.

And then on the 28th of November, we've got a festive fiction evening.

Oh, lovely.

It might not make the cut just as Sex and the City didn't, but it did finish filming in 2006, so I'm not too sure why it wasn't included.

Secondly, I do love a Scandi Noir drama and who doesn't actually or who hasn't read subtitles of A Saturday Night? I think The Bridge or Borgin should definitely have been on the list.

um equally i am addicted to forensic science dramas or police procedurals um i like silent witness it's run for 15 years a line of duty could have been in there possibly um i also love a literary um drama or serialization.

And one of the very best has been Wolf Hall.

And what subgenre is that?

This leads us directly into defining what that essence actually is and what Dan Selk's article explicitly labels these original books as, the anatomy of Nordic Noir.

Yes, the article specifically defines the original Lars Kepler books as prime examples of Nordic Noir, and it doesn't just throw the term around.

The text defines this subgenre strictly by three main pillars, a bleak tone, complex characters, and slow burn pacing.

Very specific criteria.

Huge hits.

And here is where the massive comparison drops that we mentioned at the top of the show.

The article notes that HBO's iconic first season of True Detective took massive cues from Nordic Noir to achieve its haunting atmosphere and posits that Nocturne is stepping up as the direct replacement for that specific kind of viewing experience.

I haven't.

And by the way, anytime anyone mentions the word noir when they're talking about television shows, Scandi Noir shows, Nordic Noirs are my favorites.

None of them are on the list.

But I'm going to check it out just because of that description.

So we know, for example, this year, we've got a really big El Nino pattern coming in, which is typically associated with drought and higher temperatures and bushfires and whatever.

So it's a bit like having snow in Scandi Noir.

Well, of course there is because that's the environment in which the riders are living.

Yeah, it is.

I remember seeing both this and the remake, which we will also do at some point in the future, and really enjoying both of them.

And to me, this is kind of very archetypical Scandi noir.

Yes.

Right? In the sense that y- it's very psychological.

[laughs]

Yeah.

As with a lot of Scandi noir and a lot of other stuff that we've done besides, I think we can, we can say, you know, a fair old amount of content warnings here for-

Yeah