The Sommerdahl Murders - Series 2 starts Friday 13 June 2025 C4

[IwantToRetire]

I quite enjoyed the first series although the main male character is totally irritating!

Lovely countryside in and around Elsinor.

Not so much scandi noir more scandi easy watching but not as silly as say Midsummer Murders (thank goodness).

Contemporary themes and relationship issues mix with crime solving.

I cant find the listing for series 2 but it is referred to in this link for series 1 https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-sommerdahl-murders

Series 1 thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5107588-the-sommerdahl-murders-new-danish-series-more-4-starts-28-june-2024-9pm

Heh! This thread reminded me that I still hadn't finished the first season; I went back, and still on ep #6. watched it and remembered why I hadn't rushed back; the lead is indeed so unbelievably smug and annoying. And his sub-George Clooney partner! 😀It's OK, but it's not Scandi TV's finest hour.

I've watched the first episode of series 2. May have nodded off at one point.

But I think in a may having such an unempathetic male lead actually allows them to raise in a nice Scandi civilised way that there are still men who really do go through live not noticing that women might have their own ideas, wishes etc..

I think in fact the real relationship this is about is between the 2 men!

Although not sure that the partner is sub clooney but definitely reminds me of someone.

Have just seen he was in Borgen so probably just reminding me of himself!

I think partly these series also provide a sort of tourist experience. And so many little bits that are obviously day to day for them are interesting!

We had spotted that there was a second series and haven't decided if we would watch the second.

Agree, the main man is utterly awful, which makes it unrewarding, but we have watched so much on Walter Presents we are beginning to run out!

It's "OK" although a bit silly. I'm enjoying some of the characters and that dog is adorable 🥰.

the main man is utterly awful, which makes it unrewarding

Oddly I find it rewarding each time he makes a complete idiot of himself, is so glaringly unaware of anyone else but himself, and in fact, from what I can remember of the first series isn't that good a detective! He just thinks he is. And everyone else just humours him!

And when someone lower down the food chain does the real detecting work he just takes it.

Apart from the character that retired at the end of the last series, and also brought in cakes.

Did anyone watch the latest episode of series 2.

If so do you think something rather creepy is happening to Marianne, Sommerdahl's wife?

I’m afraid DH and I have given up on this. We watched the first series and the 'love triangle' 🙄 between Sommerdahl, Marianne and Flemming is so utterly tedious, but we decided to give series 2 a go.

Cue Dan and Marianne forever failing to communicate, Marianne wailing that her husband is never there (he’s a policeman FFS, and you're a forensic examiner so after 25 years how come you’ve just noticed this?), and Dan making grandiose plans for them to be together without noticing that she spends the whole time avoiding him. Meanwhile Flemming smoulders broodily in the background.

Oh, and did I mention Marianne's habit of wearing the same jumpsuit for days on end? 🤔

Believe it or not, there are six series of this so we lost the will to live. But I suppose its creator, the unfortunately-named Lolita Bellstar, is happy with getting such a good run out of it!

Heh, likewise! I watched the first season, but lost the willl to live half-way through the second. I'd recommend Dark Rivers as being much more fun.

I'm not claiming anything in depth or clever, and as I said it is sort of summer watching as i get as much from seeing a different way of living etc..

And truth to tell I enjoy both of the main male characters being so totally absorbed in their own wonderfulness but consistently act stupidly. And it turns out being really creepy.

But have to agree that Marianne's dress sense is well, I am not sure what. Just strange.

Aww, I like Dan! He's not used to being unmarried and he is a buffoon. It's nice for them to not all be recovering brooding alcoholics. It makes me laugh. This actor was in Borgen which is a very hard circle to square!

Re the clothes, Dan wears the same thing for entire series. He has a yellow polo shirt , a blue polo shirt, and other colours! I assume it's for continuity. It will have been filmed out of sequence so it's easiest to always wear the same thing. His stomach must hurt from all the sucking it in he's doing.

Sorry if it sounded as though I was criticising anyone for liking it - I’m honestly not! We did really want to love this, as there’s nothing we like better than a Scandi series on a Friday night. It just got so irritating that the yearning looks and the marriage woes took precedence over the actual murders!

Apparently in Dennark they avidly watch Midsummer Murders because it is a light and fluffy antidote to all their gloomy stuff. This show was a kind of attempt to make a Scandi MM.

Yes although I would hate to admit watching a scandi MM as that is now so totally buffoonery.

But I do see this as whimsical. And as a tv screen tourist get caught up in little details.

(I still dont know why all outside doors in nordic countries open outwards. There's probably a sensible reason such as not allowing heavy snow to push it open if it was inward opening. Maybe?)

Also like the social commentary it includes on changing social values etc.. Dont think MM is sophisticated enough to do that.

I have given up on the far too many euro noir series. I just find them tedious but did enjoy (not really the word as it was so sad) the series based on a true story set in France. And yes of course it was another young woman murdered for no apparent reason.

I looked up the door thing once!

It was to do with their weather, yes.

And fire safety apparently because it's easier to escape. I would have thought it is harder for emergency services to get in though...

I always think about intruders with outward opening doors . Quite hard to keep them out .

It's also a PITA is hotels as doors open out into the corridor and your cases are in the way so you have to shuggle them about and get in the way of anyone else in the hallway. It literally makes no sense.

Thanks for interesting facts about doors.

I always think if i had one I would swing open a door and end up in a law suit about having knocked someone sprawling off the door step!

It was something of a rabbit hole I fell down once whilst watching The Bridge.

That’s interesting because I said exactly this to DH - it’s the Danish equivalent of MM!

( @IwantToRetire I think I know the French series you mean - yes, very compelling but dark and so depressing that it was based on true events. The one where they didn’t catch the culprit for decades?)

The one where they didn’t catch the culprit for decades?

Sadly yes.

re. sub clooney - I suddenly realised that to me he is far more like William Devane in his younger days.

Well I've got to the end, and wonder if part of this is to show a "modern" approach to relationships. Or is this just normal Nordic behaviour?

And I was sort of releaved to think I could but it aside until next summer only to be told by my tv that season 3 starts next week with episode 1 and the following week will be episode 3.

Maybe they've decide that people can easily make do with every other episode.

I think that’s because they show 2 episodes back to back - so next week will be eps 1 and 2. That’s why it’s so long!

(I know I said I’d stopped watching, but got an alert as the thread's in my 'watched' list 😬)

Thanks - I'll probably just leave it to record, and then if there really is a week sometime in the future that I cant find anything to watch I can plunge back into the love triangle, and looking at shots of Elsinor that seems to have as high a murder rate at Oxford!