DVD Reviews

Unit One Collection - DVD Review

By Angela Youngman Feb 10, 2013, 15:57 GMT

Arrow Films' Nordic Noir DVD label is releasing rare Scandinavian screen classics with English subtitles.
 
Unit One is a hard-hitting cop series, starring Mads Mikkelson (Casino Royale, The Hunt) include cast members from The Killing, Wallander, and Borgen.Broadcast between 2000 and 2004, before the actors became internationally famous.
 
Based on actual, real-life crimes that have occurred across the last two decades, the International Emmy award-winning Unit One follows an elite mobile police force as they assist local authorities in solving some of the most complex and high profile cases Denmark has ever seen.
 
Charlotte Fich plays new boss Ingrid Dahl in one of the most fast-paced of the Scandinavian crime exports. It concentrates on the working and private lives of an elite mobile police force, or flying squad, as they are dispatched to assist local police who are often far from welcoming.

The first female police commissioner selects Ingrid Dahl as the first female head of a Danish police unit, against much male prejudice and resistance. She struggles to unite career and family, and build a rapport with a team struggling from the sudden death of their previous boss.
 
In Danish with English subtitles the total running time of this 3 disc set is 522 minutes.
 
Faster than the pace of Wallander, this is more of the style of the second and third series of The Killing. Brilliantly acted, and free from the saccharine that invades even the best US crime dramas.

What comes over is a boss balancing to stay in control of a team whose members could become independent any second, while being undermined by a male boss and local police with their noses out of joint from having to bring in outsiders to solve their crimes.
 
A definite 'must add' to any DVD Nordic crime.

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