Stream It Or Skip It?

The Netflix thriller Land Of Sin is firmly in the category of “Scandi noir,” where a depressive detective tries to solve a murder in a Scandinavian town or city — in this case, a tight-knit farming community in Sweden. An additional aspect of this series is that the main detective has to navigate a massive feud among the members of the victim’s family.

LAND OF SIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: A woman lies on the ground, drifting in and out of consciousness. She’s surrounded by men who are trying to figure out who she is and what to do with her.

The Gist:  One week earlier, Dani (Krista Kosonen), a police detective in Malmö, gets a call from Ivar (Mats Martensson), a man she knows from a small farming town on the Bjäre peninsula. Apparently, his teenage son Silas (Alexander Persson) has been missing for four days. She tells him to call the local police, but he says he “won’t call them with my last breath.”

He wants her to come to Bjäre to look into it. After all, she owes them that much after she and social services took Silas away from Ivar and his mother Katty (Lisa Lindgren) due to “alcohol and violence” in the household; she actually was a foster mom to Silas for a time.

The next morning, Dani wakes up to her son Oliver (Ceasar Matijasevic) grabbing some things; she has been begging him to go to rehab, but he doesn’t want to hear it and leaves, just as Dani’s new partner Malik (Mohammed Nour Oklah) arrives. She’s annoyed that she’s partnered with someone she calls a “trainee,” even though he’s been on the force for three years. She insists that they go to Bjäre to look into Silas’ disappearance.

Eventually, Silas’ body is found in a river near a bridge, and despite her personal connection to the case, she manages to convince her boss to let her investigate, with the idea that she knows how to talk to the people in the area. Malik is doubtful, given the population’s mistrust of the police. Elis (Peter Gantman), the brother of Silas’ dying father Ivar, gives Dani one week to find out who killed his nephew before he and his family take matters into their own hands.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Land Of Sin (Original title: Synden), created by Peter Grönlund, reminds us of any number of Netflix Scandi noir shows, like The Åre Murders.

Our Take: If you want to see some competent Scandi noir with decent performances and a family rivalry that surrounds a particular mystery, Land Of Sin would be a good pick. There’s nothing about it that particularly stands out, but there’s nothing about it that gives us pause, either.

We have a couple of issues with the plot, but they’re somewhat minor. The main quibble is that Dani is investigating a case that has such a personal connection. Sure, this isn’t the first time nor the last time that a police detective on a TV show is going to investigate a case that he or she would be too closely involved with in real life. But her connection to Silas is a big factor in this story, given the fact that that no one in his family trusts cops in general, but they certainly don’t trust Dani in particular, given how they think she disrupted their insular family by fostering Silas.

Another issue is that the reasons why the locals distrust the cops, as well as the general family dispute that Dani’s investigation will likely dredge up, are largely undefines in the first episode. We do know that not only is Elis not a big fan of his sister-in-law Katty — he gives her a stern warning after she calls his special-needs son the “r-word” — but he seems to have enough sway in the town to have people do others harm on his behalf. What we hope is that power and influence, as well as the family dispute, gets better defined as the season goes along.

Performance Worth Watching: Krista Kosonen does a good job with the Scandi noir trope of the main detective being stoic, a bit off-putting, and troubled.

Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Elis tells Dani she has one week to find out who killed Silas — and also, the town blacksmith, whom he had directed her towards — before he starts looking for the killer himself.

Sleeper Star: Mohamed Nour’s Malik feels like he’s only there to be the doubting half of the main investigative team in the story, but we hope that he’s got more of a role in future episodes.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Dani explains the situation with Silas’ family to Malik, he thinks of everyone’s first names and asks her “are they Christian?” She chuckles and says, “Definitely not.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. As we mentioned, Land Of Sin is a solid Scandi noir thriller, and any issues you may have with the plot or story telling won’t take away from following along with Dani and Malik as they try to figure out the case.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.