''Wisting'' is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

thriller

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

television series starring

Sven Nordin Sven Audun Nordin (born 6 February 1957 in Oslo) is a Norwegian actor. He was hired by Oslo Nye Teater in the autumn of 1981 and had his debut in the play "Vikinger" by Johan Borgen. He is best known for his roles as Nils in the situation comedy ...

widower A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

William Wisting, a senior police detective, and in the first five episodes, co-starring

Carrie-Anne Moss Carrie-Anne Moss (born August 21, 1967) is a Canadian actress. After early roles on television, she rose to international prominence for her role of Trinity in ''The Matrix'' series (1999–present). She has starred in '' Memento'' (2000) for w ...

as FBI Special Agent Maggie Griffin. ''Wisting'' is the most expensive television drama series produced in Norway. Its first season is based on two Jørn Lier Horst novels, ''The Caveman'' (2013) and ''The Hunting Dogs'' (2012). In episodes 1–5, Wisting heads a murder investigation with FBI collaboration since the suspect is a serial killer hunted in the US. In episodes 6-10, Wisting has to defend himself against accusations of tampering with evidence in a previous murder case. In late 2020, the show was renewed for a second season. Four episodes, based on the novel ''The Inner Darkness'' (2019), were aired in Scandinavia as Season 2 starting 26 December 2021, with a third season of similar length already confirmed; those eight episodes were originally intended to all be included in Season 2. This four-episode third season, based on ''The Night Man'' (2009), screened in Scandinavia in April 2022.

Plot

Season 1 (2019)

A man's body is found, hidden in the snow, under a tree on a Christmas tree farm near

Larvik Larvik () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality ...

, Norway. This is investigated by William Wisting and his team of detectives. Fingerprints link the death to Robert Godwin, an American

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who has been on the run for more than 20 years. He is believed to have fled to Larvik, "hiding in plain sight", having assumed the identity of a local resident. In response the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

sends Special Agents Maggie Griffin and John Bantham to assist the Norwegian investigation. But they must keep their presence secret to avoid alerting the killer, who they fear will flee again. Wisting's daughter, Line, is a journalist writing a story about their next-door neighbour, who had died alone in his house. Unwittingly, her investigating opens up connections with the police murder investigation and she becomes a target. Line's liaison with Bantham, allowing her to discover his identity, compromises his cover. Meanwhile, the police discover the killer's principal dumpsite, the body count sharply rises and the hunt moves over the border into Sweden before Wisting and Griffin corner the killer in a dramatic climax. Wisting appears on a national television show to discuss the Robert Godwin case. Instead he is ambushed by Philip Henden, a lawyer representing Vidar Haglund, who was jailed for 17 years in a different murder case. Now released, Haglund has always maintained his innocence. The crucial DNA evidence, placing him at the crime scene, is shown to have been tampered with, so Wisting is suspended while the investigation is carried out. Line Wisting is outraged that her father is being hounded by the newspaper for which she works and resolves to clear his name, but a murder case she is working on starts to become connected to everything else.

Season 2 (2021)

A race against time to hunt down an escaped killer before he can strike again, with serious consequences for Wisting's team.

Season 3 (2022)

The head of a girl is found placed on a spike in Larvik's town square, shocking the nation. When another dead body is pulled from the river, it becomes clear that the case may delve into broad international criminal connections.

Cast

as William Wisting, police detective *

as Maggie Griffin, FBI Special Agent * Thea Green Lundberg as Line, Wisting's daughter, journalist * Jonas Strand Gravli as Thomas, Wisting's son * Kjersti Sandal as Torunn Borg, Wisting's deputy *

Mads Ousdal Mads Ousdal (born 8 December 1970) is a Norwegian actor. He worked as an actor at Den Nationale Scene from 1996 to 1998, at Oslo Nye Teater from 1998 to 1999, and at Nationaltheatret from 2000. He played in the film ''Detector'' from 2000 and in ' ...

as Nils Hammer, police detective * Mariann Hole as Sissel * Lars Berge as Benjamin Fjeld, police detective

Season 1

* Richie Campbell as John Bantham, FBI Special Agent *

Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen (born 4 February 1971) is a Norwegian actress. Her mother is the actress Kjersti Døvigen, and her father was the jazz musician Ole Jacob Hansen, who died when Ulrikke was 27. Educated in England, she has performed both at ...

as Christine Thiis, police prosecutor * Irina Eidsvold Tøien as Andrea Vetti, police chief * Gard B. Eidsvold as Frank Robekk, retired police detective *

Fridtjov Såheim Fridtjov Såheim (born 2 July 1968) is a Norwegian stage director, stage actor and film actor. He has worked for the theatres Den Nationale Scene, Rogaland Teater and Nationaltheatret. Among his characters is the title role in ''Woyzeck'', and t ...

as Philip Henden, lawyer * Christoffer Staib as Vidar Haglund, hunted murderer * Lasse Vermeli as Erik, press photographer *

Jon Øigarden Jon Øigarden (born 31 May 1971) is a Norwegian actor, who is well known for his role as journalist Peter Verås in the TV series ''Mammon'', Jarl Varg in Norsemen, and other Norwegian films. Career Jon Øigarden was educated at the Norwegian Na ...

as Terje Nordbo, Chief Inspector, Independent Office for Police Conduct

Production

''Wistings first season is based on two books by Jørn Lier Horst, ''The Caveman'' (2013) and ''The Hunting Dogs'' (2012). Horst is a best-selling author in Norway and has been translated into over 30 languages. Filming started in January 2018 on a 150-day schedule. The adaptation was written by

Trygve Allister Diesen Trygve Allister Diesen (Trig Diesen) (born 11 July 1967 in Norway) is a TV and film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has mostly worked in Scandinavia and the US. He is partner in the Scandinavian production compantenk.tv Trygve Allister ...

and Kathrine Valen Zeiner. Diesen also directed episodes along with Katarina Launing. The show's first season had a budget of NOK 110 million (€11.4 million). This sum incorporated a €1 million grant from

Creative Europe Creative Europe is a European Union programme for the cultural and creative sectors. In its first phase, going from 2014 to 2020, it had a budget of € 1.47 billion, which were expanded to € 2.44 billion in its second phase (2021-2027). Hist ...

as well as a grant of NOK 26.05 million (€2.7 million) from the

Norwegian Film Institute The Norwegian Film Institute ( no, Norsk filminstitutt) was founded in 1955 to support and develop the Norwegian film industry. On 1 April 2008, it was merged with Norwegian Film Fund, Norwegian Film Development, and Norwegian Film Commission to ...

. This makes the show the most expensive drama ever produced in Norway.

Release

The Norway and Sweden broadcast commenced in April 2019. In the US, the series was launched on December 18, 2019 via the Sundance Now streaming service. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, the series was acquired by

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

from Banijay Rights and commenced broadcast on 28 December 2019, with two episodes being shown back-to-back for five weeks.

Reception

The Nordic press viewed the series favourably. ''

Stavanger Aftenblad ''Stavanger Aftenblad'' () (lit: ''Stavanger Evening Paper'') or simply ''Aftenbladet'' is a daily newspaper based in Stavanger, Norway, and owned by Schibsted Media Group. Norwegian owners held 42 percent of the shares in Schibsted at the end ...

'' commented that it was "intricate and riveting", ''

Jyllands-Posten ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulat ...

'' called it "a sure winner" and ''

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

'' praised its "nonstop momentum". Writing in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

,''

Dorothy Rabinowitz Dorothy Rabinowitz is a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and commentator. She was born in New York City, and attained a bachelor's degree at Queens College. She worked toward a doctorate at New York University from 1957 to 1960, but did ...

found the series "seamlessly woven" and "superbly layered". Writing in UK's ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Euan Ferguson described the series as "... the best Nord-noir ever. Since the last one. What did Scandinavian film-makers think they were ever doing, 80 years of existential angst and Death playing nihilist chess, before remembering: we have crime. Coal. Snow. Blood. Fire. Cheekbones. Let’s do that."

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 7875794 Television shows set in Norway 2019 Norwegian television series debuts 2010s Norwegian television series Norwegian crime television series