Directors: Harald Zwart & Petter Holmsen
Release date: 2021
Contains spoilers
A Norwegian series on Netflix (and my thanks to Ian for pointing it out to me), Post Mortem masquerades as a Nordic police procedural series and whilst there is some level of that – in a small village or town where the entire staff of the police station is three – it isn’t really. Rather it is a vampire show with a wickedly black humour and that is no bad thing.
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| Live found dead |
It starts with the body of Live Hallangen (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen) being processed in a field by local police Reinert (André Sørum) and his boss Judith (Kim Fairchild) – the body had been found by a jogger. They call the funeral home to transport her to the coroner’s office – though Reinert has misgivings as the home is run by her father Arvid (Terje Strømdahl) assisted by her brother Odd (Elias Holmen Sørensen). Nevertheless, they have the hearse and they take her to the coroner.
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| in the crematorium |
She is on the post mortem table and the first incision seems unusual as she bleeds. A scalpel is pushed into her chest and she wakes up, confused and distressed but very much alive. They take her through to the hospital and it doesn’t take ER doctor Sverre (Øystein Røger) long to discharge her. However, that evening her father chloroforms her, puts her in a coffin and takes her to the crematorium. He actually gets her into the furnace but she manages to break out of the coffin, lift the furnace door before it closes and get out. Her father suggests he can explain but she pushes him away, breaking his ribs and causing him to fall and impale the back of his head on an ornamental urn lid.
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| Arvid dead |
We have heard that Skarnes was deemed as the best place to commit murder as the police are too lazy to investigate (an unfair slur, Reinert is keen and Judith has her reasons and soon becomes embroiled in the investigation anyway). Odd discovers that the family business is just weeks away from bankruptcy – because no-one dies in Skarnes (not, as you might think, due to being a population of vampires). However, the police have a suspicious-near death – Live can remember being attacked – and the murder of Arvid to investigate. Reinert also holds a flame for Live.
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| Eyes flash green |
Live becomes erratic as her senses sharpen and a need builds within her – until she realises it is a need to drink blood. She also discovers that her mother had been like her and had told her father to look out for the signs in the daughter and spare her the pain by killing her. So we then get Live’s misadventures as a vampire. She can go out in daylight and does not have fangs – the vampiric aspects are the need for blood, her eyes changing colour to a vivid green, fast healing, sharp senses, super strength and it seems only immolation can kill her. The condition can be passed on.
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| Judith and Reinert |
To be fair, whilst fun, the vampire aspect was mostly “new vampire gets used to condition”, which has been done loads. The black humour throughout was welcome, whilst the non-vampiric elements in the show actually gave it an additional edge. Judith stumbles on a drug ring that distributed its products inside books borrowed from the bookmobile, when said vehicle overturns at a roundabout and the librarian does a runner – this is a thread Odd accidentally gets drawn into.
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| Elias Holmen Sørensen as Odd |
Which brings me to, for me, the star. Elias Holmen Sørensen is fantastic as Odd. Trying to save his family business, dedicated to his profession, genuinely sweet and honest. The Odd storyline was just magnificent and a source of much of the humour (and mostly parallel to, rather than intertwined with, the vampire aspects). That said, all the performances were worthwhile. The oddity within Skarnes generally was downplayed enough that it bubbled under the surface and added to the entertainment value. There is enough scope for further seasons but, as the first season, this was well worth a watch – 7.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
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