Trom

I like Danish crime, and this is made on the Feroe Island with nice nature scenery as a bonus. The episodes builds up tension pretty good, but unfortunately it lacks new inspiration. It has too many similarities with other crime series, and the revelation of who killed whom was dissapointing. But there might be a season two, so absolutely not bad, but it did not reach its full potential.

Scandi-noir has become fairly ubiquitous across the English speaking world in recent years: we've seen dramas set in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, and now, 'Trom' visits perhaps the most remarkable Scandinavian landscape of them all, the Faroe Islands. And it's not a bad drama either, albeit not an especially radical one, with its story of political activism, a dodgy businesman, police politcs and strained family ties. What'a a bit odd, however, is that series one feels more like half a series: it ends, not only with a cliff-hanger, but all the wider whys still not cleaned up. A second series is merited; and will hopefully manage to complete the story.

This is another take on having scenery as a main 'character' of the storytelling instead of the actual crimes and cases. The only outstanding acting came from the junior female officer who seemed to be the only one who did the actual investigating using her brain. The other characters were fairly unrealistic and disappointing in their roles here. The writing wasn't really up to the level of some other Scandinavian shows of the recent past. Most off-putting for me is the fact that the Faroe Islands still hunt whales. There was no indication this is a necessary activity for keeping people alive or employed, so I put it in the 'propaganda' category. The most interesting aspect was that many buildings have grass roofs and that there are anti-whaling protests going on. But this series is just too thin to sustain much loyalty for another season.

The scenery is breathtaking for the most part. The plot is lame & has been done many times over - big man who controls too much, a police officer who is economical with the truth & has a son to protect & investigative journalists, one of whom gets killed etc etc. Plot is probably worth 5/10 maybe, local actors 5.5, main cast saves acting overall, so 6.5 - 7/10. Ending sets up for season 2 if it gets made.

TROM is a nordic noir just like several other Scandinavian crime stories that have come out. Set on the Faroe Islands (Føroyar), the story involves idealistic activism and dubious corporate actions that has roots to official parts of the country.

The setting is beautiful, with absolutely stunning fly-overs of fjords, green rocks, sheep, tiny houses and crashing waves. Not much mentioned that there are any cities larger than 2 houses.

The characters all seem like the type of people you will find at the west coast of Denmark: rough fisher-men types, with a forever depressed look. No smiles to see here.

What bothers me the most about this series is that Faroese and Danish is mixed at random. The Danes speak Danish, Faroese speak Faroese - and they always understand each other completely. This is far from the reality. Such language mix can be shown between Sweden and Denmark, or maybe Norway / Denmark. But no Dane will randomly understand Faroese - and if they do, they'll also be able to speak it. As a native Dane, it becomes annoying to take such freedoms. Like when someone in a show is interviewing a random person (ex: arabix), asks questions in English, and is responded in Arab. Interpreters obviously cut away.

Quit watching after end of episode 2 where a serious technical plot hole was needed to make the story continue.

For this reason, 3 stars gone.