The Darkness is a decent miniseries with an exquisite lead

I don't envy the position The Darkness is in. Less than a year ago, we got the superlative True Detective: Night Country, which hits most of the same high notes as Lasse Hallström's well-directed and often fantastically performed miniseries.

For example, stop me if you've heard this before: An aging detective, surrounded by casually misogynist peers in a remote northern precinct, deals with her past trauma as she investigates the murder of a body found trapped in ice, all while the darkness of midwinter blurs the line between real and imagined.

Is the above from True Detective, or The Darkness? Does it matter? And does either hold exclusivity over such topics? Of course not, and it requires an askew look at the subject to claim they're exactly alike.

But pitch The Darkness to anyone this year, and they'll probably ask that didn't we already get one like it just a few months ago.

And yet, The Darkness is not a case of "we have True Detective at home". Instead, it's an addition to a blossoming sub-genre of Nordic Noir. An expansion that, at its best, enriches the conversation with a superb performance from series star Lena Olin.

Olin plays Hulda, a detective on the verge of forced retirement, who gets to pick one last job before she's shown the door. She chooses a literal cold case, one that her useless co-workers already considered finished. An immigrant woman's body is found trapped in ice. Elsewhere, others like her vanish with a frequency that should alarm anyone with a soul.

Instead, the men look away. Only Hulda faces the darkness head on. Not for altruism, but to keep her own demons at bay. As long as she can fight the world, she won't have to face the pain eating her alive.

The series hits all familiar hallmarks of Nordic Noir tropes, yet I rarely found myself bored with it. There's comfort in the familiarity, especially when it's in the hands of seasoned veterans like Hallström and Olin.

Hallström, director of classics like My Life as a Dog and The Cider House Rules, understands small town angst better than most. Olin, an expert at portraying characters with raging seas in them, makes a meal out of Hulda, who is as rich and nuanced as any on-screen detective in years.

Whenever the series slows down to focus on Olin, it's as good as anything you'll find on streaming. It's the other aspects that struggle to keep up.

Most notably, the dialog stumbles far more than it soars. Not everyone can fire off withering putdowns like Olin, and it shows. The series is set in Reykjavík, yet everyone speaks like they're trying out for a revival of The Sopranos. There's an uncomfortable amount of Americanized tropes in play, as if the show runners fear that an audience wouldn't connect with the characters without them.

It's a baffling choice, as the exotic nature of Iceland is more than enough to convince us otherwise. This is a land of extremes, both natural and humane, and Olin's committed performance speaks volumes of the depths hidden beneath the surface. We don't need New York -lite dialog to say that which doesn't need to be said out loud.

Most of the series best moments are silent. Hallström finds an ocean of misery in Olin's expressive face, and it's as mysterious and complicated as the central murder itself. There's a remarkable scene where Hulda, faced with the potential death of a loved one, watches from afar. Olin goes from anger to dispassionate removal to helplessness in an instant, as this force of nature comes to understand how some things aren't in our control. It's a bravura performance, and utterly silent.

The central mystery isn't particularly compelling, nor will it take much to figure out who the villains are. Luckily, much of what makes The Darkness compelling comes from the characters, who are textured and intriguing. I care about Hulda, which means that by extension I care about the mystery she's out to solve. At its best, The Darkness understands the biggest mystery is how we as humans spin against the way we drive. It allows us our lurid fascination with death and despair, because it lets us contemplate what we would do when faced with it ourselves.

In those moments, The Darkness proves an excellent and mature drama. One that it will hopefully mine further should Hallström and company adapt the other two books in the Hulda series.

The Darkness premieres on SkyShowtime on November 1st.

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