Dramas and mysteries in the cold Swedish lands: the series that are conquering Netflix

The ghosts of Kurt Wallander , the beloved detective creation by Swedish author Henning Mankell , resurface in three series from the same Nordic lands, with some thematic variations but—as is customary—without fear of delving into the more gruesome. Released on Netflix in February to great acclaim, The Murders at Are is perhaps the closest in spirit to the Skanese detective.

The series' protagonist is Hanna Ahlander (Carla Sehn), a Stockholm police officer who is temporarily in the northern town of Are, trying to get away from a toxic relationship, when an alert is issued for the disappearance of a teenage girl, and she ends up joining the local police force. Her assigned partner is Daniel Lindskog (Kardo Razzazi), who is initially suspicious of the newcomer, until a brotherly bond is established, which is one of the production's hooks.

An adaptation of Viveca Sten's novel series, the best part of The Murders at Are lies in the contrasts: between the gruesome murders and the beautiful snowy landscapes, illuminated by the polar light; between the sordid killers and the innate innocence of Hanna, whose work in Stockholm involved domestic violence cases, and ends up facing much more extreme assignments in Are.

In just five episodes, the series covers two crimes, the first subtitled "Hidden in the Snow" and the second—the death of a ski instructor—subtitled "Hidden in the Shadows." In between, the series, directed by Joakim Eliasson and Alain Darborg, achieves an excellent depiction of life in these Nordic communities, with a familiarity that hides the true ignorance among its inhabitants, punctuated by dreamy northern photography.

Two other Netflix series demonstrate the renewed interest in maintaining quality content on the pioneering streaming platform. Directed by Henrik Björn and Lisa Farnsach, based on a novel by Camilla Läckberg , The Glass Dome (Glaskupan) also focuses its action on the rural outskirts of Sweden; in this case, the lush forested region of Dalarna.

The story follows Lejla (Léonie Vincent), who as a child was held captive in a cellar's bell jar and miraculously escaped her captors. As an adult, Lejla has transformed her post-traumatic stress into a PhD in dealing with the similar experiences of other children, and successfully works in mental health institutions in the United States. But the death of her stepmother forces her to return to Dalarna to keep her stepfather, Valter (Johan Hedenberg), company; and inevitably, the flashbacks return.

In Dalarna, the town is completely shocked by the dredging of a river by a chemical company. The company is owned by Said (Farzad Farzaneh), the husband of her best friend. One afternoon, Lejla goes to visit her friend and finds the doors open, music blaring from the speakers, and the woman, her wrists slashed, bleeding to death in the bathtub.

When she calls the police, they encounter a second catastrophe: Alicia (Minoo Andacheh), Said and his wife's daughter, is missing. It soon comes to light that Tomas (Johan Rheborg), Valter's policeman brother, was having an affair with the woman, and Lejla begins to suspect that the man isn't also behind Alicia's disappearance. And so, amid numerous flashbacks to her early captivity, Lejla hopes to finally discover who kidnapped her as a child, suspecting it is Alicia's captor.

The third Swedish production released on Netflix is perhaps the most interesting. The Trail is about the second largest crime case in recent Swedish history. It all happens one morning in Linköping, a small town, when a boy is walking to school and is suddenly approached and stabbed by a passerby. The killer is caught in the act by a 56-year-old woman, who yells at him to stop and, as she does so, draws attention only to be stabbed by the killer herself.

The brutal scene has one witness, a casual cyclist, who, despite her efforts, can't remember the killer's face. With blood samples on the knife and the murderer's discarded hat, Detective John Sundin (Peter Eggers) orders a compulsory swab test of all men between the ages of 15 and 30, but the DNA results show no match to the blood samples.

The search narrows when, thanks to a hypnotist, the cyclist manages to remember the attacker's face, and an identikit begins to circulate. But despite several arrests, DNA extractions still don't match the samples. Sixteen years later, Sundin is a frustrated man whose obsession led him to separate from his wife; solving the double murder, however, remains his guiding principle, and so he comes into contact with a genealogist, Per Skogkvist (Mattias Nordkvist), creator of a revolutionary method that allows for "matching" family ties spanning 200 years. From his investigations, and the fortuitous appearance of a nosy journalist, will emerge the resolution of this intricate thriller , one of the best of the latest crop made in Sweden.