Another month has flown by and once again a wonderful collection of TV shows and movies to catch – we once again round up some of our favourite Nordic flavours of the month!

TV SHOWS

We really have been spoilt with TV Series this month and even as we write this we are battling our way through as much television as we can to keep up with it all. Here are our top picks of the month:

ELVES
(Out today on Netflix)

We got an exclusive preview of this series and even got an interview with the writer and creator behind it!

Elves is something very different to your usual Nordic Noir fare and with Christmas fast approaching, Elves is a perfect series to binge-watch with a mulled wine.

Elves is by no means terrifying for those hardcore fans out there, the creator likened it to the creature features of the 80s and we feel it’s like a scary episode of Doctor Who. Not for the little ones, but certainly a family-friendly feature.

The series sees a family head off to a little island in Denmark to reconnect in a cabin and enjoy a Christmas break, but the locals aren’t too fond of their new visitors and things get incredibly weird when one of the daughters discovers a little creature. The creature is an elf and there are many more where it came from…and they are not necessarily all as cute as this one…hear a great description and more details in our Elves interview with the creator.

It is jolly good fun and with the episodes roughly around 20-25 minutes each, you can get through it all very quickly.

THE UNLIKELY MURDERER
(Available now on Netflix)

Based on true events surrounding the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, in the 1980s, this is an intriguing portrait of a character believed to have committed the crime, but the police just can’t seem to prove it.

The series delves into the private life of Stig Engstrom, the events that unfolded the night Olof was murdered, and the seemingly confusing investigation that ensued – in which Stig positions himself as a key witness and continuously pokes his nose into the proceedings. But he did he in fact get away with murder in plain sight?

We must praise the talented make-up team working on this series and in particular Love Larson who is the prosthetic makeup designer – how he aged and changed the characters in the series was both fantastic and convincing!

PARTISAN
(Available now on Walter Presents / All4)

Partisan does live up to the hype that has surrounded it since its release in Sweden last year. It was apparently the most-watched premier on Viaplay when it was released, and it is great that Walter Presents managed to get hold of this.

What makes Partisan so interesting is, much like our two other recommendations this month, it offers something a little different. It certainly is pretty out there and we likened it a lot to Monster in its intriguing oddities.

Fares Fares, is on alarmingly good form here, plays Johnny, who starts to work at a gated community called Jordnara where things aren’t totally what they seem. We have gymnastic sequences, a pair of crazy Polish characters, and the introduction of two sisters who are trying to fit in.

The music is fantastic, opening to the sounds of Leonard Cohen’s The Partisan was perfect, and the style of how this is filmed makes it stick out. Amir Chadin has gone for a filming approach that makes this series feel more like you are watching a film.

FILM

Just one film on our list this month; one we saw a while ago but is now available in the UK and we enjoyed a re-watch as it’s definitely one of our films of the year:

RIDERS OF JUSTICE
(Out now on Now TV/ Sky Cinema)

Many who have seen Riders of Justice will likely tell you that this is one of their favourite movies to be released this year. A Mads Mikkelsen film that features a star-studded supporting cast of recognisable Danish faces that steal the movie away from Mads, in our opinion.

If you haven’t seen it then we definitely recommend you get this on your watchlist, as we see Mads Mikkelsen play a soldier who returns home after learning his wife has died in what seemed like an accident, but is later contacted by a pair of computer nerds who insinuate otherwise. It’s an emotional and extremely comical action ride which will leave you with a smile on your face.

Feature by Alex Minnis