Created by Katja Juras and Anna Ströman Lindblom, all eight episodes of Veronika are available for your binge-watching pleasure on Viaplay USA. The ghostly police thriller follows the titular character, played by Alexandra Rappaport, as she pieces together several cold cases – all of which seem to have a mysterious connection with her own past. However, Veronika is not a reliable narrator. She hallucinates bloodied bodies that are not there; she wakes up every day at 5.55am from a recurring nightmare; she is both obsessive and emotionally closed off.

One of the most striking things about the series is the colour palette. The Swedish forest landscape, which feels like it should be verdant and lush, is a washed-out series of greys and browns. The rolling mists bathe everything in a funereal pallor. There are no pretty colourful houses and sleek Scandi designs on show, here. Instead, Veronika’s house is a creaky old thing – ripe for ghostly apparitions to appear on the floor-to-ceiling windows or for a door to mysteriously slam in the middle of the night. More than this, the closer that Veronika seems to get to cracking the case, the more her character is lit in a dingy urine yellow and an acidic, warning amber. The repeated appearances of murmurations of birds and gnarled, grapsing tree branches add to the horror-adjacent elements of the series. It is also a very beautifully shot series – the symmetry and camerawork are quite cinematic (particularly the fluid camerawork that follows Veronika like a spectre over her shoulder).

And it’s not just the visuals that elevate Veronika beyond a standard police drama. There’s actually very little violence – no close ups of mortally wounded bodies – instead, choosing to focus on the psychological elements of the piece. As established, our titular detective seems to be spiralling. From the very first episode, it’s clear that her mental health is not as stable as it should be, nor is this the first time she has been in the grip of a manic episode. Is she really seeing ghosts? And are they helping her to solve the cold cases? This supernatural side does make for quite a few jumpscares in the first half of the series, but this simmers into something more serious (and sinister) as the plot develops.

The performances are also excellent. Alexandra Rappaport looks like a woman plagued by her own mind. The pain of her memories – and of the visions that appear to her – is etched all over her face. Her eyes are rimmed by the deep charcoal grey of someone who is never fully rested. You can feel her anxious energy through the screen, something which is neatly contrasted by Tobias Santelmann, who plays her husband, Tomas. His performance is understated yet exasperated. This is a man who is familiar with his wife’s mental state but clearly wishes they could work together to get through it all. Her almost frenzied approach to solving these murder cases sees their marriage and homelife firmly on the sidelines.

Mental health is a prominent theme of the series. Whilst Veronika is clearly battling her demons, there are also other characters facing their own problems. Her son Simon (Eddie Eriksson Dominguez) is isolated at school, seeming odd and obsessive. His teachers single him out for a potential ADHD diagnosis. Veronika’s aunt (Karen Bertling) is in a home due to lapses in memory that seem to be getting worse. All three characters share a very strong bond, with their “otherness” perhaps the unifying factor. How society reacts to these very different mental health issues is also incredibly pointed. It’s another facet of this series that makes it so interesting and watchable – these are very real issues.

The tension smoulders across all eight episodes, with more than a few twists and dead ends along the way. Director Jonas Alexander Arnby does a fantastic job of never really letting you out of his grip, building the multi-stranded narrative delicately and expertly. The last episode, as all the loose ends begin to tie neatly together, is nothing short of pure stress. The “big reveal”, as it’s so often referred to in detective dramas, is very shocking and comes out of left-field. The build up is incredibly creepy and sinister (and not in a ghostly way, in a very tangibly threatening way).

Veronika is an incredibly engaging and refreshing take on Scandi crime drama. This is less about “strong but scatty female leads” and more about how trauma can take over your life. The sins of the past that haunt both the small forest town and Veronika herself will have you saying; “Just one more episode” again and again.

Veronika is available on Viaplay USA from the 20th August– we will update you if the series gets a UK Release. Look out for our interview with the lead actress later this month.