For a country that frequently tops the ‘world’s happiest place to live’ charts, Finland can certainly produce dark drama, and in season two of Bordertown, there’s darkness upon darkness.
Lappeenranta, on the Finnish/Russian border, is a city wrapped in darkness, be that the dark of the Nordic night or the darkness of hidden family secrets destined to haunt the present.
For Inspector Kari Sorjonen that darkness event permeates his mind. A man of unconventional thought processes and memory; the smallest detail haunts him, hand gestures and ticks recalling every detail. The eccentricity could easily make the detective an outsider, but his neuro-divergency is seen as a bonus. There’s an interesting parallel to Detective Saga Norén from The Bridge – both investigators whose challenges in social interactions due to neurodivergency is actually an asset to allow themselves to focus on the detail others miss.
For series two of Bordertown, Sorjonen faces five crimes, each played out over a two-episode pairing. The crimes themselves are unlinked, although given the small city backdrop the ripples are felt far and wide, but there are threads running through them.
Revenge, Finish/Russian tensions, family betrayals – all intertwine as the Serious Crime Unit race against time to solve the cases.
These are cases that aren’t easy viewings. Dark, disturbing and unflinching topics such as child sex abuse are shown in their full horror, the impacts writ large on the screen. Its dark, brooding and challenging viewing but utterly compelling.
Alongside the meticulously detailed police procedural, Inspector Sorjonen is facing his own challenges. A father having to come to terms with his own daughter’s coming of age and sexual awakening and his wife’s continuing fight against cancer. For a man so ruled by his memories, it’s a painful journey to undertake.
It is perhaps a testament to the central performance from Ville Virtanen that this often-challenging piece holds together as must-see viewing. Virtanen’s intricately detailed performance captures every twitch, gesture and thought of a man whose movements trigger his photographic memory. It could all too easily become a caricature, but Virtanen draws us in with a carefully observed performance.
There’s a strange feeling of the structure of this series. On one hand each pair of episodes could be viewed as standalone features, crimes carried out and solved across the two one-hour episodes. In a way that is the best way to view them. These are detailed, dark and troublesome tales that reward careful attention. Detailed and dark these aren’t wallpaper TV that you watch in the background, and after two hours, the viewer is probably emotionally drained.
On the other hand, there’s a sense of epic as viewing the entire series as a 10-hour saga. There’s elements of thread around the private and professional lives of the characters that matures across the whole and details from the first pair suddenly becomes relevant in the final pairing.
However, you consume it though Bordertown series two rewards the effort. Brutal, dark and unforgiving, the intensity of Viranen’s central performance alongside meticulously detailed plot lines will keep you glued to your seat throughout.
Bordertown Season Two is available on Walter Presents/Channel 4 now
