Turning the tables on true crime
Crime dramas — whether they’re fictional police procedurals or multi-part documentaries — are everywhere in our pop culture. They’ve been around forever, actually. Detective stories can be traced as far back as the Arabian Nights collection from the 8th century, and even in a young country like the United States, the genre is well over 100 years old.
With all that history behind it, the notion of a “fresh take” can seem elusive. The basics of most murder mysteries haven’t changed much, even with huge improvements in forensic science and more sophisticated storytelling techniques. There will always be the hardnosed detective, the motley crew of suspects, and the victim’s loved ones (who may also be suspects). The story will inevitably have plot twists and conflicting evidence that will be employed to draw you deeper into the mystery.
It’s a compelling formula, one that works time and time again. So, what happens when you tinker with this recipe just a little bit?
On notable example is a show my wife and I just finished called “The Investigation.” It’s a sixparty Danish series based on the real-life disappearance and death of a 30-year-old Swedish journalist named Kim Wall. The basic story itself provides plenty of strange and grisly details to lure in most true crime enthusiasts. But the writer/ director, Tobias Lindholm, made some interesting narrative choices so that the average viewer isn’t going to get what they’re expecting.
The most noticeable difference with this series is the lack of attention paid to the prime suspect. In real life, he was arrested right away and subjected to police questioning. But, as the viewer, you never get to see any of that. In fact, not once do you even get a glimpse of the man suspected of the heinous murder.
It’s an almost jarring absence at first. You feel like there are important scenes missing from each episode, and you wonder when they’re finally going to get to “the good stuff.” Instead, the series spends almost all of its time with the lead detective, following him around as he painstakingly tries to gather evidence and build a case that will succeed in court. Without any action scenes or highintensity interrogations, it can seem like the definition of “a glacial pace.”
Besides the detective and his team of investigators, the true focus is the victim’s parents, who wait in anguish for news about their daughter’s death. That’s something that’s often lacking in crime dramas, but in real life, that’s where the real emotion lies. Unfortunately, we get so obsessed with the killer we often forget about the victims.
Seeing that formula subverted is refreshing, but it’s also challenging, so kudos to the makers of “The Investigation.”
OUT FOR A WALK
KEVIN O’BRIEN
EDITOR
