Midnight Sun, Sky Atlantic

Scandinavian crime drama already has a reputation for filming scenery that is both jawdropping and utterly bleak. But in Midnight Sun a murder investigation is underway in the northernmost inhabited part of Sweden, 120 miles inside the Arctic Circle – which must surely raise the bar.

Björn Stein and Måns Mårlind, creators of Scandi noir hit The Bridge, bring us a new drama in which a French citizen is brutally murdered in the mountainous iron mining town of Kiruna. Parisian detective Kahina Zadi (Leila Bekhti) is called in to investigate.

Enlisting the help of the local DA (Gustaf Hammarsten) and chief prosecutor (Peter Stormare), and sensing trouble from members of the indigenous Arctic Sámi people, Zadi soon faces further killings.


This is Scandi noir with a fresh twist: rather than being perpetually bleak and grey, the drama incorporates the midnight sun – the series is literally less dark than its predecessors; asking when the ever-present sun goes down, Zadi is told 'in a few weeks'.

But that's about all the light there is in what looks to be a deeply dark crime saga. It contains violence and disturbing scenes from the outset and throughout, and occupies the 10pm slot on Sky Atlantic. Definitely not hygge.

10pm, Wednesdays on Sky Atlantic