The Chestnut Man: Hide and Seek

The Chestnut Man was a thoroughly competent Danish crime series. No doubt about it. Netflix's global distribution model made it a huge success, securing top-10 rankings in over 50 countries, but here at home it represented an effective, yet relatively unoriginal format, based on a narrative tradition that has been around for... well, many years.

That doesn't mean the series is any worse for it, but it also means that, particularly for those in the Nordic region, these narrative, visual, and structural characteristics are something we've grown with over the years, and which we've come to know extremely well by now. Perhaps that is also why, having watched the second season, "Hide and Seek", based on Søren Sveistrup's follow-up novel about Thulin and Hess, I can say exactly the same thing as when I watched the first season. This is fine entertainment in a more down-to-earth, easily accessible way, and it serves as a palatable, PG-13-style introduction to the "Nordic crime series" (we're probably all tired of the genre label "Nordic noir"), but nothing more than that.

This follow-up season takes place a couple of years after the conclusion of Thulin's (played once again by Danic Curcic) and Hess' (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) first case together. A series of kidnappings, which serve as the culmination of malicious stalking accompanied by a creepy counting rhyme, forces this unlikely duo back together after a long time apart, and it stirs up old feelings. Together, they must once again unravel a semi-complex case involving Sofie Gråbøl's character Marie Holst, which stretches back several decades.

The broader plot is, to no one's surprise, quite effective, and just as with the first season, there is just enough eerie imagery and solidly staged set design to create a memorable game of cat-and-mouse, as we have seen it executed so many times before. There are some pretty nifty twists along the way, which are the absolute highlight of the season and represent a touch of narrative daring that is much needed, given that the rest of the overarching narrative relies on immediate familiarity for its entertainment value.

There are still minor issues in the close-up, where certain Danish series productions, for some reason, struggle to construct credible, down-to-earth conversations. It's difficult to say whether it's the rejection of the theatrical that makes it sound artificial, or perhaps just slightly staged, but when Katinka Lærke Petersen's Sandra says, "Hey, Thulin, hurry over here and look at these police reports", the opposite effect to the intended one is achieved. In an attempt to come across as raw, genuine, and no-nonsense, it ends up... well, unconvincing.

That said, it's still Følsgaard and Curcic who lead the way here, and together with Gråbøl, they anchor the series with emotional and effective acting that the rest of the cast cannot quite match. Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, in particular, gets the chance to imbue Mark Hess with plenty of intensity and depth, and every scene with him at the centre of the frame is in good company.

"Hide and Seek" is solid, reliable entertainment, built around a good hook and fine performances. Whether you, like me, are starting to see the seams in this Nordic crime genre and are beginning to wish someone would dare to play around a bit more with the whole framework, I don't know. But I enjoyed this series, despite feeling I've seen it all before.