Spooky Reviews: The Chestnut Man (Netflix Series)

 

Spooky Season is upon us, friends! If you are a fan of horror or noir-ish crime fiction, then this is the time to binge on this type of content! 

I recently finished watching The Chestnut Man on Netflix and thought I'd do a quick review. 

• Adapted from the eponymous best-selling Nordic Noir crime thriller novel, The Chestnut Man follows a team of two cops in Copenhagen as they solve a series of gruesome serial killings. Thulin, a star investigator and a single mother, wants to leave her highly demanding job as a homicide detective to make more time for Le, her young daughter. Hess, reeling from a personal tragedy, is on a break from Europol and back in his hometown for a few weeks. When the brutalised body of a young mother is found in her own backyard, along with a small chestnut man (little stick-figure creatures made from chestnuts by children) bearing the fingerprints of a minister's daughter, who was abducted and killed one year ago, Thulin and Hess have to rush against time to stop this clever killer. 

• The show is very atmospheric. Set in Denmark in mid-to-end October, the show's backdrop consists of stunning rusts and oranges of fall along with a lot of dark, eerie settings. Full spooky season vibe! 

• The show starts off as a bit of a slow-burn, which may be a bit frustrating, but stick around and the narrative picks up and gets more interesting. The first few episodes focus on character-building and of Thulin and Hess trying to get their boss' permission to re-interview minister Rosa Hartung and her husband about their daughter's- Kristine's- abduction and death. 

• The show (and, I guess, the book) focuses on the question of 'who is a good mother?'. It is mothers, who are being killed- their eyes gouged out, hands and feet amputated- to resemble the eerie-looking chestnut men. So, the investigative process- finding common ground between the victims, catching on to a very slim common thread and following that to zero in on the killer- is nicely done. 

• The killer's reveal is not very predictable, though you can sort of guess in which line of work the killer could be, which is always a nice thing. The killer's backstory, their motives for committing these murders etc. is also nicely done. 

TLDR: Do watch this six-episode series if you enjoy nordic crime fiction, which is perfect for spooky season!