User reviews

I accidentally stumbled across this TV mini series in the late night program of a German TV channel and was captivated from its very beginning: The series starts with a telephone call to the Oslo police warning of suicide bomber at an Oslo underground station. The police officers rush to the scene, identify the suspect and - because of the suspect's resistance - shoot him, only to find out soon that the suspect did not carry a bomb on his body. Instead, he wore a gun and a picture of a high-ranking Norwegian diplomat currently chairing peace talks for the African county of Mugato who was supposed to appear soon at that station. The Oslo police special unit "Hunter" and the Norwegian secret service now cooperate in investigating this apparent assassination plot which leads them to high ranking industrials, human rights activists and African politicians as well as into some of the investigators' past with violence, crime and treason being their constant companions.

I was positively surprised by the quality of the script, of the actors and of the production: Not once does the series lose its pace or thrill. The characters are convincing and the plot is very elaborate and always surprising. I especially liked the way in which the borders of good and evil often became murky; even the well-meaning investigators have their dark sides and their daemons to face. Comparable TV productions would be "State of Play" or "Edge of Darkness" - and even with those classics this production can almost keep up with quality-wise.

Unfortunately, the first season of this TV production - Codename Hunter 1 - is not yet available in English or German. I very much hope that there will soon be a DVD release at least with subtitles or even a German dubbed version, in order to watch this "prequel" so to speak and to understand better the main characters' histories and backgrounds.

Nice tight action. Yeah liked season1 a bit better, and need to see that for backstory of season 2 . Lots of good characters. Tense action. Don't miss the really interesting interviews with writer/director and Ane Dahl Torp included on the Mhz Networks site where I see most of this Norwegian Noir great programs.