Arts & Culture editor Hammond Cole Sherouse draws on his vast and eclectic knowledge of semi-obscure media to deliver you mostly coherent reviews of things you probably haven’t heard of. This is Junk Food for Thought.
HBO’s Danish true crime dramatization “Efterforskningen” (“The Investigation”) doesn’t tell the story you’d expect it to.
The series is based on the 2017 murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, a crime which made international headlines mainly for the strange detail that it allegedly took place on the homemade submarine of its perpetrator.
Creator Tobias Lindholm could have easily milked hours of salacious entertainment out of this story, highlighting the eccentric engineer turned convicted murderer. After all, violence and spectacle are some of the main draws of true crime media for most people.
But “The Investigation” hardly revels in the gruesome details of the so-called Submarine Case that it depicts. Instead, the series focuses almost entirely on the Copenhagen police’s homicide department’s investigation of the case.
Indeed, neither the crime itself nor its perpetrator (only ever called “the accused”) are ever once shown on screen.
Instead, a fictionalized version of detective Jens Møller, played by Søren Malling, takes center stage. Across its six episodes, Møller becomes increasingly obsessed with the case, exploring every possible theory and angle in excruciating detail.
It’s that attention to detail that makes the series so special. Unlike other popular depictions of criminal investigations, this series chronicles every step of the process and never skips over a logistical challenge for convenience’s sake.
For example, one particular subplot follows the use of Swedish cadaver dogs to search Køge Bay for key pieces of evidence. Every possible problem, from calculating ocean currents to organizing diving crews to accounting for low underwater visibility is addressed and solved in realistic and interesting ways.
Not only is the series logistically meticulous, it’s also cinematographically intricate. Various repeated camera angles and visual motifs are used to develop a strong cinematic language, through which the series characterizes the routines and procedures of its titular investigation.
The series is able to use this visual language to creatively depict the crime it never directly shows. The submarine itself is only ever shown in full once, but it’s in perhaps the most memorable shot in all six episodes.
Its more profound moments are also depicted perfectly, with frequent shots of the horizon over Køge Bay emphasizing in equal measures the difficulty and significance of the task at hand.
Besides detective Maibritt Porse (Laura Christensen) and the other members of the homicide department, the series stars Pilou Asbæk as lead prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen, as well as Pernilla August and Rolf Lassgård as the parents of Kim Wall.
The cast brings a sobering humanity to a case which many originally looked at as nothing more than a bizarre headline. August and Lassgård especially deliver heartbreaking and nuanced performances as Ingrid and Joachim Wall.
Though the show’s slow pace can be frustrating at times, its periods of tedium paradoxically allow for a deeper level of immersion. Breakthroughs in the case feel more triumphant, setbacks feel more devastating and emotional moments feel more heart-wrenching.
“The Investigation” is certainly not salacious, but if you’re willing to give it a chance, it is a captivating experience and a kind of true crime story that’s rare to find nowadays.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Photo courtesy of HBO
