VERONIKA Review: Troubling Visions, Perverse Murders, Cold Cases

In the cold light of day, has Veronika lost her mind?

Veronika
The eight-episode series makes its U.S. premiere Tuesday, August 20, exclusively on Viaplay via Viaplay's Prime Video Channel or their U.S. partners. In Canada, visit here. In the UK, visit here. I've seen all eight episodes.

People are always asking her to leave.

Veronika (Alexandra Rapaport) is predisposed to say what's on her mind, no matter how uncomfortable it makes the listener, often prompting a request for her to vacate the premises immediately. On the other hand, as a homicide detective in the local police force, her readiness to speak her mind is a valuable asset, even if it continually causes cascading issues in the small community where she lives, where, apparently, no one takes kindly to her constant suspicions and insistent questions.

Where Veronika runs into trouble is seeing dead people. At night. During the day. All the freakin' time. She cannot banish them from her sight, no matter how hard she tries. Is she losing her mind? Or is she someone who can see the not-so-dearly departed, dead souls who keep appearing, imploring Veronika to dig deeper, not in any words, but in their ghostly appearance?

Her husband Tomas (Tobias Santelmann) and their children Liv (Sarah Rodin) and Simon (Eddie Ericksson Dominguez), are loving and supportive, but Tomas and the teenaged Liv walk and talk carefully around Veronika, well-aware of her past serious emotional issues, which led to her hospitalization. Young Simon feels a growing kinship with her dark, deep-seated personality traits, which is troubling all on its own.

Her new partner, Nassir (Arvin Kananian), has only arrived recently to the force, and he doesn't quite know what to make of her, especially since Veronika is guarded about her secrets and doesn't like to share her personal history of emotional issues. Nonetheless, they are assigned to work together on a new case, which gradually leads them to a very cold trail of a killer who may still be active.

Created and scripted by Katja Juras and Anna Lindblom, and directed expertly by Jonas Alexander Arnby, Veronika is deliberately paced, a dramatic mystery series that strikes a match, lights it, and then keeps burning and burning. Atypical of much modern noir, the individual pieces of the jigsaw puzzle only come together over time.

The slower-than-expected pace becomes a virtue, enabling the viewer to empathize to a greater degree with Veronika. Alexandra Rapaport's superb portrayal of the character gradually reveals fifty shades of grey despair. Anyone who has ever experienced loss of any sort or has plunged unwillingly into clinical depression will recognize the warning signs, which abound, Even as Veronika sallies forth as best she can, because she must.

Veronika's search for justice becomes ever more intense, even as the series keeps an even keel, ferreting out clues and flushing out bad actors and true villains. Sometimes, Nordic Noir is a dirty business, as Veronika proves. But it's a necessary one, if you care at all about doing the right thing. And justice for all.