Detective Hole (2026)–Burrowng Underneath
The Netflix Scandi-noir series, Detective Hole, is adapted from master Norwegian detective author, Jo Nesbø’s The Devil’s Star. A dual plot unfolds with a gruesome serial killer as one crime and a drug/weapons smuggling network of heists as the second.
In the opening scene, set in Oslo, a disastrous car crash takes place on the way to a crime scene. Detective Harry Hole (Tobias Santelmann) is the driver. Unable to forgive himself for the aftermath of the accident, he fails to solve the crime he was chasing and devolves into alcoholism. A loner with no relationships either at work or in his personal life, Hole has found a new relationship in Rakel (Pia Tjelta), a lawyer, with a sullen teenage son, Oleg, who does not approve of his mother’s romantic interest in Harry.
Tom Waaler (Joel Kinnaman) is the ) popular golden boy in the police department. . The burgeoning animosity between Hole and Waaler leads to drugs, gun-running, duplicity, coverup and death threats. A brave journalist (Kelly Gales) believes in Hole’s version of the investigation until she can’t, but she is perhaps the only one who can support him in his drunken stupor.
The serial killer appears, at first, to be the focus of the investigation. But the cluster of clues complicates the second plot of a major drug/guns syndicate. The now scattered drama tightens the tension between the dueling characters of Hole and Waaler, but distracts from the serial killings. What is the main focal point? The hunt for the serial killer or the weapons dealer and his bosses? And what about the scenes where Harry tries to win over Oleg, a disturbed teenager? We witness that the twin beacons of light in his otherwise fog of drunkenness–Rakel and Olga– are shadowy figures at best.
Hole breaks out of his alcoholic grip only when pursuing the two series of crimes. The clues and red herrings are confusing, at times compelling, and unusually uneven. There are scenes of homoeroticism on the part of at least three characters, and the mood and tone of each of the characters’ personalities seem inconsistent.
The gang war subplot frequently weighs down tracking the serial murders. While this part of the narrative is eventually revealed to be crucial for the plot, it is convoluted and takes way too much time to tie in the dual crimes. When either one of the two crimes is highlighted, the story is more engaging. Bible and Shakespearean quotations and husbands’ jealousies are often injected with little advanced warning indicating the significance. There are three murderers to track in total!
Layered storytelling is expected to add depth, but here it occasionally threatens to clutter the pacing, the construction of clues, and the multiple threads interwoven to make the viewer think through the crimes, both from the point of view of the detective and the criminal. In Detective Hole we have multiple threads competing for attention, undermining what would be an electrifying watch for noir enthusiasts. The misdirects and cliffhangers you expect to see in Nordic Noir, especially in Jo Nesbø’s work, are often distracting and irrelevant as dramatized here. Nonetheless, for mystery fans there is a lot that is watchable including the subversive surprise at the end, that seems to come out of nowhere. Set up for a Season Two, even the sometimes uneven style and overladen plot, will not prevent viewers from looking forward to what happens in the next season.
And a word about casting. Both Tobias Santelmann’s and Joel Kinnaman’s performances are extraordinary, with microexpressions and smirky twitches never overdone. The haunting, flawed quality of Scandi-noir characters is pushed to the limits. And Santelman and Kinnaman are perfectly matched with faces that offer microexpressions of how they feel and how they conceal. A masterclass in acting!
Availability: Netflix (captions)
Note: There are some very brutal and violent scenes.