Locating Nordic Noir

This book is a comprehensive study of Nordic Noir television drama from the 1990's until today. The authors introduce the history of contemporary Nordic Noir from the perspective of place, production and location studies. The chapters include readings of well-known television crime dramas such as Beck, The Killing, Trapped and The Bridge as well as a range of other important Nordic Noir cases. The authors position the development of Nordic Noir in the global market for popular television drama and place the international attention towards Nordic crime dramas within regional development of drama production in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Consequently, Nordic Noir is read as both a transnational financial and creative phenomenon and as a local possibility for community building. Offering a comprehensible, scholarly and methodologically original approach to the popularity of Nordic television crime dramas, this volume is aimed at readers with an interest in crime drama as well as scholars and students of television drama.

1. Introduction: Where is Nordic Noir? . - 2. Part I: Local colour and location studies - Local colour and places on screen. - 3. Location studies: a topography of Nordic noir. - 4. Four perspectives on the Nordic region. - 5. Part II: From bestsellers to blockbusters - Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian crime literature as a stepping stone. - 6. Beck and character adaptations. - 7. Funding models and increasing transnationalism. - 8. Part III: Written for the Danish screen - The Killing and DR s Danish model. - 9. Norskov and Danish commercial public service drama. - 10. The Team, Danish transnationalism and the local colour of Europe. - 11. Part IV: Written for the Nordic screen - Blue Eyes and the rise of the Swedish original. - 12. Trapped and original Noir from Iceland and Norway. - 13. The Bridge, transnational co-productions and screen tourism. - 14. Conclusion: Nordic Noir beyond the Nordic.