Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Outlier’ On Acorn TV, Where A Criminologist Returns To Norway To Catch A Serial Killer

Ah, Scandi-noir — or Nordic noir, if you prefer. It’s a never-ending series of snowy landscapes, people in sweaters and lots of contemplation of life and death. Outlier, a new Norwegian import, takes that theme and adds the “you can’t go home again” trope into the mix. Does the formula work?

OUTLIER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A truck drives down a snowy road in Northern Norway. As we look inside the truck, a scared girl is in the back, breathing heavily in panic.

The Gist: A young woman named Elle (Eila Ballovara Varsi) is coming home from a party overnight; as she walks, she sees a phone in the snow. It’s ringing so she answers, but the connection is bad. She holds onto the phone when she comes home, her dad getting on her case for coming in late when they have to feed the reindeer the next morning.

In the meantime, in London, Maja Angell (Hanne Mathisen Haga), a PhD student in criminology, is teaching a class about serial killers; in her lecture, she talks about how a serial killer’s “soft targets” are mostly female and that the killers are mostly make, seeking revenge. At home, she’s told by her professor/mentor/boyfriend Edward (Benjamin Noble) that he’s getting complaints and to keep her personal experience out of her lectures.

When the phone Elle found gets another call, she finds out that the phone belongs to her friend Sofie (Pernille Sandøy). Hours away from where Sofie disappeared, Johan (Stein Bjørn), police chief of Nerbygd, is called to an RV camp that’s closed for the season because one camper’s lights were on. He goes in and finds Sofie’s body lying in the shower, partially undressed. Four weeks later, he and his deputy arrest someone they know has had a history of violence in the past.

Maja reads about the case in her hometown and thinks they’ve gotten the wrong guy. Guys like the one that was arrested don’t take the time to bring their victims to a spot miles away from where the victim is first taken. She decides to fly there to study the case, with the excuse that it’ll help her dissertation. Matthew, knowing her history there, is wary that she should go back home.

Indeed, Maja has to deal with family stuff as soon as she gets back to Norway; she finds out for the first time that her father, Anders (Erik Smith-Meyer), is no longer the editor of the local paper, and has to go to a family function and talk to her estranged mother. Her mother just says “Everything shines in the dark,” which bewilders Maja; she goes to visit her sister’s grave and her cousin Erik (Jonas Delerud) tries to figure out if Maja is back, and why she’s even there to begin with.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The “detective/reporter goes home and finds dark secrets” feel of Outlier is reminiscent of Sharp Objects, though it seems that Maja is a bit more in control of herself than Amy Adams’ character was in the HBO series.

Our Take: Outlier, created by Kristine Berg and Arne Berggren, takes its time establishing itself in the first episode. We see Elle finding the phone, and get a little insight into her life, then wey see how Maja lets her personal experience guide her lectures, and how she chafes against authority. Only about halfway into the episode is Sofie’s body found and Maja decides to fly home and look into it.

Considering the season is only five episodes, it would seem to be a bit of a deliberate way to get into the story. But what Berg and Berggren are trying to establish is the fact that Maja has gotten into criminology for very personal reasons, mostly having to do with the death of her sister 20 years prior. So the writers want to take a little time to show people who Maja is and why she’s so motivated to solve the murder of someone she’s never met.

Where will the story go from there? Well, she has to convince Johan, whom she’s worked with in the past, that he’s got the wrong guy, then she’ll get access to the files and other material that will help her make connections. Perhaps her sister’s death will also give some clues. The beats of this story aren’t exactly going to be surprising, which is why it’s critical that the main characters are rounded out as we go along.

Right now, Maja feels a bit robotic, but that’s only when she’s in England trying to work her experience into her lectures. When she’s home, drinking a beer and sitting in a cemetery, you feel her angst about being home, and she seems strangely looser. And something about this case has her fascinated, and not just because she thinks a serial killer (a term she says isn’t used much outside the U.S.) is on the loose.

Watching her unravel this case, along with some of the other cases that have vexed her and the local cops, should be interesting to watch. Let’s hope that what she finds are mostly building towards a conclusion instead of giving us red herrings.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A mysterious man named Trond (Marius Lien) is in a car watching video feeds of a house. How he got those video feeds is anyone’s guess.

Sleeper Star: We hope Stein Bjørn, who plays Johan, makes him more than the stereotypical “dumb cop who doesn’t believe the interloper” character. Johan looks to be important to the story, and he needs to have more depth than his character is shown to have in the first episode.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Erik asks Maja how long her sister has been gone, she says “I’ve lost count.” But if she’s standing in front of her sister’s grave, can’t she look at the headstone? Or is she just sitting in front of a random grave?

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re on board for the Norwegian scenery and Haga’s performance as Maja, but Outlier needs to pick up the pace a little bit to hold our interest.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Outlier On Acorn TV