This is an amazing crime story for many reasons.
The plot is very gripping from the start, truly intriguing until the end.
In the first twenty minutes of the first episode the table is set, so as to say, and all the pieces are in the right place to start the race.
I will not go into spoilers here. To be vague enough, there is a quite mysterious and eerie crime to solve, which must be kept away from public knowledge for as long as possible, and a team of tremendously skilled but complicated people who join their talents to investigate it---using a boat (!) as both lodging place and police headquarters, offshore the site of the crime.
Living together gets hard, as private and professional matters get entangled, and old, rancid relationships surface among some members of the team. The crime proves to be bigger and deeper as the episodes pass by, and there is a climactic finale at the end. The whole narrative arc of the story takes 8 episodes, so it could be thought of as a mini-series.
In terms of storytelling, the narrative is fantastic. The characters are wonderfully written, not just sketched but developed in depth, although their backgrounds are presented drop by drop, and so the questions do not only refer to the crime itself, but to the people who have to solve the case.
The performances have to be credited to a cast of brilliant actors who master their craft. I also found the direction compelling, with suspense, insight and subtleties in equal doses, and a rich, bold use of cameras and perspective. I really liked what they did, cinematographically speaking.
I will try to watch Morden, which is a sequel with the same characters. If Morden is as good as Graven, I will have a great time indeed!
