User reviews

Two different story's, one season. The first five episodes is by far the best. The last five not so good and pretty obvious. First five ep I give an 8. Last five a 5/6.

Compared to the Swedes and Danes, the Norwegians entered the world of distinct crime series somewhat later, this decade, but e.g. Øyevitne, Kodenavn Hunter, Frikjent were all catchy and worth watching. Now, Wisting has carried on in the field of international crime and related links, with FBI´s involvement, although the main venue is still Norway - with "tardy" people and beautiful landscape. Sven Nordin is really a good actor (I remembered him from Valkyrien, the concept of which was not so interesting), but the script here is skilfully prepared so that his character is always present/visible without unnecessary domination over supporting cast.

I wonder if other seasons are coming, but bearing in mind the present one´s big success, I would not be surprised. And I will be ready :)

PS Season 2 is intense and thrilling as well, with many twists and turns as for the wrongdoer´s person.

PPS Season 3 is intense, with international cooperation still in place, although the case itself is less interesting, but apparently realistic.

I'm 3 episodes in and I'm very much enjoying this show. The plot is suspensefull and the characters are likable.

The acting is excellent, for the most part. Some of the dialogue seems a bit forced, especially from the periferal characters. But mostly it's good. I really like the fact that they got Carrie Ann Moss(Trinity from The Matrix) to come to Norway for this role. She is off course excellent, as always.

The dynamic between the norwegian Police Officers and the FBI agents is fun to watch and I really liked Moss' character's jab at the notion of not carrying firearms and even having to ask permission to bring them on assignments.

Really looking forward to see how this plays out!

It is well acted and is very atmospheric, however the story line is very familiar and the Norwegian acting is good enough that they don't need any Hollywood actors flown in. One for Scandinavian noir fans.

Just finished the first 5 episodes, all in one sitting. Just couldn't stop. it's that good.

I liked it. It felt like two seasons in one but it was tense and good crime drama. Some cliches but all in all I liked it and it was not over dramatic. Recommend it and take it for what it is. I did not have any big expectations and it surprised me in a positive way.

I really liked the character Hammer and Lina Wisting. And I thought they gave the storyline good depth.

Absorbing Nordic Noir that gets increasingly gripping. I thought the second half was as intriguing if not more so as the first half. The father/daughter dynamic was better too. I wasn't sure whether to invest in it but really glad I did.

Have viewed only first four episodes and came to this web site to see if reviewers thought it worth the while to continue....so that indicates that I'm not overly impressed with what I've seen so far. I think much of my lack of enthusiasm derives from being met with same stereotypes - bland, crusty, not particularly likeable central investigator who just happens to be very diligent in their work. But why can't we get some body a little more realistic, you know, somebody who shows a less pathetic empathy with their own family! Daughter Line is grossly unlikeable. The son should just get on the next plane and go back to Africa. Wisting's offsider Nils is a pain in the bum. And as with most detective series, the ancillary staff are never thanked for the excellent investigative work they perform. Yes, it's the usual stuff and although acting is generally good and character development and plot meet acceptable standards, this series to date is barely passable. Will not be disappointed if there's no Series 2.

My husband and I (Florida residents, in our 70s) gave up on Anerican TV. We watch Jeopardy & Wheel, SEC football, News, and old crime shows on YouTubeTV. However, for drama & crime, we watch Acorn & BritBox. Some, Prime originals. We love British, Australian, New Zealand series - not slick, fake people, like Anerican TV. Believable characters. Now, we've moved to Norwegian crime. "Wisting" is one of the best series we've seen in a long time! Really, should rate a 10 but perfection is hard - this is close! Well done, not slow-moving; still not clear about Wisting's wife. But almost binged the whole series. All episodes were good stories; good cast; cleverly done; lots of suspects, twists & turns! MORE MORE MORE please!!!!!

Continuing the brilliant run of Scandi series like The Bridge and The Killing this will hold its own with the best of them.

Great plot, great acting, great direction. Very watchable indeed.

How is no one talking about the character/actor Nils Hammer/Mads Ousdal?! Definitely the best thing happening in this series. I'm not sure what I like more, the character or the actor... Why have you been hiding this guy, Norway?!

As for the series, oof this is a hard one to judge. I am a huge fan of Nordic Noir. I've seen nearly every one that's been made. This is not the best one but it does have enough that makes it worth watching.

Many of the characters are rather 2 dimensional and while most of the acting is very good and natural, some is bland and wooden. I hate to single anyone out but by far the least enjoyable are the lead's kids, especially the daughter, its a bad role and the acting makes it even more intolerable. But to be fair to the actress, it would be hard not to make her annoying. That did get a little better in the second half though. In the first half, it felt like the writer had seen too many cheesy American movies. Between the 2D characters and the lack of unique story, the lull of the momentum made it hard to hang in there in the beginning. Within a few episodes, I was glad I did, mostly because I became invested in some of the characters. But there were still many moments that took me out of it because I thought, really they're doing that?! Every known trope, every done to death plot device, the kind of things like the old girl running from a killer, trips and twists her ankle kind of things that I thought got left behind long ago. The scene in the barn at the climax of the first half was a perfect example of this. It's almost like someone intentionally trying to write the most stereotypical scene here. Unfortunately, the entire way thru the story, I was frequently calling the next actions and plot points that were coming and wasn't very surprised by the story. The second half did get a lot better as far as that goes.

The only thing I really couldn't understand through it all was why everyone was so down on poor Wisting. Do they have completely different fathers in Norway? Compared to 90% of the fathers I've known, this guy is a frickin Saint. But his kids kept acting like they were so fed up with him and he would just stare at them, perplexed, and I would say, me too, buddy, me too... I have no clue what their problem is. I'm waiting for a season 2 backstory where they explain that he was rolling around naked with hookers and blow while their mom was dying or something because otherwise I don't get it. Guy is mourning and working his butt off to solve these terrible murders and save lives... you're always gone, Dad... like he's at the strip club or something, keeps showing up for dinner... you never spend any time with us... dude stares.... im thinking, wtf is going on here?! Also... THEY ARE ADULTS! Not to mention how the daughter keeps acting like his job as a Chief Investigator is to feed her career as a journalist. Then he saves the day, turns out the seemingly minimal amount of time he's spending away was for a very frickin good reason and benefited everyone including the family... still just pissed at him like he was playing GTA all day instead of coming to their birthday party or something... idk. Then in the second half, everyone turns on him, nicest guy there is, dude can not catch a break. *sigh* I digress.

It was still thoroughly enjoyable. The production value was great, it was still entertaining even if it wasn't very challenging. Most of the acting was very good and I love being exposed to nearly an entire cast that was new to me. Especially, as I said, the actor who plays former narcotics detective Nils Hammer, every scene he was in was on another level and scenes with him and Wisting playing off of each other were the best. Carrie Anne Moss brought her usual cool, solid performance. (BTW, although she has appeared in Hollywood films, she is a Canadian actress. Some people took issue with her being there like they needed a Hollywood name or something but I don't think that's what happened here.)

The writing could be better- plot and characters, production is great, direction is pretty good, acting is mostly very good and believable with some not so much and some exceptionally good. Overall not the best but worth watching if you're a fan of the genre, a couple of the actors will make it worthwhile. I'll watch season 2 for sure. I hope they'll get into Hammer's character more, I'd be interested to see who he was before he moved to that station, they eluded to quite a history there.

'Wisting' is a detective series that certainly doesn't shy from the tired conventions of the genre. Weary middle-aged man as protagonist? Check. His family bafflingly involved in his investigations? Check. Creepy colleagues among the suspects? Check. Unlikely serial killers on the loose in beautiful, remote locations? You get the idea. One thing uplifts some entries in this genre is an interesting lead investigator, but Wisting himself is a fundamentally boring everyman, with none of the character of Inspectors Morse or Montalbano. The result is a fairly formulaic and unremarkable programme. There have been some great Scandinavian crime dramas in recent years; but this one is by the book.

This wasn't awful, just a bit bland. The characters are wooden and uninteresting, the dialog dull, and there are stereotypes everywhere. The treatment of the FBI is just awkward-at times too reverential, at times critical of supposed cowboy tendencies. The writers manage to make everyone sound silly.

The first half of the season is the opposite of murder mysteries where everyone is briefly a suspect and you wonder who it will finally be. Here, though there are one or two red herrings, you'll probably figure out the solution fairly early on. And some of the coincidences are annoying. I actually preferred the latter half of the season.

A little more imagination would have made this more watchable, particularly when each storyline takes so many episodes to come to a resolution.

I generally like watching foreign movies (as long as there are English subtitles). Usually I find they are well done with good acting. Not like a lot of garbage that Hollywood is putting out these days. I stumbled on this one. Watched the first episode and I was hooked and knew I wanted to watch the whole 10 episode series. This turned out to be quite the undertaking for me to find them along with working English subtitles. Not an easy task, especially if you live in the US. I felt like an investigator myself with all the work I did hunting them down. This series is in Norwegan with some English mixed in during the first 5 episodes that Carrie Moss appeared in. Second 5 episodes, Carrie is gone and so is whatever English there was. Show is not watchable if you don't have those English Subtitles unless you want to guess the whole series what is being said. The story, plot, acting is all very good. I like Carrie but she was a pretty unenthusiastic ho hum in this, everybody else in the series put out stronger acting than she did. She pretty much looked like she didn't want to be there. Watch the Jessica Jones series for a comparison with Carrie's acting and you will see what I mean. All in all, I enjoyed watching this series. Unlike so many "fake" interviewers in here, I don't give out many 10s. I'll give one to this. If you can actually find this series, give it a go, it's pretty good.

Thrilling well-paced plots, talented cast, beautiful scenery, realistic characters, typically high-standard Norwegian crime-thriller drama ... This series is not to be missed! I just hope that Season 1 is going to be closely followed by Season 2. William and his daughter, Line, are not to be missed as a fabulous duo ...

The first season is effectively two stories - the first 5 episodes are the first story and it was very good.

The second story was rushed and had too many mistakes/plot holes. The producers must have realised they had a hit with the first story and should have waited until the second story was ready, they didn't.

I watched it all the way through even though I wanted to stop. The first story gets an 8 from me and the second 5.5. The production values were good throughout and the musical score was excellent. That comment I hope shows how bad the writing was for the second story for me to rate it at 5.5.

This show certainly has the potential for more seasons as the characters are interesting and well cast.

Wisting, like so much else that comes out of Scandinavia by way of crime drama, is pure quality,

Its stories actually manage a decent degree of originality with an international twist that's instantly engaging and intriguing.

That said, I'm personally, no fan of politics and courtroom antics in policing stories, so I enjoyed the first five pure crime drama focused episodes, much more than the latter ones.

Acting is excellent, with an clever family dynamic, that creates degrees of tension but also moments of empathy and caring, between the veteran police officer Wisting and his journalist daughter.

Suffice to say this Norwegian gem is a must watch for fans of crime drama. 8/10.

Again a troubled, disturbed cop without any social skills in a dark setting. These Scandinavian series are mostly decent but the overkill is not good. The quality of series as The Bridge are rare. Wisting is more of the same with a lot of annoying characters and unreal events, mostly in complete darkness. Quite depressing.

Just finished watching Wisting and for me it was just so so. Not many of the characters were likable or memorable for sure, not something I will ever watch a second time. There is one character that really got on my nerves and that was Line and wished that she would end up in a well. lol

Wisting

This was formulaic Nordic noir carried through with a great deal of style and panache. All the key features were present

A flawed hero The investigation drives the narrative impetus A vicious unknown killer A labyrinthine plot We the viewer are the fly on the wall.

The script carefully wove together two separate long stories and several personal themes like mental health, addiction and naked ambition. It was really very well paced it just breathed in all the right places.

The only thing that was missing and perhaps pivotal was a charismatic central lead, this made the show less memorable. Also one aspect of Nordic Noir was essentially missing that of obstruction by "people" in obstructing the investigation often by relatives who were jaded by the lack of police action in finding the murderer of their loved one.