Thin Blue Line

• Töringe is the series' brightest shining star and lends "Thin Blue Line" profound emotional weight. His portrayal is masterful in its richness of nuance. Through subtle acting, Töringe embodies a complex character: an experienced yet tormented police officer grappling with a longing for meaning.

• It remains an unglamorous portrayal of the police profession where relationships and the characters' individual journeys take center stage. The first episode moves at a very high tempo and is an intense emotional storm—a bit uneven, but definitely a full-throttle adrenaline rush.

• The series has already – and rightly so – been compared to the old, classic American TV series Hill Street Blues. And just like in that show, we follow the officers in the same manner, both at morning briefing at the station and on their ongoing journey through daily life. However, the Swedish series is far more down-to-earth and topical. Indeed, it feels plucked right out of the everyday reality of Malmö that we hear about in the media.

• Fittingly, Thin Blue Line walks a thin line itself, acknowledging the systemic issues affecting policing while still acknowledging the humanity of the people trying to do their best in a flawed system. Far from copaganda, it’s a nuanced take on the police procedural, eschewing pat answers and neat conclusions to instead offer a portrait of people in a profession facing daily challenges.

• Tunna Blå Linjen is one of the first series that has actually managed to capture and portray an honest and modern Malmö story, with believable characters and a human side to it that feels genuine. Sure, it has it’s moments when I feel like the writers are straying a bit too far away from the real world, but all in all this is aheartfelt tv production that reflects life in Malmö fairly well.

1 / 5