Review of the first season of Veronika, created by Katja Juras and Anna Lindblom. The SkyShowtime series stars Alexandra Rapaport, Tobias Santelmann and Arvin Kananian, among other Swedish artists. Veronika premieres on SkyShowtime on March 22, 2024.
What can you do when your own mind seems to be deceiving you, but could be leading you toward a serial killer? That is the approach of Veronikathe new Swedish series that premieres this Friday, March 22 in SkyShowtime and? is going to tell us a story that we have already seen hundreds of times.
After an endless headline, the latest platform to join the fold of content streaming presents us a full-fledged Nordic thriller: cold places, genuinely gloomy blue tones and stoic characters cut by the same fragment of ice.
Award-winning Alexandra Rapaport plays Veronika, a police officer with a problematic addiction to pills and antipsychotics. Especially when dead children start appearing to her, which is not a dish of good taste. And yes, Veronika comes to the same reasoning as you: she is losing her mind.
A complex valley of hallucinations. Especially when you're a police officer. Double down for when murders begin to occur that, in one way or another, seem to be related to your visions. From there the game of understanding what is true, what is not and, above all, why will come into play.
The structure of the series does not deviate from the norm and its evolution follows the same dynamic to which we seem condemned for eternity on any of the existing platforms or those to come. Because we will continue paying subscriptions, but of the endless loop of thriller police it doesn't come out.
But I'm not going to be the one to deny the major one; As much as we can watch it over and over again, there's nothing particularly wrong with it. This is the case of Veronika: a series with good photography, good direction and a good cast that will paradoxically succumb to our oblivion.
The series follows the trend of this Nordic police “noir” that we have already seen in Fists of Ice, Deadwind or Border Zone: realistic, dry, stripped of dialogue and with a clear vocation for what its images tell.
Features that complement each other like honey on flakes with its paranormal theme, which, once again, is presented in the most direct way and devoid of artifice possible. With shades of The Sinner; macerating over low heat and allowing its scenes to develop in a swing of lightness and raw violence like a leaf swayed by a gale.
We all know about the police's unwritten rule about serial killers: they are eager to be caught and leave clues to prove their intelligence. As viewers, we follow the same path and want to be the first to discover the cake before its outcome.
In Veronika, breadcrumbs will be left episode after episode. As I already told you that we know this story, its structure is practically crystalline and, if we are smart, we can be clever knowing its resolution with too much foresight. Then only the trip will be left to justify the viewing.
This is where art and imagination can make your work add a new nuance to a typical dish of content gastronomy. Like the particular mannerisms of Joaquin Phoenix or Cillian “on everyone's lips” Murphy; find that trope that elevates the story so as not to remain in the despised box of the common.
The series by SkyShowtime wants to make the paranormal and the visions of its protagonist its original proposal, encapsulating it in a remarkable production for all intents and purposes. But, although it has appreciable visual potential, it is difficult for it to stand out beyond its borders.
I'm not going to make Veronika guilty of the tsunami of series that we have to face. The series has all the boxes checked for good work. It is an appealing, enjoyable and more than neatly executed Nordic thriller. And that won't stop you from forgetting it sooner rather than later, even if it's still not her fault.
VALUATION:
Veronika is another well-made Nordic thriller, with solid performances and a well-constructed story under the protection of the police and paranormal genre. He completely succeeds in leaving the power in his images to let them be the protagonists of the narrative, but he will end up succumbing to oblivion due to the burial of content.
THE BEST:
The performances and the visual atmosphere further removed from the dialogue give it a particularly interesting lyricism.
WORST:
There is nothing wrong with her, but nothing remarkable either: her worst fate is oblivion.