Trapped

Those Icelanders are cold ones, man!

Image: Official series poster
Trapped is an Icelandic mystery series set in a remote small town situated on the frigid waters of a gorgeous southern Iceland fjord.

JOHN SMISTAD
Olympia, Wash.

Synopsis: The Icelandic mystery thriller series Trapped (2016–2019) is the brainchild of wildly creative acclaimed filmmaker and producer Baltasar Kormákur. Over two series, police in a remote town in Iceland work both to solve the mystery of a mutilated corpse recovered from the fjord and a series of murders seemingly related to a local factory at the center of an environmental crisis. 

Who knew Icelanders were so cutthroat? Okay, not every single one of these Scandi souls. But a whole mean mess of ’em in the dramatic mystery crime series Trapped.

Set in a remote small town situated on the frigid waters of a gorgeous southern Iceland fjord, we watch over two seasons as doggedly dedicated local law enforcement contends with both abject evil and conscienceless politicians.

Season 1 centers on nefarious activity of an international nature come to infest those running the hamlet’s metro show. Season 2 then shifts to domestic government greed and skulduggery leading to environmental disaster beating down this beleaguered berg.

While the debut campaign is a bit more compelling than its successor, the acting across both continuing story arcs is consistently first-rate. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir stand out in particular among this uniformly stellar cast. Their tandem of Andri and Hinrika, respectively, are long time cop comrades whose relationship may, or may not, evolve into something much more chummy.

The first two seasons of Trapped are available now on Amazon Prime Video. Season 3 is entitled Entrapped and was released in September after making a streaming service switch to Netflix. 

Watch John Smistad’s weekly entertainment interview podcast series “CONVERSATIONS WITH “THE QUICK FLICK CRITIC” livestreams every Tuesday at 7 p.m. EST on the homepage @ ruderangers.com. 

This article originally appeared in the November 4, 2022, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.

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John Smistad

John Smistad is a published author of short stories, poems, essays, and movie reviews. He lives and loves with his family and cat in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. He is the fiercely proud son of a native Norwegian dad. (He loves his mom, too.) You can follow him as on his blog at thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com.

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