THE CHESTNUT MAN: Atmospheric Yet Not Entirely Successful

I have long had the impression that Netflix has ceased to be a synonym for quality when it comes to series, not to mention films. More and more often, productions made by Netflix do not spark any excitement in me. And while the German Dark, created by this streaming platform, was a breath of fresh air, The Chestnut Man leaves much to be desired, both in terms of plot and visuals.

After an extremely atmospheric trailer, I expected something more, something that would engage me emotionally, and in the end I received an underdeveloped product – the child of as many as four screenwriters. Although the whole thing has only six episodes, with each subsequent one I felt more and more overwhelmed by the story, the increasingly bizarre plot twists, and the finale, which disappointed me so much that my relationship with Netflix was put to a serious test.

The action of the series takes place in contemporary Copenhagen, where policewoman Naia Thulin, due to the necessity of caring for her underage daughter, decides to end her career as a police investigator. Before that happens, however, together with her temporary partner Mark Hess, they must solve one last mystery – a series of brutal murders committed on women. What links these murders is harm done to children and chestnut figurines left at all the crime scenes.

It turns out that the figurines bear the fingerprints of the daughter of the Minister of Social Affairs, Rosa Hartung, who disappeared and was probably murdered a year earlier. The bodies keep piling up, and there is less and less time to solve the case. Personally, I suffered terribly while watching. The production tries to hit too many birds with one stone, losing in the process the crucial message behind most of the murders. One might think that the creator of The Killing and simultaneously the author of the book on which the series is based would be a guarantee of success.

Unfortunately, the whole thing falls rather flat, showing that for some time now, Scandinavian crime stories on the small screen have not been doing too well. The series is full of shortcuts, simplifications, and a superficial approach to the characterization of the main characters. I did not feel any sympathy for the grieving minister, nor did I feel the family dramas of the main characters, as Naia is a perpetually absent parent, and Hess is dealing with the death of his child and wife in a fire. Their stories are told as if offhand.

Naia’s family drama is a patchwork of scenes in which her daughter behaves absolutely normally, says she accepts that her mother will soon change jobs and that they will spend more time together. Then – out of nowhere – she declares that she is moving in with her grandfather. Why? The heroine did nothing to bring this about. She always tried to be the best mother. The same goes for Hess’s story. We never find out why he fell out of favor at Europol, and the information about his wife’s death is tossed out casually and adds nothing to the plot. I much prefer it when certain things are shown rather than replaced with exposition.

The social thread is handled much better, where we see how flawed the current system is, which in theory is supposed to protect defenseless children. We see that it does practically nothing to actually protect children neglected and beaten by their parents. Of course, I think it is a big overreach to say that mothers who did not know about their child’s abuse are as guilty as the perpetrator. Nevertheless, it once again shows that the modern world must deal with increasingly complex problems.

There is a difference between a parent raising their voice and regularly beating a child. Unfortunately, we still stigmatize the victims and let the perpetrators get away with it. In the series, women are murdered in cold blood, while the pedophile goes to prison, as does the father who beats his daughters, but the father who left his child with an alcoholic mother suffers no punishment. I know that many people will accuse me of leftism, that fathers never get custody of their children, that mothers exploit them, etc. But that is not the point here.

The series repeats like a mantra that the mother should have known about any kind of abuse and defended her child. That is a bit of a stretch, Mr. Søren Sveistrup. I also think it is extremely harmful, especially since nowadays we look for various reasons to point out to women how dependent they are and how much they need a man, because what would they do without one. Of course, I am dramatizing at this point. However, I think we should focus on the real perpetrators of violence, not the victims, regardless of whether they are women or men.

The strength of Scandinavian crime stories is undoubtedly the evolution of the characters, who lead us step by step through a complex investigation and successive murders. Of course, it is great that we have a strong protagonist, a policewoman who does her job very well, but that is about it. Naia lacks depth, she lacks character – something that would make her a great detective like Wallander or Vera Stanhope. We know she is great from other people’s opinions, but during the first season there are only one or two situations where she actually shows that she really is the best of the best.

The same goes for Hess, who demonstrates in practice that he is an excellent investigator and that without him the whole case would never have had a happy ending. All the more upsetting is the fact that he is discredited as a person with mental health issues, even though everything indicates that he was right from the very beginning. But apart from his work as a policeman, the character is devoid of any real personality. We know that he is a Europol agent – and that is all. I waited six episodes for any kind of emotion from the characters. Any at all. But unfortunately, I never got it. Randomly pounding the steering wheel with fists does not count.

A big plus is definitely the atmosphere of the production, which at least for a moment gives the viewer the feeling of being in the middle of a Scandinavian crime story. Most of the scenes are truly atmospheric – it is just a pity that the cinematography turns out to be the biggest asset of the production. Unfortunately, I see that this has become a permanent trait of this type of series in recent years: a lack of ideas for an intriguing plot mixed with atmospheric shots. This gives the viewer the impression that they are watching something really good, when in reality it is one big disappointment.

Is this a good series? Unfortunately, I would rather place it in the category of mediocrity – predictable to the point of pain and made according to the Netflix formula. There is no room here for unpredictable plot twists (most can be called bizarre), and the whole thing lacks the atmosphere so characteristic of this type of production. Neither the characters nor the social commentary are constructed well enough for me to recommend this production to you in good conscience. Unfortunately, this is yet another attempt to resurrect the Scandinavian crime story, which for me ended perhaps not in spectacular failure, but in great disappointment.