The Danish criminal profiler Louise Bergstein returns to help her police colleagues try to solve a spate of gangland killings in Justice: Those Who Kill, now available on the BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime. It’s the fourth season in the series, which stars Natalie Madueño and was created by Ina Bruhn.
In past seasons of the show – Darkness, Blinded and Lost – Louise has found herself working in different parts of Denmark, usually in semi-rural or suburban settings. Now she finds herself on the dark, grey streets of Copenhagen. She’s taken a role lecturing recruits on criminal behaviour at the police academy.
In a dive bar, under the shadow of an overpass, a prison release party is being held for Patrick, a member of the dreaded Legion-5 street gang. He’s done his time, kept his mouth shut, and now he’s free. When he tells his gangland brothers that he’s finished with organised crime, their leader, Robin Smith (Omar Shargawi) warns him that the gang can no longer offer him protection.
Sure enough, shortly after leaving the party, Patrick is gunned down by a hooded killer. At first, it seems like a mob-style execution, but suddenly the killer goes crazy and empties his entire magazine before escaping into the night.
It’s a case for police detective Frederik Havgaard (Simon Sears) and his team in Copenhagen, who worked with Louise in Lost: Those Who Kill. The two are now in a relationship and Frederik is quick to bring Louise onto the investigative team – he has very few leads, but perhaps he also wants her close by. He’s keen to progress their relationship by giving her a key to his apartment and getting her to meet his son. He also wants to make it official, whereas Louise would like to keep their relationship quiet for professional reasons.
Eight-episode series like this need more than one storyline to keep you hooked and soon we meet Kim Jensen (Besir Zeciri). He works at a recycling facility but has a Legion-5 tattoo on his forearm. After work, he goes home to his girlfriend and her young daughter. He’s rebuilding his life outside the gang, but when Robin turns up at their cottage with a mission for Kim, he’s dragged back in. Robin holds something over Kim, manipulates him, and is a menace to their family. Is Kim connected to Patrick’s murder?
At the academy, Louise has invited Gunnar Nymark, the famous Swedish profiler, to provide guest lectures to her class. You’ll recognise him as Dag Malmberg, who played Hans Pettersen, Saga Noren’s boss in The Bridge. Being pulled onto the murder case means Louise must ask Gunnar to cover some of her teaching work and they also start discussing the investigation. Will Gunnar have a greater role to play, down the line?
The storyline plays out steadily like a police procedural, with Frederik, Louise and fellow detective Jacob (Cyron Melville) seeking out the victims of Patrick’s crimes and trying to investigate gangland leads with the city’s gang expert, Bjarke Møller (Rasmus Hammerich).
It turns out that the killing could be linked to an unsolved murder that took place three years ago. Soon, there’s another victim and as the series progresses there are more murders and fear grows that a gang war will break out, but this is a different type of case for Louise – usually she tracks down serial killers, not gangsters. The tension builds gradually, as the threat of some of the violent characters in the series becomes apparent. Get ready for some big twists ahead, the action shifting between Copenhagen and Malmo in Sweden.
Long-term lovers of Nordic noir will recognise Natalie Madueño as the ambitious businesswoman Claudia Moreno in Follow the Money. In Justice: Those Who Kill, she brings another solid performance – a character who is knowledgeable in her field, but perhaps unable to apply the same level of insight to her own situation. She struggles to express her feelings and with commitment, and still seems naive and a little bit lost.
Set in the city this time, Justice doesn’t have the dark, creepy atmosphere of previous series. For some reason, in the early episodes at least, their world feels small even though Copenhagen is a big city, and the investigative team doesn’t have many members considering the magnitude of the case. However, the show is easy to watch and easy to follow, with several new revelations each episode.
The current Those Who Kill is a partial revamp of an earlier Danish crime show, also entitled Those Who Kill, about the special crimes unit in Copenhagen. Justice is made up of eight 45-minute episodes, which originally aired in Denmark in late September and October 2024.
