Wisting, the popular Norwegian series on Sundance Now/AMC+, wraps up the series with a strong, if unnecessarily complicated, season 5. Larvik Detective William Wisting (Sven Nordin) is on sick leave, recuperating from an injury sustained in season 4. When a plain white envelope containing a case number is left in his mailbox, Wisting is intrigued. Turns out the case is from 2017, the murder of a 17-year-old named Tone, in Sandefjord, just up the coast from Larvik. Tone’s ex-boyfriend was convicted and is serving time. As Wisting investigates the old case, he steps on the toes of Sven Kvammen, a former colleague who is now in Kripos (the national police).
Wisting is based on books by Jørn Lier Horst, which you can buy here. (affiliate link)
Three cases
Wisting can tell that something is fishy, but he isn’t sure what. Kvammen, who solved Tone’s murder in 2017, tells Wisting that he is being misled, and he refuses to re-open the case. But then Wisting gets another white envelope with a different case number. It leads to the murder of a young woman in 2019 by a trucker, Lennart Hök. Lennart was questioned in the Tone case, but released. In the present day, a body washes up in Larvik. It’s Agnete Kronberg, Tone’s best friend. Wisting’s team, Nils (Mads Ousdal), Veronica (Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa ) and Benjamin (Lars Berge) are on that case, but because Wisting is working off-book while on sick leave, they work in parallel, not connecting the dots until episode 3 (of 4). How these murders tie together is a little convoluted, fraught with red herrings and a twisty double ending.
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Our Take on Wisting Season 5
While I think the writers could have trimmed a plot point or two out of Wisting season 5, I admit that the case was compelling. Wisting gets assistance from some interesting characters, one of which is a journalist, Rebekka Skjevik (Ellen Bendu), who wrote an article about the lives of prison inmates, and happened to interview both Daniel and Lennart Hök. Wisting also jets off to Lithuania to meet up with Interpol agent Harriet Dunn to question a suspect, and unexpectedly get his mojo back. As recurring readers will know, I can’t stand the Line Wisting (Thea Green Lundberg) character, and she was blessedly scarce in this season. And note that the actor playing Thomas Wisting (the son), changed as of season 4 to Fredrik Stenberg Ditlev-Simonsen. If you are a Wisting fan, this entry is worth watching. Sven Nordin is an understated master in this role. But, the adaptation is a little wobbly. Not as bad as seasons 1&2, but not as good as season 3.
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