The Killing

Søren Sveistrup's The Killing (Danish: Forbrydelsen) launched on DR1 in January 2007 and became, almost immediately, the foundational text of the Nordic noir wave that would define European prestige television across the next decade. The original twenty-episode first series (followed by ten-episode second and third series) won the BAFTA for Best International Programme and the International Emmy for Best Drama Series. Sofie Gråbøl, in the central role of detective Sarah Lund, became one of the most recognisable presences on European television; her Faroese knit jumper became a fashion phenomenon.

The first series, the canonical one, follows the murder of nineteen-year-old Nanna Birk Larsen across twenty in-show days, with each episode covering one day. The investigation moves between three plot strands held in patient parallel: Lund's police procedural, the Birk Larsen family's destruction, and the Copenhagen mayoral campaign of Troels Hartmann (Lars Mikkelsen). Sveistrup's commitment to letting the family's grief play out at full length, alongside the investigation, redefined what crime drama could carry as emotional weight.

The American AMC remake (2011-2014) was respectable; the Danish original is irreplaceable. The series's influence on later Nordic noir (The Bridge, Borgen (sister production by the same team), Trapped, The Chestnut Man) is direct and continuous.

Why it's an Editor's Pick: The series that proved a single murder case could carry twenty hours of television, and the foundational text of the Nordic noir export wave. Gråbøl's Lund is one of the great detective figures in television history.