A politician juggling for power, a shipping magnate battling to stay ahead of his board members. If this sounds a bit dry, of course we know it’s not, because - yippee! - there’s the first body, which means we got to see Sarah Lund rolling up her woolly sleeves for the third and final series of 'The Killing'.
Except... what WAS going on? Our normally sleepless heroine didn’t seem that bothered, too busy trying to cook for her semi-estranged son, buying plants, applying for a position away from the police front line, even taking advantage of the crime scene to pick up a bargain wheelbarrow! That dreadful chevron jumper told us all we needed to know. It may have been Lund, but not as we knew her.
Of course, this apparent character transformation lasted all of 20 minutes, until she sniffed out her first hunch, and proved that leopards don’t change their jumpers that easily. And, once again, as in the first two series, she was our indefatigable guide through a huge jigsaw puzzle that, in the first two episodes alone, took in the corridors of power, big business, docks, school, brothels, and the seedy lock-ups where TV's investigating police ALWAYS seem to time it so they are forced to poke into corners with the aid only of a torch and pulsating soundtrack.
Lund’s humanity was very much at the fore, too, especially having to work alongside the charismatic Borch, a long-ago love whom her mother thought “could have been the one”. And the best moment so far - her fatal hesitation when running to pay a ransom, stopped in her tracks by the sight of her son with his girlfriend, stroking the belly of her unborn, unknown-about grandchild. Once again, actress Sofie Grabol and her team have raised their game, proving beyond all doubt that nobody does bleak and beautiful like the Danes.