L-FILMS, TV-SERIES reviews
Stella Blomkvist8/29/2018 Stella Blómkvist (ICE – 2018-) Icelandic crime noir TV-series is a unique in the spectrum of Scandinavian-crime-noir drama (such as Trapped, Wallander, The Bridge …) because it is much more fast-pace and action based and its main character is bold, beautiful, smart and sexy. Stella Blómkvist (Heida Reed) is also the only openly bisexual main character of this sort of genre (for instance, Saga, the main character in The Bridge is overly heterosexual and in European version of the Bridge,The Tunnel, Elise, the main character falls in love with woman she investigates, however her love for another woman is presented as something she is caught by surprise, as something not considered or known to her before). But Stella Blómkvist is presented as bisexual from the start. At the beginning we follow the story of the murder of Halla's Einarsdottir (Kristín Lea Sigríðardóttir), PM's assistant, Sverrir Kristjansdottir (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson). The accused of her murder is a small drug dealer Saemi. Stella Blómkvist is called in as his lawyer but she is soon replaced by president's sister Edda Kristjansdottir (Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir) who is also an attorney. Rumor goes the accused is only a cover up for the real killer who must be someone important. Namely, Halla was fixing private parties for the PM, Sverrir and she also filmed some of the parties therefore it was known to some she could blackmail quite a number of important people in PM's cabinet and also many of his influental friends. It was also known she kept the videos in a blue bag. Blómkvist was for this reason taken off the case but she starts her own investigation regarding Halla's death when she gets an anonymous phone call by a female and meets with a man who gives her a letter what she needs to find (letter mentioned blue bag with usb). Blómkvist soon finds out who her informant and new client is, Dagbjört Konradsdottir (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir), a minister of internal affairs. Dagbjört tells Stella to find a blue bag with video files (photo/video evidence of the sex parties with hookers, drugs and alcohol). Stella also learns that earlier the night Halla was murdered she was with PM and his cabinet at dinner with high Chinese officials to negotiate 150 mil. deal between Iceland and China. As a success of the deal with Chinese Halla organized a sex party for Chinese and some of the cabinet members at the Ministry. Meanwhile, a drug dealer Saemi confessed to a murder of Halla's Einarsdottir and Blómkvist started looking for blue bag with help of her friend, Gunna (Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir), an IT expert and code cracker. Blómkvist went with Gunna to Halla's mother Lena and she found the little blue bag on the shelve among Halla's Barbie collection. In the blue bag was an usb with videos but they were all password protected. Stella informs Dagbjört that she has the blue bag but all video files are password protected. During Stella and Dagbjört meetings we soon sense that they are mutually attracted to each other and for Dagbjört Stella's quick-witted, successful and bold navigation between danger and resourcefulness are especially turn on which leads her having sex with Stella. The information that blue bag was found soon spread, also to the Chinese cultural attache Guo Dai (David Yu) who came to Blómkvist's house, pressing her to give him the usb. Blómkvist told Dai that all files on the usb are password protected and that her friend Gunna needs more time to crack it. How serious Dai is in getting that usb he demonstrates by cutting Gunna's finger off and getting her unconscious. Stella informs Dagbjört that Dai got an information about the blue bag and pressured her to give him the blue bag for a large sum of money and that he also suspected someone from the embassy was a spy for the Icelandic government (Icelandic Negotiation Committee). Indeed, there was a spy at the Chinese embassy and who happened to be Dagbjört's childhood friend, Sara. However, Dagbjört withholds the information of the spy and tells Stella she could protect her from Dai if she gives her the usb. In the meantime an audience founds out that Halla was not killed by Saemi or by PM who was her lover but by one of PM's employees, Haukur Karlsson (Hannes Óli Ágústsson) who shared some negotiation information with the Chinese official at the sex party. Halla saw that and blackmailed Haukur to resign from his job which Haukur didn't want to. Instead, he asked Halla to delete the file but she didn't wish to and that is why he killed her and tried to cover his murder by accusing PM killed her while being under the drug's influence. And not only that, someone also murdered Dai and Stella was seen to be the last person in contact with him for which reason she was the prime suspect of his death. Stella goes into hiding and Gunna finally succeeds in obtaining the password from Halla's work computer and opens the video files of Sverrir's sex orgies. Stella goes to Dagbjört's house happily sharing video files with Dagbjört and has also sex with her. There Stella discovers that spy was actually Dagbjört's friend, Sara. Stella rushes to Sara's house to confront her. Sara reveals that Dai found out she was the spy and blackmailed her and her family. When she saw Stella going with Dai to the toilet at the party of Chinese and Icelandic government she seized the opportunity and killed him with the peanut butter, knowing his allergy to peanut. As soon as Sara shares the information she is Dai's killer Chinese officials come and seize Sara and her family. After Dagbjört got hold of the video files Sverrir Kristjandottir resigned and Dagbjört Konradsdottir became a closeted bisexual as a new Primer Minister of Iceland. It is interesting to note that in reality Iceland was the only country in the world that had an openly lesbian Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir who led Icelandic government from 2009 until her retirement from politics in 2012. There is no doubt of a mutual attraction between Stella and Dagbjört which serie portrays in a very believable way plus the main character is played by Heida Reed, more known for her role of Elizabeth Chynoweth in BBC drama Poldark (2015-2018). Uniqueness of Stella Blómkvist series is presented also in occasional neon style lighting, electro-lounge music, Stella's drinking and smoking, something that is rather the opposite of the Scandinavian noir crime fiction where characters are highly rational, composed and rarely seen in any kind of sexual activities.
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AuthorPhilosopher, publicist, editor, screenwriter with passion for LL-films and TV-shows. Archives
November 2021
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