Television rating|Oxen is a strange combination of action thriller, gangster story and almost soap, and none of them hit the mark.
Time many Danish series have dealt with the traumas of soldiers, and let’s see once again. New Oxen– series begins with a flashback, where its title character Niels Oxen gets into a dramatic shooting incident in Afghanistan.
Oxen gets trapped with his comrades and at the same time sees how the coward of the group, named Hannibal, flees the place in a car.
For a while, we watch how Oxen tries to hold Hannibal accountable in Denmark, but it doesn’t take long to succeed. Little by little, the whole episode is forgotten. In the end, the series is not about Afghanistan at all.
Instead, after some confusing twists and turns, it turns out that the Hannibal in question lives in a luxurious country castle under the care of his uncle, and attention turns to his uncle. At this point, the viewer is already having trouble keeping up.
Soon the castle and its grounds are home to a number of the series’ main characters, including Oxen, who, disillusioned with the world, has taken up residence in the castle’s forests. Why there? Apparently by accident.
Along with Oxen, the attention is focused on a cold-blooded woman working in the security police, Frigg Mossman, who seems to have the power and the ability to erase all embarrassing people and events from the map.
So Oxen-in the first two episodes of the series, the bodies come quickly and in their place appear approximately the same number of new characters who are not introduced properly. The pattern is also confused by the fact that people are sometimes addressed by their first names and sometimes by their last names.
Ellen Hillingsø plays the powerful Frigg Mossman who works in the security police.
In the third in the episode, the pace calms down a bit, and you start to get an idea of the genre of the series. Still, after all six episodes, I’m not sure what was going on. Operation tensioner Oxen of course it is, and apparently Neils Oxen is intended as a modern villain character, but for that purpose he is too real and not even particularly cunning.
Little by little, the plot twists start to resemble a soap opera, where relatives and other people with a past are dug up from somewhere to the point of congestion. However, romance shines through its absence.
Idea of course it could be great: everyone is spying on each other, and no one can have a moment in peace. In the background is a brotherhood named Danehof, which is seeking power. Even that is sometimes forgotten for several episodes.
And I won’t spoil it badly if I tell you that everything starts with the death of a prostitute, which the prestigious hunting party tries to cover up. Not very original.
Oxen is a special package, and especially from the Danes, because the creators are experienced chess players from the successful series of the past years.
The actors can be mentioned The castle-pace Birgitte Hjort Sørensenin, who has a really cool role. Oxenia is presented colorlessly Jacob Lohman.
Based on the ending, the series is to be continued.
Oxen, Yle Areena and Theme Sun 28.7. at 21:00.