The Nurse Review: Also known as Sygeplejersken, this Danish limited series stars Fanny Louise Bernth, Josephine Park, Peter Zandersen, Dick Kaysø, Selma Kjær Kuscu, Amalie Lindegård, Sofia Cukic, Stephanie Nguyen, Mathilde Eusebius, Stine Schrøder Jensen and Sara Fanta Traore, alongside other cast members. It is based on the book by Kristian Corfixen of the same name and is created by Kaspar Barfoed, who also joins the series as the director and head writer along with Dorte Warnøe Høgh.
– The Nurse Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Initially, the series had started off too slowly, with the exposition taking a lot of time to come to the meat of the story. However, it is revealed later why the introduction was important to set up the episodes coming later. The rocky beginning has a lot to do with the way some of the shots are cut in the beginning. They look very amateur and seem to have been done by someone who doesn’t understand the importance of holding a shot for long.
That mistake is soon eradicated, though, as the episodes progress, we get a real look into the people’s lives involved in this tragedy and how it affected their home lives. Most of the characters in this show are female, and they all have distinct personalities, except for the main character, who does seem to fall into a stereotypical trope of a leading woman. She is positioned as a hero since the beginning, and that does lend a little pretentiousness to the creator who didn’t think to expand the range of this person.
However, the show does a really good job of planting clues early in the beginning. Having characters say things that would be very incriminating if taken the way the perpetrator intends is a fantastic idea to excite the audience for what is about to come next. This is just one of the few reasons why the writing on this show is great at telling a story that would require nuance and perspective.
Additionally, even though this is a show about a serial killer, the creators of the show were kind enough to highlight her capabilities and flaws to make her human in her own right. Moreover, they didn’t glorify or exaggerate the perpetrator’s actions in this series. Often, the problem with media that centres on serial killers is that they try to induce fear in the audience, which isn’t the right way to explore any kind of tragic event.
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This show does well because it explores the person’s life outside of their primary attacking space and follows them into a space where that control is relinquished. While this does humanise the perpetrator, it is exactly how they should be presented, and it’s fascinating that there was enough foresight to do this. It is not sensational at all and is a pretty clinical take on the facts with some dramatisation to make it fit the genre.
It is still a little infuriating that the main character immediately felt strongly about reporting on a case like this without there being any internal resistance especially considering that she had a child. It is concerning that her first priority is to go after a person who has made it clear that they are willing to resort to extreme violence to get their point across. Apart from this tiny tidbit and the initial instability of the narrative, the series takes a pretty neutral look at the tragic events.
The Nurse Review: Final Thoughts
This writer suggests that people watch this series because it is a limited series, with shorter episodes and explores the psyche of a serial killer with a neutral perspective. Moreover, it is fun to watch because the actors, cinematography, and montages are good. Additionally, the longer format also allowed the creators to breathe more life into the story instead of rushing past the events without any closure.
We also see how unglamorous something like this could be, the responsibility that comes with harbouring a person in the medical industry and the implications for the specific hospital. Additionally, it also speaks to the level of trust the medical community thrives on and the seismic shift that occurs when that trust is broken.
The Nurse is currently streaming on Netflix.
What did you think of the serial killer representation in this film? Let us know in the comments below.
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