Face to Face (Danish TV series)


Face to Face or Forhøret is a Danish television crime drama and police procedural. Season one was broadcast from 15 November 2019 by Viaplay on TV3. It was created and directed by Christoffer Boe, who also co-wrote the screenplay. The entire series spans 24 episodes across three seasons of eight episodes each. The other co-writers are Jakob Weis, and . Season one stars Ulrich Thomsen as police detective Bjørn and Alma Ekehed Thomsen as his estranged daughter Christina. It introduces Trine Dyrholm as Christina's psychologist mother Susanne, Lars Mikkelsen as entrepreneur Holger, Christina's mentor and Søren Malling as police chief Richard. Ulrich and Alma are real-life father and daughter.
For the second season, which was broadcast from 29 August 2021, Dyrholm reprises her role as Susanne. It is set 26 days after Christina's death. Susanne is the main protagonist, who learns her new patient, John, under hypnosis, recalls details of killing young women. John is due to kill another woman, Sapphire, tonight. Mikkelsen reprises his role as Holger in the third and final season of Face to Face, which began on 19 February 2023. Holger receives a video depicting Christina's murder, which leads him to question own family members and business associates. The first two seasons have been adapted by Matt Baker for the British TV series version, Suspect.

Premise

Bjørn attends a Jane Doe corpse in the morgue. It's his estranged daughter, Christina. Bjørn cannot accept Frank's verdict of suicide. He begins questioning Frank for further details. Over the course of the day, he successively interrogates people in Christina's life. Nikki describes Christina's work as a prostitute for a darkweb site, Blacknet. Mia partied with Christina and brought her into a drug dealing lifestyle. Drug lord, Sebastian provides further details of Christina's lucrative Blacknet operations. CCTV from Sebastian's nightclub shows she left with Rylander after midnight. Rylander points Bjørn to Holger, who had taken a mentor role with Christina. Holger had encouraged her in Blacknet, but she wanted to discontinue. Bjørn has become convinced that Christina did indeed suicide. He meets ex-wife Susanne to farewell their daughter's corpse. Susanne reveals she had an affair with Frank, which began the previous Christmas. Bjørn now notices that Christina's upper lip has a split frenulum. This implies her mouth had been clamped closed by her killer. Susanne alibis Frank for the time of death. Bjørn returns to Frank, accusing him of falsifying the autopsy report by omission. Frank claims their boss, Richard, had ordered him. Richard denies the falsification and provides his alibi during the time of death. Bjørn deduces that Frank also falsified the time of death, to give him Susanne's alibi. Bjørn stabs Frank to death and is arrested for murder.
Susanne is consulted by John, who wants to stop smoking. Susanne hypnotises John, who reveals he kills women and is due to kill another tonight. John abruptly leaves, while Susanne informs Richard of John's threat. Richard is unwilling to open an investigation without substantial evidence. Conversely, Richard asks Susanne to have Bjørn certified as insane. Susanne successively interviews people. Charlotte confirms undocumented women have disappeared; she recalls Louise reported a kidnapped woman. Louise hesitantly describes her witness, Sapphire, who worked for Sebastian. Louise advises Susanne to consult Bjørn. On the pretext of psychologically assessing Bjørn, Susanne visits his prison and learns Sebastian/Bjark owns Lady Love. Susanne meets Sapphire, who eventually admits John kidnapped Julia for stealing from Lady Love. Susanne warns Sapphire that she may be John's next victim. Sapphire runs off, leaving behind her phone. Susanne gets help from CC, who uses Sapphire's phone to trace her to North Harbour. CC hands over a gun for Susanne. When spotted by police, CC surrenders, but they shoot him. Susanne continues following Sapphire, where she enters a psychologists' convention. Susanne's trail leads to Maja, who boards a train. Holding Maja at gunpoint, Susanne learns John has a boat back at North Harbour. Susanne finds Sapphire, but is also captured by John. Susanne had already hidden her gun in Sapphire's jacket. John takes both women to a derelict building and ties them into chairs. Susanne is able to distract John long enough for Sapphire to get free and drop the gun. Susanne picks it up and shoots John. The women leave.
Some days later. Holger sees video of Christina's murder by John. John must have been sent by Markus. Markus admits to ordering John to tail Christina. Markus contends that John killed her for his own reasons. John took video to show someone: it was a paid hit. Holger pressures Markus to reveal who helped. Markus runs downstairs and while struggling, Markus accidentally falls to his death. Holger hides the corpse in a storeroom. Markus' phone shows messages from Liz. Liz helped Markus write contract with building supplier, ComTech. Markus' CCTV shows him consulting with Otto. Holger fires Liz and meets Otto at North Harbour building site. From Otto's answers, Holger deduces that Otto had sabotaged the site to hire ComTech instead. Otto points to Rupert as sponsoring ComTach, which would lead to Holger's resignation. Rupert claims he would never align with Otto or Markus. Police arrive at Lang Towers. Holger describes Markus' death, asks Rupert to erase the building's CCTV. Holger is confronted by Richard, who wants to interview Markus about John. Police impound Markus' car before Holger can search it for Markus' meeting schedule. Richard barters for CCTV access, which shows Holger hiding Markus' corpse. Holger arrested by Richard; Holger knocks Richard down. Richard's phone shows meeting with Viktor. Viktor admits to owning ComTech and helping Marcus topple Holger. Holger accuses Viktor of conspiring to kill Christina. Viktor counters that they wanted to get rid of Christina, not kill her. Viktor sees news report of Markus' death. He professes loving Markus. Camilla smuggles Holger into the hospital morgue, where he visits Markus' corpse. Camilla reveals Holger's not Elisabeth's biological son, he's adopted. Holger questions Elisabeth and Henrik. He learns of machinations to replace Holger with Rupert as CEO.

Cast and characters

Main cast

  • Trine Dyrholm as Susanne Egholm: psychologist, hypnotherapist. Christina's mother, Bjørn's ex-wife
  • Alma Ekehed Thomsen as Christina Rasmussen: Bjørn and Susanne's daughter, Nikki's wife
  • Ulrich Thomsen as Bjørn Rasmussen: Copenhagen police detective, Christina's father, Susanne's ex-husband
  • Lars Mikkelsen as Holger Lang: Lang Enterprises CEO, philosophy-law professor, entrepreneur, horse owner, Christina's mentor
  • Søren Malling as Richard Meyer/Lund: police chief, Bjørn's boss
  • Olaf Johannessen as John Ryt: Susanne's new client, requests hypnosis to stop smoking

Season one only

  • Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Sebastian Bjarke: nightclub owner, drug lord, Lady Love strip club owner, prostitutes' pimp, initially supplied drugs and women by Mia. Former policeman alongside Bjørn
  • David Dencik as Rylander: policeman, Bjørn's former partner, Lassen's current partner
  • Lars Ranthe as Frank: forensic pathologist, coroner, Susanne's sometime lover
  • as Mia Fønsgaard: fronts Amazing Daisy brothel, drug dealer
  • Clara Rosager as Nikki Rasmussen: Christina's wife
  • Sandra Hussein as Yasmin: Sebastian's bartender, mole for Slovenians' boss
  • Simon Harder as "Register" Finn: police HQ Desk Sergeant

Season two only

Season three only

  • Pilou Asbæk as Markus Lang: William and Elisabeth's son, Holger's younger brother, manages John's missions
  • Jakob Oftebro as Rupert Lang: Henrik and Elisabeth's son, Holger's stepbrother, Beatrice's twin brother, aspires to be CEO
  • Josephine Park as Beatrice Lang: Holger's stepsister, Rupert's sister and assistant
  • Evin Ahmad as Liz: Lang Enterprises' lawyer, represents Holger and Markus
  • Lene Maria Christensen as Camilla Lang: hospital-based doctor, Otto's ex-wife then Holger's ex-wife
  • Nicolas Bro as Otto: building contractor, Holger's former friend, Karl's father
  • Sverrir Guðnason as Viktor Mallström: construction company CEO, Holger's biggest rival
  • Solbjørg Højfeldt as Elisabeth Lang: retired Lang Enterprises CEO. Holger, Markus, Rupert and Beatrice's mother, William's widow, Henrik's wife
  • Lars Brygmann as Henrik Lang: Elisabeth's second husband, Holger's stepfather, Rupert and Beatrice's father

Production

Face to Face, was created by Christoffer Boe, who also directed all 24 episodes across three seasons and co-wrote its screenplay. The first season was co-written with Jakob Weis and produced by Jonas Allen and Peter Bose for Viaplay on TV3. It was broadcast from 15 November 2019. According to Boe, he wanted "a crime show with no filler" and one which "cuts quickly to the heart of the matter in each episode." His aim for each was "the interaction and the meeting between two great characters" to be featured. Boe used "the greatest actors we have in Denmark and in Scandinavia" and for each episode "we could do everything in a week". Ullrich Thomsen and his real-life daughter Alma Ekehed Thomsen appear in all eight episodes of that season. It is Alma's debut television acting role. Christian Povlsen of Sound Venue observed, "Even though her character is already dead and gone from the first episode, she still haunts the story through flashbacks and video footage."

Reception

Danish website Sound Venues Morten Kildebæk rates season one of Face to Face as four-out-of-six stars and praises its concept, "a complete, stylistically delicious and really interesting play with the classic interrogation situation of the crime genre." Kelly Luchtman of Foreign Crime Drama gave it 85% and noticed, the format "is done well, but has some drawbacks... performances are excellent, scenes are very talky". Kildebæk's colleague Povlsen also rated season two at four stars, observing, "Although the tight concept sometimes gets in the way of the drama, the second season is a captivating and well-produced crime novel with a well-spirited as the main attraction." The Sydney Morning Heralds Melinda Houston gave the first two seasons four-out-of-five stars and explained, "exquisite psychological thriller takes the idea Scandi-noir and sends it next level... incredibly ambitious and wonderfully clever, all in the most unassuming way." Another Sound Venue reviewer, Lars R. Knudsen considered season three, which also got four stars and featured Mikkelsen, who "shows that he is one of the country's best actors, and is uncompromising in his concept. Together, this creates a final season that maintains the level that was set back in 2019."