# Acquitted (2015)

> A Norwegian businessman acquitted of his high school sweetheart's murder returns to his hometown to rescue a family firm and must face the suspicion that never left.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55762

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 18
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Anna Bache-Wiig, Siv Rajendram Eliassen
- Network: TV 2 Direkte
- Cast: Nicolai Cleve Broch, Tobias Santelmann, Synnøve Macody Lund, Lena Endre, Ingar Helge Gimle, Henrik Rafaelsen, Anne Marit Jacobsen, Ellen Dorrit Petersen
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3582458/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: bleak, tense, melancholic, brooding

## What critics say

Audiences rate the Norwegian crime drama positively, valuing its tense, twisty take on a buried past and a small-town family web.

## Synopsis

Acquitted (2015-2016) is a Norwegian national-television nordic noir crime drama created by Anna Bache-Wiig and Siv Rajendram Eliassen for TV 2 Direkte. Businessman Aksel Borgen (Nicolai Cleve Broch) has built success in Asia, but he is summoned back to his small Norwegian hometown to save an important local firm. Twenty years earlier he was sentenced and later acquitted for the murder of his high school sweetheart, and the town has never fully let go of that verdict. Erik Nilsen (Tobias Santelmann) and Tonje Sandvik (Synnøve Macody Lund) bring their own stakes into the story, while Lena Endre plays Eva Hansteen, whose family ties run through the company and the old case. Aksel's engine is a fight to clear his name and protect his business while old loyalties and buried grudges resurface. Each stretch of the two-season run layers business pressure over the unresolved murder question, and the series plays out as a serialized, carefully paced mystery with a tense, dread-filled, melancholic register. The Norwegian setting, with its cold provincial streets and tight family circles, gives the story its atmosphere. Fans of Broen, Twin Peaks and Top of the Lake will find resonance in its blend of small-town secrets and a long shadow of guilt.

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