# Bordertown (2016)

> A Finnish Serious Crime Unit detective investigates harrowing border-area homicides while juggling his family life in Lappeenranta.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/59986

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 31
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Miikko Oikkonen
- Network: Yle TV1
- Cast: Ville Virtanen, Matleena Kuusniemi, Olivia Ainali, Anu Sinisalo, Lenita Susi, Kristiina Halttu, Max Bremer, Jasmin Hamid
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4937942/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: bleak, melancholic, harrowing, cold northern melancholy

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, praising its bleak Nordic crime atmosphere and the family drama woven through its homicide investigations.

## Synopsis

Bordertown (2016-2020) is a Finnish nordic noir crime series created by Miikko Oikkonen for Yle TV1. Detective Inspector Kari Sorjonen (Ville Virtanen) leads the Serious Crime Unit in Lappeenranta, a town on the Finnish-Russian border, where he must solve a steady run of harrowing homicides while his household strains under the weight of his work. His wife Pauliina Sorjonen (Matleena Kuusniemi) and daughter Janina Sorjonen (Olivia Ainali) anchor the domestic side of the story, while colleagues such as Lena Jaakkola (Anu Sinisalo) and Taina Henttunen (Kristiina Halttu) share the pressure of each case. Each season is a three-season run of sixty-minute episodes that follows a continuing thread of investigations, with murders that stretch across the frontier and seep into ordinary life. The tone is cold, grim and patient, with long quiet scenes of police work and the atmosphere of a remote northern town. Fans of The Killing, The Bridge and the moody small town dread of Twin Peaks will find resonance in its bleak, character driven approach to crime and its emphasis on the human cost of violence.

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