Wisting is a Norwegian language TV show starring Sven Nordin and Carrie-Anne Moss. It’s adapted from The Caveman and The Hunting Dogs by Jørn Lier Horst, which are the ninth and eighth books respectively in the William Wisting Mysteries series. Wisting’s first season consists of ten episodes. It’s available on DVD and to stream on Acorn TV.
When a dead body is discovered on a Christmas tree farm near Larvik, Norway, Chief Inspector William Wisting (Nordin) and his team uncover a chilling connection to an American serial killer who’s been on the lam from the FBI for the past two decades. Wisting is shocked to realize that a cold blooded killer has been living in their community and likely using isolated farm wells in the nearby countryside as his own personal dumping ground to dispose of his kills.
The case brings two FBI agents to Larvik, one of whom has a history with the serial killer, to assist in the investigation. Agent Maggie Griffin (Moss) is especially determined to identify and apprehend the suspect due to her role as an investigating agent on the cases in the U.S. A tense, tight lipped inquiry ensues as the FBI insists on both the case and their presence in town remaining a secret lest the killer, whose new identity remains unidentified, goes to ground and flees again.
A massive break in the investigation coincides with the news breaking in the local media of the FBI’s presence in Norway—and lets loose an intense international media maelstrom that ratchets up the urgency and pressure to capture the killer before he disappears forever. All of which leads to a heart pounding, edge of your seat chase that crosses international borders.
The back half of the season sees Wisting’s new national hero status ripped to shreds when he’s accused of tampering with evidence in an old case that may have cost an innocent man 17 years in prison. Wisting is quickly suspended from both the newly reopened investigation and the police force while his credibility and integrity as an investigator and police officer is questioned and scrutinized by Norway’s equivalent of internal affairs. Despite orders to stay clear of the new investigation and his colleagues, Wisting instead embarks on his own inquiry into the old case, determined to uncover which of his colleagues may have been capable of fabricating evidence. Wisting is a man in pursuit of the truth and justice—no matter where or to whom that might lead.
Wisting is a must watch for fans of gritty police dramas and Scandinavian noirs—it’s a gripping, suspenseful, twisty, gritty crime drama.
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