''Wisting'' is a Norwegian

police procedural The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

television series, broadcast by

Viaplay Viaplay is a Swedish video streaming service owned by Viaplay Group. History Originally owned by Modern Times Group, it was launched in May 2007 as Viasat On Demand. It was rebranded as Viaplay in 2011. Viaplay released its first origina ...

and

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

starring

Sven Nordin Sven Audun Nordin (born 6 February 1957) is a Norwegian actor. He was hired by Oslo Nye Teater in the autumn of 1981 and had his debut in the play "Vikinger" by Johan Borgen. He is best known for his roles as Nils in the situation comedy '' Mo ...

as William Wisting, a senior police detective in

Larvik Larvik () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Larvik (town) ...

, Thea Green Lundberg as his daughter, crime journalist Line Wisting, and (until the third season)

Carrie-Anne Moss Carrie-Anne Moss (born August 21, 1967) is a Canadian actress. After early roles on television, she rose to international prominence for her role of Trinity in ''The Matrix'' series (1999–present). She has starred in '' Memento'' (2000), for ...

as visiting FBI Special Agent Maggie Griffin.

Production

The first series of ten episodes is based on two novels by

Jørn Lier Horst Jørn Lier Horst (born 27 February 1970) is a Norwegian author of crime fiction and a former Senior Investigating Officer at Vestfold police district. His books have been published in over 40 countries and have sold more than ten million copies. ...

, ''The Caveman'' (2013) and ''The Hunting Dogs'' (2012). Horst is a best-selling author in Norway, and his books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Filming started in January 2018 on a 150-day schedule. The adaptations were written by Trygve Allister Diesen and Kathrine Valen Zeiner. Diesen also directed episodes along with Katarina Launing. The show's first series had a budget of NOK 110 million (€11.4 million). This sum incorporated a €1 million grant from

Creative Europe Creative Europe is a European Union programme for the cultural and creative sectors. In its first phase, going from 2014 to 2020, it had a budget of € 1.47 billion, which were expanded to € 2.44 billion in its second phase (2021-2027). His ...

as well as a grant of NOK 26.05 million (€2.7 million) from the

Norwegian Film Institute The Norwegian Film Institute () was founded in 1955 to support and develop the Norwegian film industry. On 1 April 2008, it was merged with Norwegian Film Fund, Norwegian Film Development, and Norwegian Film Commission to form the "'new' Norweg ...

. This makes the show the most expensive drama ever produced in Norway. The Scandinavian broadcast of the first series commenced in April 2019. In the US, the series was launched on December 18, 2019 via the

Sundance Now AMC Networks Inc. is an American mass media and entertainment corporation headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York City. The company owns and operates the AMC cable channel, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, and We TV. It also owns the art hous ...

streaming service. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

the series was acquired by

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

from Banijay Rights and commenced broadcasting on December 28, 2019, with two episodes being shown back-to-back each week for five weeks. The first series was issued on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on April 27, 2021. In late 2020 ''Wisting'' was renewed for a second series of eight episodes. For transmission, these were split into two four episode runs, sometimes referred to as Seasons 2 and 3. However some international broadcasters list both as Season 2. This series is based upon the novels ''The Inner Darkness'' (2019) and ''The Night Man'' (2009), broadcast in Scandinavia from December 26, 2021 and April 2022 respectively. Nordin, Ouadal, Berge and Lundberg reprise their roles across all eight episodes, with Moss providing off-screen voice in the first four episodes and returning in full for the second four. The series was broadcast on

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

in the UK from October 15, 2022 and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

via SBS on Demand from February 24 and June 23, 2022 respectively. Two further series were confirmed in 2023, with the third production/fourth broadcast series being an original story inspired by Horst's characters, and the fourth production/fifth broadcast to be based on Horst's novel ''Sak 1569'' (''A Question of Guilt''). The fourth series started broadcasting in Norway on March 24, 2024 and in the UK on April 13, 2024. Season 5 followed on September 24 of that year.

Reception

The Nordic press viewed the series favourably. ''

Stavanger Aftenblad (; ) or simply ''Aftenbladet'' is a daily newspaper based in Stavanger, Norway, and owned by Schibsted Media Group. Norwegian owners held 42 percent of the shares in Schibsted at the end of 2015. is thus majority foreign-owned. History and ...

'' commented that it was "intricate and riveting", ''

Jyllands-Posten (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies.Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'' praised its "nonstop momentum". Writing in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

,''

Dorothy Rabinowitz Dorothy Rabinowitz is a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist and commentator. She was born in New York City, and attained a bachelor's degree at Queens College. She worked toward a doctorate at New York University from 1957 to 1960, but d ...

found the series "seamlessly woven" and "superbly layered". Writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Euan Ferguson described the series as "... the best Nord-noir ever. Since the last one. What did Scandinavian film-makers think they were ever doing, 80 years of existential angst and Death playing nihilist chess, before remembering: we have crime. Coal. Snow. Blood. Fire. Cheekbones. Let’s do that."

Cast

Credits: *

as William Wisting;

police lead investigator *

as Maggie Griffin; FBI Special Agent, seconded to William's team (Seasons 1—3) * Thea Green Lundberg as Line Wisting: William's daughter, ''

Verdens Gang (), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...

'' journalist * Jonas Strand Gravli/Fredrik Stenberg Ditlev-Simonsen as Thomas Wisting; William's son and Line's twin brother *

Mads Ousdal Mads Ousdal (born 8 December 1970) is a Norwegian actor. He worked as an actor at Den Nationale Scene from 1996 to 1998, at Oslo Nye Teater from 1998 to 1999, and at Nationaltheatret from 2000. He played in the film ''Detector'' from 2000 and in ' ...

as Nils Hammer; police senior detective * Lars Berge as Benjamin Fjeld; police detective * Irina Eidsvold Tøien as Andrea Vetti; police chief (Season 1) * Maria Bock as Agnes Kiil; police chief (Season 2—present) * Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa as Veronica Rambøl; Agnes's assistant, who joins William's team (Season 2―present) * Kjersti Sandal as Torunn Borg; William's deputy and temporary lead investigator (Seasons 1—2) *

Mads Sjøgård Pettersen Mads Sjøgård Pettersen (born 21 January 1984) is a Norwegian actor known for his role of Fredrik Kayser on mini-series ''The Heavy Water War ''The Heavy Water War'' (original title ' and alternative title ''The Saboteurs'' (United Kingdom ...

as Tommy Kvanter; Line's ex-boyfriend * Mariann Hole as Sissel; Nils's wife, a former drug addict * Cato Skimten Storengen as Ruben Borg; Torunn's husband, Atle's father (Seasons 1—3) * Heidi Goldmann as Bjørg Karin; policewoman (Seasons 1—3)

Season 1

* Richie Campbell as John Bantham: FBI Special Agent, seconded to William's team, has

one-night stand A one-night stand is a single sexual encounter in which there is no expectation that there shall be any further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single night performanc ...

with Line *

Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen (born 4 February 1971) is a Norwegian actress. Her mother is the actress Kjersti Døvigen, and her father was the jazz musician Ole Jacob Hansen, who died when Ulrikke was 27. Educated in England, she has performed both ...

as Christine Thiis: police prosecutor * Gard B. Eidsvold as Frank Robekk: retired police detective, Ellen's uncle *

Fridtjov Såheim Fridtjov Såheim (born 2 July 1968) is a Norwegian stage director, stage actor and film actor. Biography Såheim has worked for the theatres Den Nationale Scene, Rogaland Teater and Nationaltheatret. Among his characters is the title role in ...

as Philip Henden: lawyer; represents Vidar and, later, William * as Vidar Haglund: convicted murderer, released after serving sentence * Daniel Frikstad as Joachim Andresen: ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' news reporter * Ellen Dorrit Petersen as Hanne Kaupang: Linnea's over-protective mother *

Thea Sofie Loch Næss Thea Sofie Loch Næss (born 26 November 1996, Kristiansand) is a Norwegian actress. Career She started acting at the age of 8. She played a leading role in Eirik Svensson’s coming-of-age film 'One Night in Oslo' in 2013, which premiered in Apr ...

as Linnea Kaupang: wannabe model, Internet blogger * Lasse Vermeli as Erik: ''VG'' photographer *

Jon Øigarden Jon Øigarden (born 31 May 1971) is a Norwegian actor, who is well known for his role as journalist Peter Verås in the TV series ''Mammon'', Jarl Varg in Norsemen, and other Norwegian films. Career Jon Øigarden was educated at the Norwegian N ...

as Terje Nordbo: Chief Inspector, Independent Office for Police Conduct; investigates police role in Cecilia's case * Amy Black Ndiaye as Maren: police detective * Henrik Plau as Fredrik: Line's associate at ''VG'' * Lars Bonnevie Hjort as Morten By: ''VG'' senior investigative journalist * as Knut Frost: ''VG'' editor, Line's boss * as Synnøve Brunvall: Line's school friend * Kari Onstad Winge as Annie Nyhus: one of Viggo's correspondents *

Nils Jørgen Kaalstad Nils Jørgen "Jøgge" Kaalstad (born 23 January 1979) is a Norwegian actor and musician who performs under the stage name Sideshow Jøgge. He is best known to international audiences as Dag Solstad from ''Lilyhammer'' and Arvid from ''Norsemen'' ...

as Magnus Kaupang: Linnea's father, construction worker *

Vidar Sandem Vidar Sandem (born 19 February 1947) is a Norwegian actor, playwright and theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as ...

as Fred Iversen: Viggo's contemporary, relocated to Denmark * as Finn Haber: former police crime scene investigator * Sigurd Myhre as Danny Flom: photographer, Cecilia's ex-boyfriend * Ola Otnes as Ole Linge Robert Godwin: American serial killer, posing as Viggo's contemporary * as Cecilia Linde: model, murdered by Vidar * Kirsti Eline Torhaug as Madelen Torell: Swedish woman, Jonas's ex-girlfriend * as Torgeir Roxrud: Jonas's friend * Helene Angell as Isabell: Linnea's school friend * Anders Rogg as Kåre: dockworker, Jonas's former friend * Jakob Fort as Lars Petter Myhre: Linnea's fellow student

Season 2 (2A) / 3 (2B)

* as Adrian Stiller: National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) agent; hunts Tom * as Idar Semmelmann: Oslo Vice squad, leads search for "The Other" * as Tom Kerr: convicted killer, assisted by an accomplice ("The Other") * as Claes Thancke ("The Other", Theo Dermann): Tom's lawyer, serial killer * as Nina Gullow: television producer, Line's new boss * as Suzanne Bjerke: asylum centre co-ordinator, Jens' ex-wife, Ingrid's best friend * Sagal Saleh as Hanan: asylum centre resident, Layla's friend * Adam Mamadou Bizokunda as Sammy Kibo: asylum centre resident, ex-

child soldier Children in the military, including state armed forces, non-state armed groups, and other military organizations, may be trained for combat, assigned to support roles, such as cooks, porters/couriers, or messengers, or used for tactical adv ...

* as Mona Mellberg: Tom's girlfriend, claims he's innocent * Edvald Bang-Johansen as Atle Borg: Torunn's son * Hedda Styrmoe Silberg as Jeanette: Mona's daughter * as Fredrik Molander: prison guard, Tom's liaison officer * as Floyd Thue: Red Cross worker, visited Tom in prison *

Stig Henrik Hoff Stig Henrik Hoff (born 4 February 1965) is a Norwegian actor. He was born in Vadsø but grew up in Berlevåg and Darbu. He is the son of Norwegian singer and writer Trygve Henrik Hoff Trygve Henrik Hoff (7 July 1938 – 2 December 19 ...

as Johannes Norum: father of Tarjei (Tom's victim), welder * as Cato Dalen: neo-Nazi farmer, Tommy's friend * Knut M. Damm as Peder Salomonsen: shopkeeper * Luke Elliot as Alek Begi: America ex-soldier, deserter, drug and human trafficking mastermind * Marika Vesce as Sunniva: Sissel's daughter, Sissel wants to regain custody * Karine Dybvik as Frida Kvastmo: uniformed policewoman * as Hussain * Louise Tofte Røiri as Melina: Cato's live-in girlfriend * Martin Furulund as Johan Eskedal: farmer, Islamophobe * Serhat Yildirim as Khaled Athari Noor Alem: former asylum centre resident, Sammy's friend, drug courier, later lives in

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

, Sweden * as Lennart Melander: Karlstad police inspector, liaises with William's team * Eeman Hashmi as Layla Hassimi: 14-year-old asylum centre resident, drug courier, decapitated with her head left on a pole * Herman Karlsen as Marvin: Johan's older son * Haakon Karlsen as Erlend: Johan's younger son

Season 4 (3A) / 5 (3B)

Rupert Evans Rupert Evans (born 9 March 1977) is a British actor. Early life Rupert Evans was born on March 9, 1977, in Staffordshire, England and was brought up on a farm in the same area. Evans was educated at Bilton Grange School, followed by Milton A ...

as Andrew Greenwood, Clifford's father * Andrea Bræin Hovig as Mai Greenwood, Clifford's mother *

Svein Sturla Hungnes Svein Sturla Hungnes (born 21 March 1946) is a Norwegian actor, theatre director, and instructor. Hungnes studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre from 1965 to 1970, and had several small roles at Nationaltheatret during that time. Af ...

as Olav Engdahl * Smylie Bradwell as Clifford Greenwood *

Teddie Allen Tamzin Malleson (born 1 May 1974) is an English actress. Early life and education Malleson was born in Yeovil, and attended Horsley Primary School in Horsley, Gloucestershire, where she had her first taste of acting as a Munchkin. She furthere ...

as Charlotte Greenwood * Ellen Bendu as Rebekka Skjevik * Emil Johnsen Vavik as Lukas * Harald Ottesen Nødtvedt as Joakim Backer * Shana Mathai as Rosa Garcia Backer * as Stein Kvammen *

Shelley Conn Shelley Deborah Conn (born 21 September 1976) is an English actress. She portrayed Lady Mary Sharma in the second season of ''Bridgerton'', Isabella in the film '' Love Sarah'', Dr Elizabeth Shannon in the Spielberg series '' Terra Nova'', Beelz ...

as Harriet Dunn * Ingjerd Egeberg as Kate Ulstrup * Kristian Repshus as Daniel Momrak * Ada Aure Albæk as Tone Vaterland * Kristian Repshus as Daniel Momrak * Lea Meyer as Agnete Kronborg * William Gundersen as Peder Kronborg * Øyvind Brandtzæg as Terje Kronorg * Kikki Stormo as Mona Kronborg * Jan Sælid as Bjørn Momrak * Arthur Berning as Sivert * Arnt Egil Andreassen as Christian Bohrmann * Aleksander Varadian as Jarle Gulliksen * Pekka Stang as Lennart Hök * Cathrine Frost Andersen as Prison Andersen * Nina Andreassen as Esther Momrak * Olivija Eva Viliüné as Greta Valotka * Arjan Nilsen as Erik Olsen * Arvid Ones as Finn Haber: William's former colleague (: previously portrayed by Helge Sveen) * Even Stormoen as Rune Kolseth * Sebastian DeMots as David Kolseth

Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2/2A (2021)

Season 3/2B (2022)

Season 4/3A (2024)

In some international broadcasts, season 4 was screened as season 3, and seasons 2-3 were shown together as season 2.

Season 5/3B (2024)

Season 5 of four episodes was screened in some markets as the last four episodes of Season 3.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 7875794 Television shows set in Norway 2019 Norwegian television series debuts Norwegian crime television series