Blood Sacrifice Review: This Nordic mystery (Blodsoffer) has everything that one might expect from, well, a Nordic mystery – brutal crimes, flawed characters and a blazing sense of injustice that makes you understand the murderer in some way. However, the 5-episode crime-thriller somehow can’t keep up with all of its thrilling ideas and characters, presenting, overall, an odd mishmash of a story that doesn’t really intrigue or thrill.
Following Thomas and his father Alfred as they try to catch a serial killer, the series tries to intrigue us with a lot. But there’s just nothing that sticks everything together. Most of the runtime fails to make us sit on the edge of our seats, and viewers who are fans of the genre will know that this is absolutely possible when it comes to Nordic crime thrillers.
The cast includes Jakob Oftebro, Peter Andersson, Electra Hallman, Alexander Abdallah, Henrik Norlén, Lisette T. Pagler, Magnus Krepper, Irina Björklund, Anders Mossling and Anna Maria Käll, with Kristoffer Nyholm directing the series. The 5-episode series is created and written by George Kay.
Blood Sacrifice Review
Blood Sacrifice Has a Killer Premise
The opening establishes something worth sitting down for, with a brutal cop killer making an impression right off the bat. However, swiftly after that, the series lets off the gas pedal and, even though the bodies keep dropping, the search for the killer plays second fiddle to family problems and constant bickering. The idea of the killer only hunting cops gives a unique intrigue to the story and makes viewers wonder why. Of course, there’s some justification, however twisted that may be, but the road to it is more about Alfred and Thomas repairing their broken relationship rather than anything else.
The series seriously picks up steam when it’s revealed that one of their own is behind this heinous crime, but immediately after that, things fall off once more. The problem, thus, is that the pacing is awful in the series. Nothing of note happens throughout the runtime, and the killer’s identity doesn’t come as some sort of shock because, frankly, who is this random person to the viewer? He’s only tragic or terrible or whatever because the series wants us to believe so. Before the revelation, viewers are not shown an inkling of his existence, which makes the payoff quite confusing and unsatisfying.
The Father-Son Dynamic Is More Interesting Than the Investigation
This isn’t to say that whatever is happening between the two has much weight to the story or the investigation. In fact, it’s just a lot of bickering and unnecessary drama that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Thomas has daddy issues, and Alfred is a rude alcoholic who can’t stop drinking. The series focuses on their relationship more than creating a deeper understanding of corruption within the police force. And while exploring this can be interesting, the characters themselves have nothing going for them to really dive deep into their psyche.
As a result of this, neither does the relationship develop naturally, nor does the crime thriller. The series ends up being half-baked from both sides as a result.
Past Meets Present
The connection between past and present is a very interesting part of the story, wherein we see how the present is being affected by the corrupt practices that happened in the past. The callback and justification are both heartbreaking and make viewers divided in their opinions. While the perpetrator faces justice in the end, the past injustice is never really addressed, and we don’t know whether or not the perpetrator in that case faces justice as well. I am being vague on purpose to not give away spoilers, but it’s so oddly infuriating to watch.
Thankfully, the incident connects the murders instead of making this a mindless string of events.
Where Blood Sacrifice Loses Its Way
The biggest problem with the show is its pacing. With such a short runtime, you’d expect this to be a tightly paced narrative that keeps you hooked for the entire runtime. But, apart from some interesting reveals and brutal murders, the series oftentimes feels extremely boring and slow. With so many great ideas, there’s somehow not enough time to address any of them well, and so it ends up feeling incomplete and confusing. Most importantly, the emotional payoff that the series wants to constantly focus on doesn’t pay off in the end because it doesn’t paint any of these characters well, and so you don’t care about their reunion.
Final Verdict
Blood Sacrifice, with an ominous title, had it all – but, despite its perfect 5-episode runtime, it’s unable to stick the landing. While there are intriguing moments and a great cast whose performances are perfect, the series is unable to combine all of its different thoughts cohesively. I think the thriller should’ve focused on the crime elements over the emotional family ones, with a better character study. Either way, the Netflix series is quite disappointing and, frankly, very confusing.
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