'Below the Surface' is a Danish drama based on the premise that a group of terrorists sieze a group of hostages on the underground. That premise is interesting (and sadly all too plausible), but its development is not. We're introduced to the (basically irrelevent) backstory of each of the hostages; there's a depressingly unimaginative portrayal of a rogue journalist; while the hero is the master negotiator who (rather ridiculously) turns out to be the terrorists' primary target. His main action as negotiator is to persuade the hostages not to try and free themselves, supposedly in their own interests, but there's something absurd that when the hostages finally break free, the man charged with negotiating their freedom pleads with them to return to their cage! Overall, there's not much to see here, aside from some by-the-numbers drama; and there are certainly better examples of Scandi-noir.

This Danish thriller opens with three terrorists seizing a train on the Copenhagen underground; once stopped they remove fifteen passengers and take them to a new station that is under construction. They later demand a ransom. The police are mobilised but the task of saving the hostages won't be easy; the tunnels approaching station have been booby-trapped and the hostage takers appear to be military trained and well-armed. The police are led by Philip Nørgaard, a former soldier with an understanding of hostage situations... he was held hostage after being captured in Afghanistan. Something the lead terrorist says leads Philip to suggest the he is the man who held him even though authorities insist he was killed. With the state refusing to pay the hostages make contact with journalist Naja Toft, who starts a fun raising effort. Over the next eight days tensions rise and tragedies occur before the terrorists are finally identified and the final confrontation takes place.Things start well with the taking of the hostages then continue impressively as we get to know the hostages and police. All we know about the hostage takers is that they speak accented English and have proper military training. Things do get a bit melodramatic towards the end as we learn who the terrorists are and why they are doing it but by then the pace has picked up so it isn't too hard to overlook this. The underground location creates a good claustrophobic atmosphere and provides a good excuse to keep the drama going for eight days. The hostages are a good cross section of society with some interesting characters among them. The cast does an impressive job making the story believable; most obviously Johannes Lassen, who plays Philip Nørgaard. Overall I'd say that while this might not be the best Nordic import it is still well worth watching.These comments are based on watching the episode in Danish with English subtitles.

Contrary to another review here I did not find the story line to be long or boring - There are some many factors running at the same time so I literally could not stop watching it and ended up watching the entire series in one session (long session). Thanks to a, in my opinion, good plot, and with an ever changing aspect of who and what which keeps you guessing until almost the end. I think the signal or message the series is trying to send is a fair bit different to the one the other reviewer has gotten and I think it again takes up the baton in bringing the ugly face of PTSD up again, something which is very much needed and cannot be done enough. I will not say too much here as I think people should watch the series themselves - but I thought it was rather great.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!Too long, mostly full of unnecessary and sometimes even horribly jarring and badly acted back stories of several characters that start to annoy very quickly. Also, as the story progress, more and more stupidities of the script starts to annoy and eats the credibility, eventually making the watching of the story unfold painful. I could list major idiotic things but I value my time more.Last, the political message it gives, or rather pounds it in, I don't like it at all. That giving money to terrorist kidnappers is OK. Shame on the propaganda.Rather poor series, too long and weak script. 3 stars.