Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Dicte is very entertaining, also because of the main character's quite obnoxious behavior and the wide range of topics addressed. Also nice are the long developing character lines, although funny enough Dicte herself remains pretty much the same throughout. Nice to watch together, contains enough fun and thrill for any couple.

While this show certainly does have all of the terrible writing and awkwardly forced sex scenes found in other mundane crime dramas, it also has a very bizarre and specific brand of female shaming that I've never seen anywhere else. The running theme throughout the series seems to be that as a woman, there should be no instance where you could ever be willing to give up the child you gave birth to (even if you were a surrogate and the child is not genetically yours, in cases of rape, or if you're just too young to properly care for the child and wish to give it up for adoption, etc...) It's bizarre and difficult to look past since they lay it on pretty heavy handed.

I'm expecting more spin-offs from this show like Bob - Builder and Sam - Fireman, but seriously, I rather enjoyed this first UK showing of yet another Scandinavian crime series. Nordic Noir it isn't though, at least in this meet-the-characters episode, as we drop in on recently divorced, middle-aged, single mum and to top it all, crime reporter Dicte in the small town of Aarhus. Not unnaturally we quickly enter fully into her world, which brings forth her mildly rebellious teenage daughter, two forty-something girl-friends, still-sniffing-around ex-husband and her various newspaper colleagues and police contacts. These will no doubt provide plenty of back - stories in future episodes, especially, I don't doubt, her initially frosty relationship with the super-thin, also recently divorced police detective Wagner, which I expect to morph into something warmer in time.Human interest aside, I was more entertained by the interesting plot line, surrounding surrogate mother Eastern European prostitutes, with Dicte unconventionally finding the first body while answering a call of nature. This was just one of many examples of the wry, pithy humour on display and while some of the connections in the story seem either contrived or coincidental, my enjoyment wasn't dulled too much.I liked the acting too, especially Dicte and the detective, who also has a scene-stealing Bolshie young female assistant too. I hope future episodes concentrate on the criminal reporting side rather than the temptation to fall into "Sex and the City" territory, but for now this was an encouraging start to a series I'll return to for my latest subtitled cop-show.

Dicte Svendsen is a flawed character. There is some expository back story regarding her rotten relationship with her parents, an illegitimate son she was forced to give up, and a cheating spouse — all of which are meant to explain her poor sense of morals; willingness to steal, lie, and cheat from her friends and work colleagues; and lead a life of loose responsibility. If the series had any obligation to reality, she should have been killed by Bosnian baby-traffickers in episode two. Not a particularly flattering picture of Denmark and its inhabitants emerges from this series. Very few of the actors would be considered attractive but that is not as much of an issue as it is say for American TV. Even when we have dirty cops or reporters they are or look like Jennifer Lopez or Ryan Eggold. There are some interesting plot lines focusing on politics,incest, blackmail, organ theft, immigration. prostitution, and sports fixing among others. And through it all, Dicte and her two friends share booze and have affairs with a variety of men. Let's say to be current (2016) that this isn't the Denmark Bernie Sanders would reference on the campaign trail. It's all in Danish with subtitles and it's clear by the dialogue that the PC police aren't monitoring Danish TV. Worth a look for the curious. Six and a half stars.