The Chestnut Man 2021 is a Netflix Crime Drama Mystery TV Series. The Series is rated R and it is 50 minutes long in total.
Today I’m going to be going over the new Danish noir murder mystery from Netflix The Chestnut Man. This is a genre that Netflix has hit gold with on many occasions with Bloodline, Bodyguards, Safe and Mind Hunter, among many others. Does this new limited series stand up to the best? Let’s find out.
The Chestnut Man Review
The Chestnut Man is based upon the novel by Søren Sveistrup and it is directed by Kasper Barfoed and Mikkel Serup.
It stars Esben Dalgaard Andersen as Steen Hartung, Danica Curcic as Naia Thulin, David Dencik as Simon Genz, Iben Dorner as Rosa Hartung, Liva Forsberg as Le Thulin, and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as Mark Hess.
A young woman is found brutally murdered in a playground and one of her hands is missing. Above her hangs a small man-made of chestnuts that will lead to a harrowing investigation.
Søren Sveistrup is the Danish mastermind behind the series The Killing, which was adapted to an AMC show and picked up later to be finished by Netflix.
That bleak murder mystery series never really found the audience that it deserved, but I truly hope that the same will not be said about his new offering, The Chestnut Man.
This nuanced and captivating slow-burn story will fly by for all of the binge-watchers out there who can’t get enough of their crime shows.
And even though at the end of the day, The Chestnut Man might be a bit forgettable, some of the imagery here will stick with you long after it’s over.
The series follows Rosa Hartung, a member of Parliament returning to work after a year off because of the murder of her young daughter.
On the same day, an investigator named Naia Thulin finds a woman brutally murdered with her hand severed off. Next to her body is that of a Danish child’s handmade toy a Chestnut Man.
When the forensics come in, they find that Rosa’s supposedly dead daughter’s fingerprints are all over the small toy.
A string of woman continue to be found murdered, and Naia Thulin must race against time to figure out how this Chestnut Man is connected to all the murders. And if Rose’s daughter might still be alive.
As a huge fan of the murder mystery genre, I always get excited for limited series like this, and Netflix has been one of the leading producers of crime television, so The Chestnut Man certainly caught my eye.
Denmark has also been on their A-game in the last couple of years, with some amazing films and television shows really bringing the country to the forefront in the entertainment industry.
I am pleased to say that The Chestnut Man is another excellent Nordic crime series that had me riveted from beginning to end.
The show starts off a bit slow, setting up the complex cast of characters, somber mood, and complicated web of clues in a way that really gets you increasingly invested.
But once everything is set in place, The Chestnut Man continues to build until you are on the edge of your seat for its explosive conclusion.
And while people who aren’t super into slow-burn series might not love this approach if it is done well in an intentional way, as this show is able to accomplish, all of the hard-hitting moments hit harder because they are earned.
There were scenes in The Chestnut Man that gave me chills and sent shivers up my spine. Because the suspense and thrills have been slowly built when they reached their boiling point, you will barely be able to breathe.
There are a couple of things that could have made this limited series better. However, although there is a lot of strong character development here, some of the cast feels cold and distant. Of course, this is how many characters can come off in dark noirs like this.
But I learned to reach these people in a more emotionally resonant way, and I do think two more episodes would have done the trick with this.
I’ve long been critical of Netflix’s six-episode runs, and I think The Chestnut Man also suffers because of its limited length here.
If we had gotten two more hours to build up these characters and subplots a bit more, I feel like this series would have been far more impactful.
Despite my small qualms, The Chestnut Man not only thrills but terrifies. It’s a grizzly murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end, and it also tackles difficult themes that might be very disturbing for viewers.
I won’t give anything away here, but audiences will be sickened by some of the twists in this story.
It’s not always an easy watch, but just as in films like Seven and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as series like Broad Church and Spy streps own The Killing, the Chestnut Man finds humanity within the depravity.
so I am going to give The Chestnut Man Series a C-Plus.
Though this limited series could have benefited from a longer runtime to flesh out its characters a bit more, the Chestnut Man is a riveting murder mystery that is disturbing fine tingling, and brilliantly plotted.
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of The Chestnut Man Tv Series. See you next time.
The Chestnut Man Trailer
Check out the trailer of the new Crime Drama Mystery TV Series, The Chestnut Man.
