The reviews are uniformly positive, and the praise clusters in two places. The first is the premise: a body found on the Oresund bridge, laid across the Danish-Swedish border, so that police from both countries must work the case together. The second is the partnership it produces, between the charming but flawed Martin and the emotionally distant Saga Norén, which several critics call one of television’s better odd couples. Helin’s performance as Saga draws the warmest notices, with most critics finding her rule-bound literalness oddly sympathetic rather than cold.
The spread is narrow; nobody dislikes it. The one reservation concerns Saga herself. The Guardian finds her harder to love than Sarah Lund and misses the humanness of The Killing, a comparison the early reviews keep making. Later reviews, written with the whole run in view, are warmer, crediting the series with sustaining its mysteries and character work across four series and with an ending that satisfies.