Best Finnish TV Series


Are you preparing for your trip to Finland and want to know more about the culture of the country before you go? Would you like to see a series shot in the Nordic country? In that case, keep reading because we are going to show you the best Finnish TV series and we will tell you where you can watch them.

Bordertown – Sorjonen

Bordertown (Sorjonen in Finnish) is a Finnish crime drama series created by Miikko Oikkonen and starring Ville Virtanen as detective Kari Sorjonen.

The series was released in 2016 on Yle TV1 and consists of 31 episodes spread over 3 seasons. The series became a success in Finland and crossed borders, coming to be praised by the famous American writer Stephen King, among others.

What is Sorjonen about?

Police detective inspector Kari Sorjonen, whose wife has just overcome brain cancer, is one of the most respected officers in the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Finland. Sorjonen has Asperger’s and exhibits traits related to Savantism. You could say that the character resembles Sherlock Holmes.

Sorjonen accepts a new job, initially running the Serious Crimes Unit, in the town of Lappeenranta in South Karelia. He moves with his family to the city near the Russian border to lead a more peaceful life. But nothing happens as he expected. There, together with his partner, a former agent of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), Lena Jaakkola, he will have to solve some shady crimes taking place in the area.

Bordertown can be seen on Netflix in most countries.

Deadwind – Karppi

Finnish TV series that can be seen on Netflix

Deadwind (Karppi in Finnish) is a crime-themed television series directed and created by Rike Jokela. It stars Pihla Viitala, Lauri Tilkanen, Jani Volanen, and Tommi Korpela. It premiered in Finland in 2018 on the Yle TV2 channel and soon after came to Netflix.

The series follows Sofia Karppi, a Finnish police detective who just lost her 30-year-old husband and two children. She returns to police work in Helsinki and her first case is the murder of Anna Bergdahl, a social affairs consultant.

Season 1 received rave reviews after it aired in Finland. Two years later the second season arrived. The series has already been renewed for a third season that will be broadcast on Netflix worldwide.

Deadwind Synopsis

Sofia Karppi (Pihla Viitala) returns to her job as a homicide detective at the Helsinki Police Department as she cares for two children after the accidental death of her husband. Rookie detective Sakari Nurmi (Lauri Tilkanen) is transferred from the financial crimes unit to the homicide unit and becomes Karppi’s new partner. His first case begins as a routine disappearance.

Women’s clothing found in a construction zone leads detectives to the body of social affairs consultant Anna Bergdahl (Pamela Tola) who has been buried with flowers in her hands on the riverbank, in an area that belongs to the wind energy research company Tempo. Anna has been murdered and her husband, Usko Bergdahl (Jani Volanen), is confused after learning of the incident. Karppi and Nurmi begin to investigate Anna’s background, such as her work at Tempo and her critical construction project.

How to watch Karppi?

The Finnish series is co-produced by Yle and Netflix. The first is responsible for its broadcast in the Nordic country, while Netflix broadcasts Deadwind in the rest of the world.

Arctic Circle – Ivalo

The plot of the series is located in Ivalo, in the heart of the Arctic Circle, in the middle of the frozen landscapes of Finnish Lapland. After Nina Kautsalo (Iina Kuustonen), a Finnish police officer, finds a dying prostitute in an old desert cabin, the ensuing criminal investigation takes a surprise turn when a deadly virus is discovered in her blood. However, when Thomas Lorenz (Maximilian Brückner), a German virologist, travels to Lapland to investigate the virus, he and Nina suddenly find themselves in the middle of an extraordinarily unusual criminal investigation.

The Finnish-German series was originally broadcast by Elisa Viihde and has a single 10-episode season.

Kosta – The Paradise

Finnish TV series starring Fran Perea

The Paradise is a series co-produced between Finland and Spain that has the well-known Spanish actor Fran Perea as the main protagonist of the story.

The series revolves around a series of crimes that take place within the largest community of Finnish residents outside the Nordic country, located in Fuengirola, in southern Spain. For this reason, veteran inspector Hilkka Mäntymäki (Riitta Havukainen), one of the best detectives in the city of Oulu, travels to Spain to investigate these crimes together with local agent Andrés Villanueva (Fran Perea), a man affected by a strong feeling of loss and having strong ties to Finnish residents.

Invisible Heroes

Invisible Heroes is a Chilean-Finnish historical drama television miniseries directed by Mika Kurvinen and Alicia Scherson. It is based on real events and tells the story of two Finnish diplomats, Tapani (Pelle Heikkilä) and Lysa Brotherus (Sophia Heikkilä), who saved hundreds of lives in Chile after the 1973 coup.

The series has six chapters and was released by Yle TV1 and Yle Areena in 2019 in Finland. In Chile, Invisible Heroes was previewed at the Sanfic festival in August of that same year and was premiered to the public a year later on Chilevisión.

Bullets

Famous actress Krista Kosonen stars in this 10-part series that was released in 2018. It is a co-production between Finland, Belgium and Germany in which Kosonen plays the exceptionally gifted undercover police officer Mari Saari.

White Wall

Swedish-Finnish co-production created by Mikko Pöllä, Aleksi Salmenperä and Roope Lehtinen, which was released in 2020. The eight chapters that make up the first season tell how a mysterious white wall made of unknown material is found underground in the mining site of the world’s largest nuclear waste repository.

How to watch White Wall?

The series, originally broadcast by SVT in Sweden and Yle in Finland, has yet to be released outside of the Nordic countries. However, it is expected to be released in other countries around the world soon.

Have you seen any of the series on this list? Tell us what you think in the comments. Also, we encourage you to tell us about other Finnish series that you liked. Do not forget to share the article using the buttons that you will find just below if you liked the article.


We help you prepare your trip

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top