Heartless - The Complete Season One

Although hailed as a Danish vampire series with ‘a twist’, the twist is that this is not about vampires at all! Supernatural creatures yes, but not vampires. Despite this little misnomer, HEARTLESS is very much a Nordic affair and we are treated not only to an unusual plot but breathtakingly beautiful shots of dark forests and mysterious crumbling mansions.

Sofie Nielsen (Julie Zangenberg) and her brother Sebastian (Sebastian Jessen) are siblings with an eternal curse on them: in order to continue existing they need to suck the life out of their victims – not via a bite in the neck but via mouth-to-mouth contact. Problem is, if they get carried away and the sucking process is prolonged then their victims will literally go up in flames and burn. Both Sofie and Sebastian are orphans but they know that in order to break the curse they need to find out about their mother and get hold of a family heirloom (a heart-shaped locket) which has been passed down from generation to generation. Furthermore they find out that their mother was somehow connected to the Ottman’s Boarding School, a boarding school as ancient as the surrounding landscape it would seem.
Sofie and Sebastian decide to enrol as students in the hope to find out more about their mother and the curse connected to it, and it is from then on that the series is interspersed with brief flashbacks back to the 17th century… gradually we, the viewers, make perhaps a quicker connection to past and present than our two siblings.

Life at boarding school is an elite affair and both Sofie and Sebastian, two obvious outsiders, are met with suspicion especially by head prefect Ditlev (Gustav Giese) and his arrogant and fascistic inclined prefect helpers, in particular Pieter Stockman (Allan Hyde). The sadistic Ditlev and Pieter have it in for the siblings though secretly Ditlev fancies Sofie and a nasty power game begins. Meanwhile, fellow student Nadja (Frederikke Dahl Hansen) has the hots for Sebastian. The school’s conservative rules soon get to Sofie who wants to leave, but Sebastian insists on staying in order to find out about the family curse. What he does find out (via a portrait) is that his mother came to the boarding school because of a connection to the descendants of one Grevinde Gertrud Ottman (Laura Christensen), a noble lady and religious fanatic who lived in the 17th century and was responsible for sending countless suspected ‘witches’ to the stake. One of those ‘witches’ was Ane (Shelly Levy), a peasant girl in love with Grevinde’s lover. Upon learning that Ane is pregnant, Grevinde (also pregnant) sealed Ane’s terrible fate but before burning to death Ane put a curse on those around her. Although Ane was reduced to ashes her unborn child miraculously survived and was retrieved from the stakes’ ashes, together with a heart-shaped locket that Ane wore at her execution. Henceforth the curse began and Ane’s descendants became the very creatures that Sofie and Sebastian are today, though of course there is much more to the story… Henrik Just (Nikolaj Kopernikus), the stern director of Ottman Boarding School, turns out to be a descendant of Grevinde Ottman’s clan. Two of his three daughters are also pupils at the school, and one, Emilie (Julie Christiansen), develops a bit of a thing for our Sofie and soon they are lovers. Can the girls’ romance stand any chance seeing how – initially unbeknownst to them - they are from rival clans, with Emilie also having ‘special’ powers? Soon, the first victim in the shape of the detestable Ditlev goes out the window in a ball of flames, and it’s from there that the saga becomes even darker, more violent, and considerably more complex…

HEARTLESS is a supernatural drama for those who enjoy depth and intelligence woven into the plot, with highly believable performances and an addiction factor no one can beat. Not wishing to give the ending away, but it suggests we might see a lot more of Sofie and Sebastian...