EPISODE 1

• • The episode opens with a girl being chased through a forest with blood on her face and a torn dress.
  • Sarah Lund is the protagonist and is a female police detective = empowering role.
  • She is objectified slightly when the first proper lit scene in the show represents her wearing a nightshirt and no pyjama bottoms = male gaze
  • Cuts to a scene where Sarah enters a dark abandoned basement building by herself. Enigma codes where the man doesn’t tell us/her a lot about the girl and crime. Tension with low key lighting and blood splatters  -first motif note used.
• • A lot of cultural codes that appeal to Danish audience, jokes that are anti-swedish about ‘herring’ and her joining the ‘enemy’
  • The show uses gender stereotypes when Sarah removes photos of her son from the office, and Jan Mayer (her male replacement) puts up a framed image of guns, a basketball net and is also shown unpacking a toy police car and holding a football. Women = family orientated/nurturing. Men = work orientated/immature
• • Enigma/Hermeneutic codes with the discarded. flower-patterned top, video rental card and blood traces - we want to solve the mystery so we keep watching. 
  • Non-diegetic sound: Piano key trill is a motif for the episode - symbolic code for Sarah thinking/using detective skills. 
  • Sarah mentions that the prostitution case is not their job suggesting that there is funding for specialised departments in the police force.
• • Theis Birk Larsen is seen as the ‘good guy’ - he is a dominant figure and peace keeper.
  • We see racist phrase use when Vagn, the uneducated worker uses the term ‘paki’.
  • Theis didn’t want to hire a plumber due to the cost = this show is set during  the Danish economic crisis
• • Stylistic Binary opposition with sound and content from laughter of Theis and his wife on the floor kissing, cut to the slow zoom and minor key singing/humming with the Insert Shot close up of the photo of Nanna and her brothers (dramatic irony and tone change = happy to sad)
  • The wife handles the business’ finances (VAT and taxes) = equality between genders
• • Establishing shot of Danish Government building ‘Christiansborg Palace’ (centre of Copenhagen). Politics and corruption introduced - Troels Hartmann is sleeping with his PA/Advisor (cliche) and the Right wing leader threatens/bribes Hartmann - politicians have their own agendas; they cannot be trusted
  • Jan is dominant in the questioning and talks the most, whilst Sarah is thinking and investigating quietly - non diegetic sound motif (piano trill) is used again to emphasise tension/mystery
  • . 
• • Troels Hartmann doesn’t want to talk about his late wife to his lover. He keeps emotions to himself - masculine stereotype. 
  • Nanna is described by her teacher as clever and driven - she doesn’t seem the type to be a prostitute - we are supposed to like Nanna.
  • Her boyfriend Oliver is not answering his phone. A close up shot of his ignored mobile phone surrounded by empty glasses, cigarettes and melting candle. He looks stressed and is smoking - enigma = has something gone wrong?
• • Theis has bought the house for the family without telling Pernille (his wife). He is conforming to gender stereotypes, providing for the family but excluding his wife from the decision making. 
  • Dramatic irony is increased when Theis talks about Nanna having the top floor to herself - we feel anxious and sad for them
  • ‘I’ll find her and bring her home’ = Theis is the rescuer/hero, out to save his daughter. He forces his wife into submissive role, waiting passively at home and she listens to him and obeys.
• Sarah Lund is a single mother and she seems to care more about her job than her son - she forgets about the birthday party that her son wants to go to and got the name of his ice hockey team wrong = strained relationship. She says: ‘I’ll have more time for you’ when they move to Sweden.
• • The symbolic motif piano music occurs again in the woods. Sarah ignores Jan who is saying to stop searching and she trusts her instincts. 
  • Trope of detective thinking = Sarah notices the fishing nets that the people carry, figures out about the lake
  • Over 10 second long shot of the car being pulled from the water = increase tension, gives audience time to think and reflect on the seriousness of the crime/event, sunset connotes end of day/life, and red connotes murder, blood
• • Troels Hartmann is linked to the murder because it is his political party’s car = new enigma (suspect) to lead onto episode 2
  • Stereotypical gender representation = Theis is angry and sad, fights to get to his daughter’s body and eventually gives in. Pernille (mum) sobs loudly at home, close up of her tears and eyes. No close ups of Theis crying. 
  • Crime convention = checking for fingerprints at the end (enigma/genre coding). Final shot of Sarah as the protagonist before fade to black.