The Hunt, on Viaplay

For the Dutch, this series was obviously directly inspired by the notorious murder of teenaged Marianne Vaatstra. For the rest of us, the drama involving attempts to scapegoat the local asylum-seeker shelter seem very zeitgeisty—or at least reflective of current media preoccupations. It is no spoiler to say Anneke Boorsma was not murdered by a refugee, because writer Willem Bosch and director Michiel van Erp reveal the real killer almost immediately. However, it is a long agonizing process for the police to finally reach that conclusion in the six-episode The Hunt, which starts streaming today on Viaplay.

Before she left the local night club alone, Boorsma had been fighting with her boyfriend, which becomes super-awkward for Jeroen Bovenkamp, because it makes him everyone’s second favorite suspect. Prime suspect #1 is the teen Afghan refugee Fenna Schepenaer claims to have seen making an obscene gesture at her rival for Bovenkamp’s affection. After a mob beats the poor kid, he retreats to Turkey, but the Mayor Kees Vormer has Detectives Syl Frankenaar and Joanna van der Veen extradite him back—only to immediately clear him based on forensic evidence.

Nevertheless, Boorsma’s father Rinus and her thuggish older brother Lukas remain convinced one of the Afghan migrants killed her. At one time, the old man was not such a bad guy, but his grief blinds him to the sinister nature of the nativist extremists his son forges alliances with. Consequently, the sleepy provincial village becomes a powder-keg as the investigation drags on. Meanwhile, Boorsma’s mother falls in with a QAnon-like group of conspiracy theorists, who see ritual satanic killers under every bed.

The Hunt is a bit like Broadchurch, in that it explores the ways the trauma of a murder can profoundly wound a community. However, there is little actual mystery. Even if Bosch and van Erp had not tipped their hands, the killer’s suspiciously twitchy behavior would have made him conspicuously obvious. Thematically (if not necessarily artistically), The Hunt compares more to Crime and Punishment in the way it examines the corrosive power of guilt on the killer as well as his family.

Despite the frequent jumps along the 13-year timeline, van Erp always clearly delineates each temporal shift. This is a starkly realized drama with distinctively severe aesthetic, but it is a ruthlessly downbeat viewing experience. The is no escapism and little assurance offered by the police procedural elements.

Nevertheless, the performances are excellent, particularly those of Jack Wouterse as the mayor undone by his inability to unite his village and especially Hans Kesting, who agonizingly depicts the slow deflation of old Rinus’s spirit. However, Aus Greidanus Jr. is just too blatantly creepy, clammy, and soulless as the not-so-secret murderer.

Indeed, whether it be the killer’s performance or the presentation of the asylum-seekers’ experiences, there is not a lot of subtlety in The Hunt. Indeed, the title is arguably quite inapt, since it implies manhunts and chases. Instead, this Dutch series is about as moody as any crime drama can possibly get. Only recommended for those keenly interested in its themes (also including the breakthrough use of DNA evidence), The Hunt starts streaming today (3/27) on Viaplay.