I did a double-take when I saw this Netflix Nordic noir series has got a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating

I was rather stunned to see that Secrets We Keep, Netflix's latest Nordic noir hit, has clocked a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critical rating.

Now, don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed the Danish thriller about the mystery of what happened to Filipino au pair Ruby. But 100%?! Really? It's got to be something pretty epic to deserve that!

The only drama I've watched recently (it's from 2023, but I only got around to seeing it this year) that has a 100% score and deserved it was the Apple TV Plus wine drama Drops of God. That is quite brilliant, and I'm delighted Drops of God season 2 is on the way.

Secrets We Keep is a good thriller, if rather bleak even by Nordic Noir standards. One problem with the drama is that virtually all of the characters are just so unlikeable. I believe we're meant to root for Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen), the next-door neighbour of the family whose au pair has gone missing. But even she’s hard to warm to in her investigation, especially when she fails to call out the horrific behaviour of her neighbors, Kat and Rasmus.

The drama is damning about how the super rich think they deserve everything they desire and believe they can get away with anything. The ending of Secrets We Keep rather split viewers, but I must give it credit for not ending how I would have expected. It's nice to be surprised.

However, Secrets We Keep isn't even the best Nordic noir title Netflix has added this year. I believe that accolade must go to The Åre Murders, a relatively small-budget drama series from Sweden based on two books most people have probably never heard of, "Hidden in Snow" and "Hidden in Shadows" by Viveca Sten.

It has a charm that Secrets We Keep lacks, and it's far easier to like its main character, Hanna (Carla Sehn). The distraught Stockholm cop heads to her sister's beautiful mountain retreat in Åre to recover from a horrific breakup up only to find herself drawn into the search for a missing girl. The Åre Murders, in my view one of the best Netflix shows available, has an 86% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

I also preferred The Glass Dome, which follows criminal profiler Lejla Ness, who fears history is repeating itself when a little girl goes missing in the remote Swedish village she grew up in. Having been taken prisoner herself as a child and held captive in a glass dome, she thinks the same abductor is behind the attack. Again, Lejla is a much more likable character.

I must also quickly mention The Breakthrough, another Nordic noir series added to Netflix this year. What made that four-part murder mystery especially interesting was that it was inspired by a real double murder case in Sweden, which was solved years later using groundbreaking genetic genealogy techniques.

There's just something that's a bit too chilly about Secrets We Keep. It's certainly a good watch, but it's not a 100 % Rotten Tomatoes show for me.

The Secrets We Keep, The Åre Murders, The Glass Dome, and The Breakthrough are all available on Netflix now.