In April and May 2014, the new supernatural teen drama Heartless aired in Denmark. After 5 episodes and an unresolved ending, the fate of the series was uncertain. But now, three new episodes will wrap up what is a unique effort in Nordic TV drama.
Three years ago, the Danish commercial broadcaster Kanal 5 (part of the SBS Discovery sphere) devised a new drama series that jumped on the vampire bandwagon, as True Blood and Twilight were the hottest franchises in mainstream horror. It seemed natural to want to exploit that trend, even if homegrown mainstream horror in Denmark was and still is far from a natural thing. Heartless premiered in April 2014 with the first season offering 5 episodes. The series was not only the first ever fiction production at Kanal 5, it was also probably the first Scandinavian attempt at a TV series for teens and young adults in the Hemlock Grove, Supernatural or True Blood segment. Or for us older people, X-Files and Twin Peaks.
Set at an oldfashioned boarding school where girls were only allowed to study in recent years, Heartless follows two orphan teens, brother and sister, who try to find out about their mother. Clues have led them to the school, where they pretend to study while conducting investigations. They also have to deal with powerhungry co-students and not so pleasant school traditions, but their biggest challenge is that they are “suckers”; they need to suck energy from other people to stay alive. A bit like vampires, except they don’t drink blood.
The first season was unfortunately not met with overwhelming viewing figures, so the continuation of the show was uncertain, in spite of having been sold to more than 40 countries even before its premiere. The last episode ended on a cliffhanger, and one would assume a second season would be the natural way to wrap things up. However, it was not until August 2014 that a continuation was confirmed, and now it is here, in the form of three episodes that continue where the first batch left. The season premiere is on November 22 in Denmark at 9 pm on Kanal 5 and the series will also be available on Denmark’s streaming service Dplay. Kanal 5 will also be showing the five previous episodes, one every day from November 16 to November 20. That way people will have a chance to catch up until the Sunday premiere.
However, if you are a big Heartless fan and can’t wait until November 22nd, Nordic Fantasy has teamed up with Kanal 5 and producers Fridthjof Film to give you the possibility to be present at a special pre-premiere screening in Copenhagen of all the three new episodes. To enter this competition, you need to know the character names of the twins, played by Julie Zangenberg and Sebastian Jessen. The special screening takes place in Copenhagen in Denmark at 6 pm on November 4th and you must make arrangements to get there yourself.
The competition has ended!
Julie Zangenberg and Sebastian Jessen as the sucker twins are supported by Frederikke Dahl Hansen, Gustav Giese, Thomas Ernst, Allan Hyde, Julie Christiansen, Thomas Ernst, Marie Boda among others. Julie Zangenberg said this to dagens.dk about her part, as the series started filming in August 2013: -I am so looking forward to this project. I always find it more interesting to do the projects that are different, challenging and innovative, [although] the most important thing is that the story is good. Heartless has all these characteristics.
The final episodes of Heartless airs from November 22 in Denmark on Kanal 5. For distribution in other countries, check with broadcasters that aired the first season.