In spite of lackluster viewing numbers and a reluctant broadcaster, the Danish supernatural series Heartless will continue, and hopefully round off in good fashion.
While penned by many reviewers and abandoned by viewers, the most surprising part about the 5-part TV drama was that the first season ended on a cliffhanger, and nothing suggested the series would continue. The episodes had only 78.000 viewers on average, a flop even in Danish terms. The broadcaster, Kanal 5, hesitated to confirm a continuation, but now they have confirmed that they will try to finance three more episodes.
This means that the first season will be eight episodes and can wrap up nicely, in stead of letting frustrated viewers guess the rest of the story. Kanal 5 will now seek money from the Danish Film Institute, as well as other sources. The first batch of episodes received 925,000 Euros in production funds from DFI.
Heartless premiered on April 28th, and is set at a Danish boarding school, but the teen twins Sofie and Sebastian are not ordinary students. They were born with a curse and carry a dark and fatal secret; in order to live, they need to suck the energy out of other people. If they don’t stop their sucking in time, their victims will burn. Sofie and Sebastian tries to find out why they are what they are, but their new life at the school does not make it easier for them. Julie Zangenberg, who plays Sofie, said this to dagens.dk about her part: -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, and I look forward to [work with all the great people] that are attached to the series.]
Regarding the series’ extension, programme director Maiken Wexø at Kanal 5 said that the series has a” good grip” on the young target audience, and that she originally hoped to have a season of 10 episodes. -We had really high expectations for the viewing figures, and they were not met, so maybe our expectations are more realistic now. We are happy to have presented a whole new generation of talented young actors and want to continue [working] with this great cast, Maiken Wexø said.
The series was sold to more than 40 countries before its premiere, which was described by one of the producers: -Heartless is a mix of pure Scandinavian drama and US fantasy/adventure. It’s True Blood meets The Killing. We want to take Danish drama a step further with a series that is mainly played by a new generation of talented actors and allows for more daring elements that we usually find in US series.
Broadcast dates of the three new episodes will be announced later, but the show is expected to return sometime during spring 2015.
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