Beforeigners is a Nordic noir that pushes beyond the limits of the police procedural and into the unexpected. This stylish show deftly establishes its odd premise in a matter of minutes: as teenagers party by Oslo’s harbour, the water surface is suddenly broken by people who seem to have appeared from nowhere, flailing in the sea, and speaking Old Norse. They have no idea where they are or why they are there. They are “beforeigners”, thousands of people from the prehistoric, Viking and Victorian ages who have been inexplicably jolted into the modern world.
Cut to years later. That mysterious night, Lars (Nicolai Cleve Broch) was a fresh-faced cop who met with the time-travelling migrants. Now a drug addict living alone – his wife has left him for a pipe-smoking Victorian – he reaches for his first dose of the day as we hear a news report telling us 13,000 “beforeigners” have arrived in Norway in a year.
