As Episode 1 of "Mr. Good?" (2022 release from Norway; 4 episodes of about 50 min each; original title "Gåten Eirik Jensen", or "The Riddle: Eirik Jensen") opens, we are introduced to Eirik Jensen, Norway's "most trusted cop", who we now learn is being charged with major drug trafficking and corruption charges. We then go back to "Oslo 1988" as Jensen is just starting his career at the Oslo Police Department and he quickly makes his name and reputation in the underground squad... At this point we are less than 10 min into Episode 1.
Couple of comments: Eirik Jensen may have been "Norway's most trusted cop", but I'll readily admit I had never heard of this guy before. Which actually helps this mini-series as everything is brand new information. Without giving anything away, the mini-series boils down to two completely different, but both believable, sides of Jensen: one as the stellar if unorthodox cop who has been set up, the other as a massively corrupted official turned criminal. The series' original tile in Norwegian really captures it perfectly: "the riddle" that is Eirik Jensen (why Netflix felt this title would not work for the US market is in and of a itself a "riddle"). The series features lots of talking heads, including former colleagues of Jensen on the Oslo police department, Jensen's mom and also his ex-wife, bad guys including informants (a/k/a snitches) handled by Jensen. And so on. The initial 2 episodes rely on a lot of re-enactments , of which I am not a fan, but thankfully the last 2 episodes contain tons of archive footage.
"Mr. Good?" premiered this past weekend on Netflix, and I binged the 4 episodes quickly. If you are a fan of documentaries and of true crime stories, with a foreign setting to boot, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
