Hidden: First Born appears to put its calling card on the table right from the opening frame.
A hooded figure in a dark room paints a glowing pattern of light in the air, in front of a broken window with shards of glass still sitting in the frame. A haunting theme song plays over the opening credits that follow. “An endless search for the light. There’s something more than an ocean of lies and pain running through my veins,” sings songwriter-vocalist Ane Brun (you can watch the full track by the Norwegian-born, Sweden-based artist ).
So, dark modern fantasy? Can we expect a conflicted young hero who discovers unexpected powers?
Well, yes. But there’s a lot more to it.
It IS often dark. Literally. The eight-part Swedish series has more than its fair share of gloomy street scenes, night action, dark rooms and creepy basements. However, this is not your usual Scandi noir, either. It’s part urban fantasy, part tense psychological drama, with a touch of police force powerplay thrown in too. And reassuringly, the central character owns a cat and likes old books. He tries to help others, even if that lands him in trouble.
A rare still moment for Jonas (August Wittgenstein). Credit: Viaplay / Yellow Bird
Directed by Jonathan Sjöberg (Backstrom, Black Lake) and based on the novel Förstfödd by actor and writer , Hidden – First Born is set in modern-day Stockholm, and tells the story of the ‘Hidden’, people with enhanced abilities who are hiding amongst us. Jonas Hellemyr (German-Swedish actor August Wittgenstein, seen in , The Crown and Ku’damm 56 and its sequels) discovers his after miraculously surviving an accident on a construction site. Viveca Eldh (Izabella Scorupco, who originally found fame in the Bond film GoldenEye) is another, a woman with a mysterious past with connections to many of the city’s homeless (including a man called Wennerbom – played by Alexanderson, who also worked as a writer on the series). The cast also includes Anders Mossling (The Kingdom, ) as Elias Borg, Eldh’s boss.
Izabella Scorupco as Viveca Eldh. Credit: Viaplay / Yellow Bird / Jonath Mathew
Jonas’ miraculous recovery after his accident and his unexpected abilities is only one of the mysteries going on here. Before he’s had any chance to figure out what’s going on, someone tries to kill him. A baby disappears from a hospital room. Jonas meets more of those who are part of this ‘hidden’ world, but who is actually trying to help him, and who is following their own dark agenda? There’s plenty that’s not what – or who – it seems in this gripping drama.
Unusually, Alexanderson was working on the scripts even before the book was published, after the idea attracted the interest of Yellow Bird, the production company responsible for hit series including Wallender, the Stieg Larsson-based Millenium trilogy (all three streaming ), and more recently Headhunters, based on the Jo Nesbo bestseller (streaming now).
“It’s not a superhero story, not X-men or anything like that. The superpowers are secondary. Hidden is really about being an outsider and not fitting in,” Yellow Bird’s Berna Levin, the series producer.
Writer Filip Alexanderson on screen. Credit: Viaplay / Yellow Bird
As Alexanderson notes , having extra abilities isn’t always a plus. “It’s a subculture of beings with different kinds of abilities – but each ability comes with a downside. It’s not interesting if everyone’s Superman.”
Jonas does leap off a tall building in the first episode, there’s more than one person hiding their true identity, and like Kal-el, the strange powers these folk have are , but that’s about where the Superman similarities end.
Hidden: Firstborn is a gripping twist on the usual Nordic Noir, and Wittgenstein carries us along brilliantly as Jonas, as he tries to understand what’s happened to him, and survive those who’d rather see him dead.
Hidden: First Born is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
