10 Nordic Netflix releases to look out for in 2023

2022 was a great year in terms of cultural offerings and streaming. We finally got our hands on season two of Swedish teen drama Young Royals, saw the arrival of the hotly anticipated second season of action-packed Snabba Cash and enjoyed another dose of royal romance in Norwegian teen flick Royalteen. As 2023 has arrived, we're hungry for more binge-worthy shows and films to suck us into their stimulating universe.

So, what Scandinavian releases does Netflix have in its pocket for us this year? Vogue Scandinavia got a sneak peek at what's to come, and below, you'll find the lowdown on what titles to look out for this year.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

A new Danish addition to Netflix's expanding roster of Scandinavian true crime shows, The Nurse delves into the criminal case of Christina Aistrup Hansen (played by Josephine Park), a Danish nurse convicted of the attempted murder of four patients at Nykøbing Falster Hospital. Based on the true story and Kristian Corfixen's book of the same name, the thriller series gives us a glimpse into the history-making murder case that shook the country in the mid-2010s. Goosebumps are guaranteed, as the show is directed and written by Kasper Barfoed, one of the masterminds behind the Danish smash-hit horror series The Chestnut Man.

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Directed by Jonatan Etzler (who won a Student Academy Award for 2019’s Get Ready with Me) and written by Tove Forsman and Sofie Forsman (known for Young Royals and The Playlist ), One More Time is a Swedish time-travelling comedy film starring Hedda Stiernstedt. The movie follows Amelia (Stiernstedt), who gets hit by a bus on the night of her 40th birthday. However, as she wakes up, she finds herself thrown back to 2002 and her 18th birthday, which just happened to be the best day of her life. As she relives the wonderful event, she also gets the chance to recreate the rest of her life as she had imagined. Nevertheless, the opportunity doesn't come without strings attached, as Amelia is forced to face old issues in order to return to the present…

Inspired by actual events, the Swedish series Barracuda Queens takes us back to 1995, following a group of young women who, through burglary, practise their own kind of social justice. Think of it as the Swedish Bling Ring but with a motive to avenge men who have humiliated them. When girl power gang of four Lollo (Alva Bratt), Klara (Tindra Monsen), Frida (Sandra Zubovic) and Mia (Tea Stjärne) realise that all their money has gone down the drain due to partying and having fun, they decide to start breaking into villas of wealthy people and stealing things that they can sell.

However, the gigs are easier said than done, and the girls run into trouble and invite a fifth member into the group, Amina (Sarah Gustafsson). As with the notorious Los Angeles Bling Ring, the Barracuda Queens enjoy a spree of burglaries, puzzling the police and always leaving five empty Champagne glasses and a bottle as their signature. Yet as the crimes escalate, it gets harder and harder for the girls to keep their little secrets from their families. Will the group's quest for money, revenge and fame end sourly, as it did for the Bling Ring? Only time will tell…

Related: Northern lights: 10 rising Scandi TV and film stars you need to know

The first Finnish title premiering globally on Netflix, Dance Brothers is a young adult drama series featuring brothers Roni (Roderick Kabanga) and Sakari (Samuel Kujala). When the young men struggle to make a living as professional dancers, they start their own club, which also acts as a training space for the duo. As the club becomes popular and the brothers' unique talent gets noticed, the men's relationship gets put to the test. Will their loyalty and love for each other survive the obstacles that becoming famous and running a business throws at them? Well, we'll definitely tune in to watch the drama unfold.

Another new Danish addition to Netflix's Nordic mix is the film A Beautiful Life, directed by Mehdi Avaz. Following Elliott, a young fisherman with a beautiful voice, the film sees the inspiring singer discovered by a famous manager, Suzanne. She introduces Elliot to her estranged daughter and music producer Lily, and the pair soon develop a love affair that gets tested when Elliot's potential breakthrough arrives. What's more, Elliot seems to have a past that haunts him at the worst times during his budding career. Elliot is played by Danish artist Christopher, who makes his acting debut in A Beautiful Life.

Related: "It was a fever dream": Lucas Tønnesen on how Netflix mystery thriller 1899 took him to Dark places

This year, Fares Fares, the Swedish actor known for the mega-hit series Chernobyl and Westworld, makes his directorial debut with crime drama flick A Day and a Half. The film is based on a true story, where a man named Artan (Alexei Manvelov) kidnaps his ex-wife Louise (Alma Pöysti) to be reunited with his daughter. Together with a policeman (Fares), the group sets out for a tense and emotional road trip across Sweden in the middle of the sweaty summer — and with the police hot on their heels.

If you’ve heard of legendary Danish author Karen Blixen, you most likely know Ehrengard, Blixen's last work before she died in 1962. This year, Netflix releases a Danish film based on the book directed by Oscar, Golden Globe and two-time Palme d'Or winner Bille August, a project that's been in the works for over a decade. Set in the fictional kingdom of Babenhausen, the film centres around a young, self-proclaimed love expert Cazotte who is hired by the sharp-witted Grand Duchess to find a suitable princess for the introverted Crown Prince.

As they're on the quest for the perfect match, Cazotte teaches the prince the art of seduction and love. However, the Grand Duchess' plan to find a princess to produce an heir goes wrong as a child is born out of wedlock, resulting in the royal family fleeing to seek refuge in another castle. As the royal family's secret is about to come to light, Cazotte finds himself falling in love with Ehrengard, a court member, and realising he might not be an expert on love after all.

The making of the film even involved a real-life royal, as Queen Margrethe II of Denmark designed the scenography. It's not the first artistic venture for the monarch, as, since 1970, the queen has been actively involved in painting, book illustrations, printmaking and embroidery, to name a few.

Created by William Spetz, Tore is a Swedish drama series about a 27-year-old man, played by Spetz himself, who loses the most important person in his life in a garbage truck accident, and desperately tries to run away from his grief. While Tore is a story of trying to escape loss, it is also about finding your true self in the midst of it all. On his journey of self-discovery, Tore gets sucked into a world unfamiliar to him, and alcohol, sex and drugs enter his life. Although all Tore longs for is to find love, his friends start to worry that he's going too far in trying to suppress his grief.

Written by Oskar Söderlund, the celebrated screenwriter of the ultra-popular action series Snabba Cash, The Breakthrough brings us the true story of Sweden's astonishing Linköping double-murder case that took 16 years to solve. Based on journalist Anna Bodin and genealogist Peter Sjölund's book The Breakthrough: How the Genealogist Solved the Double Murder in Linköping, published in 2021, the show takes us through the baffling case that became the first murder in Europe to be solved through genealogical research.

Besides the murder case and the unexpected hero it brought about, the series is about what an unsolved crime can do to society and what happens to the people who never find out the "who?" and "why?".

Related: Loved Young Royals? Here's 12 similar shows to watch right now

The critically acclaimed bestselling suspense book, A Nearly Normal Family (En Helt Vanlig Familj) by Swedish author Mattias Edvardsson has been made into a miniseries hitting Netflix this year. The show follows the Sandell family, a completely ordinary family of three living the suburban dream life outside Lund. However, their world gets turned upside down when the daughter, Stella (Alexandra Karlsson Tyrefors), is taken into custody accused of murder. Her parents, Adam (Björn Bengtsson) and Ulrika (Lo Kauppi), are at a complete loss over what to do while not knowing what's truly going on – how well do they actually know their own daughter? Or each other?