Nothing beats a good weekend indoors binge-watching a great series, especially as winter winds down. While choosing the food you want to binge eat on can be an easy choice, finding the most suitable chain for your budget can be a daunting task. The story often goes on: You spend endless hours to avoid paying for Netflix trying to find the right series to watch and by the time you finish something, the easy one is finished. The worst is to invest hours in watching a mediocre series and at worst, your precious leisure time is wasted.
However, Netflix viewers are not disappointed with the new serious crime series released on the streaming platform. The true crime genre is popular on Netflix. So it’s no surprise that Netflix pays a lot of attention to the true crime genre and this series shows it. Fans have sung their appraisals of the new true crime show with some calling it the best series they’ve ever watched.
Why Viewers Are Watching This Swedish Crime Drama
Based on the book of the same name, it is a Swedish crime drama Success Is fullness returned to one of Europe’s worst murder investigations. The four-part series tells the disturbing and painful investigation of a double murder that took place in 2004 in the Swedish city of Linköping. What was meant to be a cut and dry case went unsolved for 16 years. In the series, as forensic technology advances, dealing with evidence, tensions reach breaking point as they approach a thrilling deadline.
Success It exploded onto Netflix’s top 10 charts in January 2025, reaching 29 million views in its first half. Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a 60% on their ‘tomatometer’ and 73% on their ‘popcornmeter’ for an overall rating of 7.2. Critics raved about how the series treated sensitive subject matter and original source material with dignity and respect.
The Swedish miniseries also rekindled the audience’s desire to force true crime content onto the broadcast platform. Critics praised the show as “The best scandi noir in ages,“Combining intense stories with emotional nuance.
The true story behind the Linköping Double Rught
On October 19, 2004, 8-year-old Mohammed Ammouri was walking to school in Linköping, Sweden. A masked man attacked an 8-year-old boy with a butterfly knife in a small park. Anna-Lena Svensson, a 56-year-old woman passing by, tried to intervene to save the child. However, he is innocent and stabs her again and again, killing them both in broad daylight. The investigation was Sweden’s second largest in history, surpassed only by the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.
Police collected DNA evidence from a bloody beanie cap and the murder weapon at the scene. Despite conducting 7,000 interviews, receiving 13,000 tips, and collecting 5,000 DNA samples, investigators have not found a match. Mohammed Ammouri came from an immigrant family, while Anna-Lena Svensson worked for an education company and had a 28-year-old daughter. The victims did not know each other, and the police found no connection between them and the killer. Eventually, the case went cold and the man lived for 16 years.
The above is the scene of the attack that terrorized the peaceful university town of Linköping. Detective Inspector Jan STATAAF (called John Sundin in the series) led the investigation with raw determination throughout these 16 years. The families of the victims believe they will never find closure, however, in 2020, the new technology of DNA Jezolowabo will change that.
The suffering of the genetics of the blood was how the case was broken
In 2020, genealogist Peter Sjölund (revealed as each skogkvist in the series) introduced a DNA analysis method to transform the Swedish police. This approach combines forensic DNA evidence with genealogical research to identify distant relatives. Investigators uploaded DRILSER’s DNA profile to databases such as GedMatch and MedryTedEdNA. The program compared the anonymous DNA against hundreds of thousands of genetic markers from people who voluntarily shared their information.
This was the first time in European history that a murder case was solved using genetic genealogy. This method was developed in the United States where it helped to identify the killer of the golden state, in April 2018. In that case, the investigators were accompanied by remote information, and they built family trees that reduced the ground. Sweden changed its law in January 2019 to allow the police to search for commercial information on commercial lists, enabling cross-border investigations. Peter Sjölund traced DNA Back 200 years through church registers, death notices, and birth records. Within 5 weeks, he built a family tree that identified 2 brothers as possible suspects.
The arrest and confession of Daniel Nyqvist
On June 9, 2020, police arrested 37-year-old Daniel Nyqvist (known as David Nilsson in the Netflix series) at his parents’ home. He had been living on the beach near Linköping since the murder. Investigators obtained a sample of his DNA, which matched the evidence from the crime scene perfectly. During his initial interrogation, NYQvist confessed to all the murders.
Nyqvist said he felt an uncontrollable urge to kill two people, a thought he could not resist or explain. He admitted to obsessive thoughts about killing and choosing his victims from time to time. The killer was 21 years old at the time of the attack. Medical experts diagnosed him with a serious mental illness, which they determined he had suffered from among the charges.
NYQvist was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome in 2011 and has always struggled with social interaction and emotional control. He was described as an unemployed loner who rarely left his parents’ house and spent most of his time playing computer games. Nyqvist’s lawyers decided not to appeal the decision. In October 2020, he was sentenced to lifelong psychiatric care at the regional clinic in Vadstena.
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What does Success It is different from other true crimes
Lisa Sivi has directed many episodes of the Swedish-approved series The bridge and you bring that same weather Success. The show is based on a 2021 book by journalist Anna Bodin and genealogist Peter Sjölund, who participated directly in the real case. Despite of- success, Lisa Siwe focuses on the victims and investigators and their stories rather than glorifying the criminal. The series avoids the exploitative tactics typical of true crime entertainment. Time takes a seat inside Successit shows how the years of waiting affected everyone involved.
Peter Agers delivers a powerful performance as the family detective who crumbles under the weight of his obsession with solving the case. The series looks at the viewers with a tangible trauma that is a crime that is not limited to communities, people’s feelings without intensity. The opening scenes showing the execution of this are very difficult to watch but are handled with restraint. There are no depictions of gore or tragedy, but the emphasis is on the emotional trauma families face. Each of these four-part episodes runs between 30 and 40 minutes, creating a condensed and focused narrative.
The emotional impact on victims’ families
For 16 years, the families of Mohammed Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svensson lived without answers. Detective Sundin promised to get him a check soon. Those promises proved impossible to keep for decades. A crime that goes unsolved becomes a devastating disaster in a peaceful town.
Controversy surrounding genealogical data
While the use of human tracking using DNA information has brought proctuests to forensic science, there are some privacy concerns attached. The Swedish authorities initially recognized this method as illegal after the linkoping travel case. The Data Protection Authority ruled that commercial genealogy searches breached privacy laws. When people submit DNA to phishing websites, they usually don’t expect it to be used in a criminal investigation. This method accesses genetic information from people who have never consented to having their DNA information sought by law enforcement. Genetic data can reveal sensitive information about physical characteristics, ethnic background, and disease susceptibility. A government inquiry later proposed changing the law by 2025 to allow the route under stricter conditions. In Germany, this type of DNA analysis remains clearly illegal. Most European countries have maintained automatic opt-outs in accordance with GDPR regulations.
DNA sequencing is arbitrary, meaning that someone else’s genetic data can breach the privacy of entire families and future generations. Research shows that genetic information covering only 2% of the target population can provide a third match for almost anyone. The Golden State Killer investigation involved a search for private DNA data even though privacy policies state law enforcement is required. Critics say this creates a paradox where innocent people become willing participants in criminal investigations. Proponents of using DNA data in law enforcement settings argue that it removes violent criminals from society and buys into the use of these tools.
This is the inheritance Success On true crime television
Success It shows that true crime can be both coercive and honorable. The series proves that short formats can bring deep spiritual impact. It inspired discussions about how technology continues to transform criminal investigations. This show also highlights the dedication of investigators who are willing to risk everything to fulfill the promises they made to the families of these cases and who refuse to abandon cold cases.
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