Was it an hour, this premiere episode? It felt unending, progressively folding in on itself like an origami of self-seriousness. True Detective season two's premiere is stodgy and heavy-handed to the point of oafishness. It plays something like an end-of-times prophecy for slow crime; the whole thing is so done that any genuine new entry to the genre feels like a satire. True Detective is its own comedy sketch.

The Danish TV series The Killing and the Danish-Swedish collaboration The Bridge both feature a lot of the conventions of Swedish noir: women detectives, the sadistic murder of women, dead or traumatised children, political corruption, numerous plot twists, and a preoccupation with the mental states of women and the paternal identities of men.

Some Monday afternoon links, skirting around the edges of murder, which may have earlier escaped your attention. 1. On Mossad and murder – ‘Meir Dagan: the mastermind behind Mossad’s secret war’. 2. On Australian soldiers and their use of drones in Afghanistan – ‘The law of instant death’. [There exist] big flaws in the training […]