The Breakthrough – Review | Netflix

THE BREAKTHROUGH on Netflix is a Swedish True Crime Series (org. title: Genombrottet) about a shocking double homicide and the hunt for the killer. With just four 40-minute episodes, it’s a quick watch. Read our full The Breakthrough series review here!

THE BREAKTHROUGH is a new Netflix True Crime Series with just four episodes. It’s from Sweden (org. title: Genombrottet) and covers a shocking double homicide case that took more than a decade to solve.

Apart from the murder of Sweden’s Prime Minister Olof Palme – which was covered in the Netflix series The Unlikely Murderer – this is the largest murder investigation to date in Swedish history. The series has just four episodes and it’s a quick watch.

We watched all episodes for this review and you should expect to binge-watch this one.

Continue reading our The Breakthrough series review below. Find it on Netflix from January 7, 2025.

A senseless murder with no clues

Obviously, murder is always senseless and tends to be shocking. However, this case still left scars in the community for obvious reasons. The double murder in Linköping, Sweden, happened back in 2004, but another 16 years would pass before it was finally solved.

The victims were an 8-year-old boy and a 56-year-old woman. They had nothing in common except for living in the same neighborhood and leaving for school and work around the same time. It’s the classic “wrong time, wrong place”-situation with brutal results.

In fact, the woman was only attacked because she tried to stop the murder of the boy. This opening scene is heartbreaking. Not extremely visually harsh, but emotionally violent.

And then the work begins for Swedish homicide detectives. Without any real clues, and no connection between the victims, they have virtually nothing to work with.

The breakthrough that comes after 16 years of covering every possible clue or angle, is via a genealogist – not unlike how the Golden State Killer was finally caught.

Based on a true case via a fictional story

Officially, The Breakthrough Netflix mini-series is described as “a fictional story based on a nonfiction book” which is quite the brainteaser. Basically, it’s a true story in the sense that the true crime case covered is largely correct. However, names have been changed.

That’s the nonfiction part. The fictional part is the story and the dialogue along with the characters created to tell the story – including their names and family lives.

In other words, The Breakthrough is a dramatization of a true story. Exactly like virtually every single other true crime production. For this one, they just had the courtesy of highlighting this fact and changing the names to keep it separate.

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Our article about the true crime this series is based on >

Still, the true crime (or true story) covered in The Breakthrough on Netflix was the first time a murder was solved through genealogical research in Europe. It also has a huge focus on the victims – both those who lost their lives and their loved ones.

We see how this crime impacts an entire community when a senseless act of violence goes unsolved. The uncertainty that the killer could be someone you know or live near is enough to make most people paranoid.

Watch The Breakthrough series on Netflix now

The Breakthrough (org. title: Genombrottet) has just four episodes all directed by Lisa Siwe (Red Rose) with Oskar Söderlund as the screenwriter. The nonfiction book this was based on comes from authors Anna Bodin and Peter Sjölund.

In fact, the ending of this series will show us the two characters inspired by the authors, agreeing to write a book about the case and genealogy as a tool. A very appropriate (and meta) approach to including them.

The four episodes make for a quick watch, but nothing feels forced. Even though the story spans 16 years, we do get some quick time jumps to bring us from the time of the murders to around the time of the case being solved.

The Breakthrough series is on Netflix globally from January 7, 2025.

Details

Director: Lisa Siwe
Writers: Oskar Söderlund
Cast: Peter Eggers, Mattias Nordkvist, Jessica Liedberg, Bahador Foladi, Annika Hallin, Julius Fleischanderl, Jonatan Rodriguez, Karin de Frumerie, Julia Sporre, Helen Al-Janabi, Per Burell, Fredrik Wagner