One of Netflix’s smartest detective shows is leaving before Halloween

Between shows like Mindhunter, Dark Winds, and Detective Hole, there's no lack of great detective series on Netflix. But those those who crave murder and mystery, there can't be too many. That's why you'll want to binge all three seasons of this underappreciated show as quick as you can.

Deadwind is one of the best-kept secrets on Netflix

It's a well-written, slow-burning prestige drama

Deadwind is a Finnish crime drama that aired its first season on the Finnish TV channel Yle TV2 in 2018 before showing up on Netflix later that year. It stars Pihla Viitala as Sofia Karppi, a homicide detective in the Helsinki Police Department who is mourning the sudden loss of her husband while raising her two children. She is called back into work and paired with rookie detective Sakari Nurmi (Lauri Tilkanen), who is transferred from the financial crimes unit. Their first case is a doozy: they must investigate the death of a social worker whose body is found buried at a wind-energy real estate development site belonging to a prominent Finnish company called Tempo. The murdered woman is holding flowers when her corpse is unearthed.

Eventually, Sofia and Sakari uncover a deeper conspiracy that involves Tempo's controversial wind-energy permits, German business acquisitions, eco-activists, and more. Each season presents the pair with a new mystery to solve, complete with a new grisly murder. The second season kicks off with the discovery of a blindfolded man frozen to death and another blindfolded body hanging from a bridge. The third season begins with a dead woman found inside a cage at an old animal hospital.

None of this is for the faint of heart, but if you're the kind of person who likes gritty crime shows, that's a positive. Each season starts with a murder and then widens its scope until we get the full picture. The first season is the longest at 12 episodes, while the second and third seasons each have eight episodes apiece. Either way, it's a lot of crime drama for your buck.

Deadwind is Nordic Noir at its finest

Chilly, bloody, and compelling

But there are lots of shows out there about cops solving crimes. What makes Deadwind stand out?

One reason is that it's an excellent example of Nordic Noir, a subgenre of shows and movies set mainly in Scandanavian countries, where it's cold and dark much of the time. The mood matches the environment. Nordic Noir shows are grim, the heroes are compromised, and the stories often explore the rotten heart of modern society, putting man's inhumanity to man on full display. It sounds depressing, and it can be, but clearly Nordic Noir works, because people keep coming back to it. Other popular examples include The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies and the TV show The Killing.

Deadwind has all the things that make Nordic Noir so compelling, and it does them all really well. The atmosphere is as frosty as it gets, the characters have hidden depths, and the chemistry between the two leads is friendly but fraught. Sofia works more off instinct, while Sakari prefers to do things by the book. Also, while each murder mystery stands more or less on its own, some of the characters have personal stories that run through the whole series. Sofia eldest daughter Henna (Mimosa Willamo), who is actually her stepchild, gets drawn into the criminal underworld, which puts strain on the already-troubled family. And in the third season, we learn more about the death of Sofia's husband. Finding out more about it gives Sofia closure, which is a great way to end the series.

Deadwind will leave Netflix soon

Get to watching

Deadwind runs for 28 episodes in all, neither overstaying its welcome nor ending before it gives itself time to get interesting. You can binge this show over course of a couple weeks, and you'll need to, because it's leaving Netflix on October 29, 2026.

Those who are unfamiliar with Deadwind's origins may assume that it's a Netflix original series and therefore guaranteed to be on the service forever, but it's not; it was always licensed, which means it was always going to go away at some point. In that way, it's like The Last Kingdom, another excellent Netflix drama that is leaving the service later this year. Netflix may have a lot of content, but little of it stays on the service indefinitely.

Watch Deadwind before it blows away

After Deadwind is gone, you'll still be able to buy episodes through services like Prime Video, but why not watch them while you can still stream them for the price of a subscription you already have?

If you miss your chance, there are plenty of other detective series to watch on Netflix, but if the prospect of a brutal murder in the snow sounds fun to you, check out Deadwind while you can.