TV review: Fraught drama about a volcano erupting — I love it

There’s something warm and familiar about Scandi Noir at this stage, even when it seems to be pointing towards the end of the world

Katla works because it is beautifully understated, focused on families trying to go about their daily lives as the world threatens to fall apart around them. 

Katla (Netflix) is fraught from the first frame. A wriggling hand covered in ash, a bit of tense cello, you’re not going to get much feel-good from this eight-part drama. But then a show about a remote Icelandic community living near a volatile volcano was never going to feel like Derry Girls.

My wife read the rave reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and decided to give it a fling. I sat the entire series out because I find it hard to watch disaster telly during Covid times. While she watched it, I read yet another book about D-Day, and experienced Katla as background mood — all cello and people speaking Icelandic, which isn’t exactly full of Mediterranean joie de vivre.