# Arctic Circle (2018 TV series)
**Arctic Circle** (Finnish: **Ivalo**) is a Finnish-German crime drama thriller television series created by Olli Haikka, Petja Peltomaa, and Joona Tena with Jón Atli Jónasson, produced by Yellow Film & TV and Bavaria Fiction, and first aired by the Finnish streaming service Elisa Viihde on December 21, 2018. It follows police officer Nina Kautsalo, played by Iina Kuustonen, who teams up with a German virologist after finding a dying woman infected with a lethal virus in Finnish Lapland.[1](https://www.epressi.com/tiedotteet/telekommunikaatio/elisa-viihteen-uusi-alkuperaissarja-arctic-circle-sai-suomenkieliseksi-nimekseen-ivalo.html) • [2](https://c21media.net/news/zdf-explores-arctic-circle/) • [3](https://yle.fi/a/3-10105135)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ivalo, named after the village of Ivalo in the municipality of Inari, Finnish Lapland[4](https://filmlapland.fi/film-references/arctic-circle-ivalo/) |
| Production | Yellow Film & TV with Bavaria Fiction; directed by Hannu Salonen; executive producers Milla Bruneau and Moritz Polter[1](https://www.epressi.com/tiedotteet/telekommunikaatio/elisa-viihteen-uusi-alkuperaissarja-arctic-circle-sai-suomenkieliseksi-nimekseen-ivalo.html) • [2](https://c21media.net/news/zdf-explores-arctic-circle/) |
| Budget | 6.5 million euros for season 1, one of the most expensive Finnish television series produced[3](https://yle.fi/a/3-10105135) • [5](https://yle.fi/a/3-10574377) |
| Premiere | December 21, 2018 on Elisa Viihde, with 10 episodes of about 45-52 minutes[6](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71115-arctic-circle/seasons) • [7](https://www.crew-united.com/de/Arctic-Circle-Der-unsichtbare-Tod__232884.html) |
| Lead cast | Iina Kuustonen as Nina Kautsalo; Maximilian Brückner as Thomas Lorenz; Pihla Viitala and Clemens Schick in other lead roles[1](https://www.epressi.com/tiedotteet/telekommunikaatio/elisa-viihteen-uusi-alkuperaissarja-arctic-circle-sai-suomenkieliseksi-nimekseen-ivalo.html) |
| Run | Five seasons through 2026: 10, 6, 6, 5, and 6 episodes respectively[8](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/arctic-circle) |
| Reception | IMDb rating 6.9/10 from about 3,600 user ratings[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6800294/ratings/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and setting
The series is set in the icy landscapes of Finnish Lapland, in and around the village of Ivalo, from which it takes its Finnish-language title. While following a lead on illegal poaching, local police officer Nina Kautsalo discovers a young woman in a coma, held captive in a remote cabin, along with the bodies of further victims. Blood tests on the coma patient raise alarms in Helsinki, where Dr. Thomas Lorenz, a German virologist at the European Centre for Disease Control, fears the presence of a rare and lethal virus and joins the criminal investigation in the north.[4](https://filmlapland.fi/film-references/arctic-circle-ivalo/) • [10](https://www.mralansim.com/arctic-circle) • [11](https://www.ratingraph.com/tv-shows/arctic-circle-ratings-65231/)
The first season combines the hunt for a serial killer targeting foreign prostitutes with a medical emergency: the woman's blood carries a dangerous virus, and all pregnant women in the area are ordered to be tested.[3](https://yle.fi/a/3-10105135) • [12](https://watch.mhzchoice.com/arctic-circle) A review in Cinema Sentries noted that the series' focus in 2018 on an emerging global pandemic proved eerily prescient.[13](https://cinemasentries.com/arctic-circle-season-1-3-dvd-review-panic-in-lapland/)
### Seasons
The series has run for five seasons with differing settings and case types:[8](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/arctic-circle) • [6](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71115-arctic-circle/seasons)
1. **Season 1 (2018-2019, 10 episodes).** Premiered December 21, 2018. The virus-and-murder plot centered on the suspect Raunola and the joint investigation by Nina and Thomas.[6](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71115-arctic-circle/seasons) • [12](https://watch.mhzchoice.com/arctic-circle)
2. **Season 2 (2021-2022, 6 episodes).** Premiered December 19, 2021. Nina has moved to [Rovaniemi](https://www.edgepedia.org/rovaniemi), joined a Finnish-Russian police team partnered with a mysterious investigator named Viktor, and follows a hunting club trail to Murmansk, alongside an old unsolved murder.[6](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71115-arctic-circle/seasons) Season 2 was distributed by Viaplay.[14](https://www.filminfinland.com/en/movie-cases/arctic-circle-season2)
3. **Season 3 (2023, 6 episodes).** Premiered October 4, 2023. Nina returns to Ivalo as chief of police, investigating the murder of a local pharmacist in a case that leads into the international car business and the hijacking of a top-secret test vehicle.[6](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71115-arctic-circle/seasons)
4. **Season 4 (2025, 5 episodes).** Premiered January 1, 2025; MHz Choice began streaming an English-dubbed version on December 16, 2025.[8](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/arctic-circle) • [15](https://mhzchoice.com/coming-to-mhz-choice-in-december-2025/?media_link=1)
5. **Season 5 (2026, 6 episodes).** Aired March to May 2026.[8](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/arctic-circle)
## Production
Production of the first season began on November 27, 2017 and ended on May 31, 2018, with shooting in northern Lapland, the Arctic Sea coast, and Helsinki, on a budget of 6.5 million euros. The Finnish-German co-production was commissioned by Elisa Viihde, with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE holding free TV rights in Finland and Lagardère Studios Distribution acting as international distributor.[7](https://www.crew-united.com/de/Arctic-Circle-Der-unsichtbare-Tod__232884.html) • [2](https://c21media.net/news/zdf-explores-arctic-circle/)
It was the first drama co-production between a Finnish and a German company, and German public broadcaster ZDF acquired the series, airing it in a Sunday evening slot; according to the executive producer Alan Sim, it was the first Finnish series to run in ZDF primetime.[2](https://c21media.net/news/zdf-explores-arctic-circle/) • [10](https://www.mralansim.com/arctic-circle) ZDF's senior vice president of international fiction, Simone Emmelius, described the show as bringing "light and warmheartedness into cold and dangerous surroundings."
Producer Moritz Polter, an international drama specialist at Bavaria Fiction, said the team was drawn specifically by Finnishness, the exoticism of Lapland, and the strength of the story, in which a serial killer hunt gives way to a lethal virus threatening to spread worldwide.[5](https://yle.fi/a/3-10574377)
## Cast
Iina Kuustonen leads the cast as Nina Kautsalo, with Pihla Viitala as Marita Kautsalo, Venla Ronkainen as Venla Kautsalo, and Susanna Haavisto as Elina Kautsalo among her family members. The German roles are played by Maximilian Brückner as Thomas Lorenz and Clemens Schick as Marcus Eiben, with Janne Kataja as Niilo Aikio.[1](https://www.epressi.com/tiedotteet/telekommunikaatio/elisa-viihteen-uusi-alkuperaissarja-arctic-circle-sai-suomenkieliseksi-nimekseen-ivalo.html) • [8](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/arctic-circle)
## Reception and context
On IMDb the series holds a rating of 6.9/10 from about 3,600 votes, with a 7.1 unweighted mean; ratings per episode have generally declined from about 7.1 in early season 1 to between 6.2 and 7.4 in later seasons.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6800294/ratings/) A scholarly article on Finnish streaming media describes *Arctic Circle* as one of Elisa Viihde's key series that sold internationally and capitalized on audiences' familiarity with [Nordic noir](https://www.edgepedia.org/nordic-noir) content, and Finland's official promotion toolbox lists it among the shows that helped carry Finnish crime drama to international viewers, set in the far-northern town of Ivalo with cases of far-reaching international connections.[16](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17496020221135183) • [17](https://toolbox.finland.fi/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/tif-2026_2027_toolbox.pdf)
A Cinema Sentries review of the season 1-3 DVD set praised the prescient pandemic premise and the Lapland setting, while criticizing what it saw as a bland lead character and a meandering first season; it also noted that characters frequently switch to English across nationalities in the original soundtrack, and that the optional English dub was noticeably flatter than the Finnish audio.[13](https://cinemasentries.com/arctic-circle-season-1-3-dvd-review-panic-in-lapland/)
## References
1. [Elisa Viihteen uusi alkuperäissarja Arctic Circle sai suomenkieliseksi nimekseen Ivalo, ePressi (Elisa Oyj press release, 7 November 2017)](https://www.epressi.com/tiedotteet/telekommunikaatio/elisa-viihteen-uusi-alkuperaissarja-arctic-circle-sai-suomenkieliseksi-nimekseen-ivalo.html)
2. [ZDF explores Arctic Circle, C21Media (10 July 2019)](https://c21media.net/news/zdf-explores-arctic-circle/)
3. [Iina Kuustosen tähdittämää sarjaa kuvataan Lapissa, Yle (7 March 2018)](https://yle.fi/a/3-10105135)
4. [Arctic Circle (Ivalo), Film Lapland](https://filmlapland.fi/film-references/arctic-circle-ivalo/)
5. [Ivalo on toistaiseksi kallein valmistunut suomalainen televisiosarja, Yle (29 December 2018)](https://yle.fi/a/3-10574377)
6. [Arctic Circle (2018) Seasons, The Movie Database](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71115-arctic-circle/seasons)
7. [Arctic Circle – Der unsichtbare Tod, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/de/Arctic-Circle-Der-unsichtbare-Tod__232884.html)
8. [Arctic Circle, TheTVDB.com](https://www.thetvdb.com/series/arctic-circle)
9. [Arctic Circle (2018-) Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6800294/ratings/)
10. [Arctic Circle, Alan Sim (Executive Producer)](https://www.mralansim.com/arctic-circle)
11. [Arctic Circle ratings, Rating Graph](https://www.ratingraph.com/tv-shows/arctic-circle-ratings-65231/)
12. [Arctic Circle, MHz Choice](https://watch.mhzchoice.com/arctic-circle)
13. [Arctic Circle: Season 1-3 DVD Review: Panic in Lapland, Cinema Sentries (6 September 2024)](https://cinemasentries.com/arctic-circle-season-1-3-dvd-review-panic-in-lapland/)
14. [Arctic Circle, Season 2 (2021), Film in Finland](https://www.filminfinland.com/en/movie-cases/arctic-circle-season2)
15. [Coming to MHz Choice in December 2025](https://mhzchoice.com/coming-to-mhz-choice-in-december-2025/?media_link=1)
16. [Post-Nordic-noir landscapes: Competition through localisation in Finnish streaming media, Participations (2022)](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/17496020221135183)
17. [New to nordic noir? Start with these shows, This is Finland toolbox](https://toolbox.finland.fi/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/tif-2026_2027_toolbox.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Crime and thriller series › Police and detective procedurals*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license