Netflix’s Latest Thriller Is A Swedish Kidnapping Saga

Swedish drama, The Glass Dome, debuted on Netflix this week (4/15), and is already sitting in the number two slot behind Black Mirror. The story revolves around criminologist, Lejla, who returns to her childhood home following the death of her adopted mother, and is pulled into an investigation surrounding the disappearance of childhood friend’s daughter, Alicia.

The case shares much in common with Lejla’s own childhood kidnapping, during which she was held captive in the glass dome that gives the series its name. The overlap is too much to be coincidental, forcing Lejla to confront her own past in the process of trying to rescue Alicia from another tragedy.

In a similar fashion to 2017’s French drama, The Forest, or 2024’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder (both featured in Netflix’s library), everyone in the small village becomes a suspect, including Alicia’s father, Said. Under the microscope of the investigation, the series explores the how buried trauma has an inevitable way of rising to the surface, despite inter-generational attempts to conceal the truth.

The series follows suit with Netflix’s other European productions, leaning into darker themes and mystery structures to pull in global audiences, and continued investment and success from said content in the U.S. suggests rising viewer familiarity and comfort with subtitled and/or dubbed content.

Check out the series for yourself below!