MHz Choice is proud to present the return of Anno 1790 to the U.S. and Canada – with remastered video and spruced-up subtitles!

When Nordic Noir exploded onto international screens in the late 2000s and early 2010s, most series focused on contemporary crimes, bleak urban landscapes and modern social problems. Swedish drama Anno 1790 took a very different approach. First broadcast in Sweden in 2011 – and premiering in the U.S. on MHz Networks shortly after – this ten-part series transported the familiar elements of Nordic crime fiction back to late eighteenth-century Stockholm, creating a rare blend of historical drama and detective mystery.

The series stars Peter Eggers as Johan Gustav Dåådh, a former army surgeon who returns home after the Russo-Swedish War and becomes a police commissioner in Stockholm. Enlightenment ideals have shaped his worldview, making him a freethinker, republican and skeptic in a society still governed by rigid hierarchies and royal authority. As he investigates murders across the city, he must also navigate political intrigue and a forbidden romance with Magdalena Wahlstedt, played by Linda Zilliacus. Joel Spira co-stars as Simon Freund, Dåådh’s loyal assistant whose conservative religious beliefs often place him at odds with his employer.

Each episode presents a self-contained investigation involving poisonings, bombings, disappearances and political conspiracies. Although the crimes occur in 1790, the motives remain familiar: greed, jealousy, revenge, love and the abuse of power. The series uses Dåådh’s medical knowledge and scientific curiosity as an eighteenth-century equivalent of modern forensic investigation.

What makes Anno 1790 unique is the way it applies the conventions of Nordic Noir to a historical setting. It combines dark murder mysteries, moral ambiguity and social criticism with richly detailed period production. Rather than presenting history as a romantic costume drama, the series depicts Stockholm as a harsh and unequal city where political tensions, poverty and corruption shape everyday life. The result is an inventive crime drama that remains one of the most distinctive Scandinavian TV productions of the early 2010s.