Three episode Danish series, “A Friend, A Murderer”, directed by Christian Dyekjær, is a true crime docuseries that begins with the disappearance of a 17 year old girl in July, 2016. This shocking event in a small town, drew hundreds of people to come together and organize search parties. However, when the search remained unsuccessful, people began suspecting their neighbors and others and the town where everyone felt safe was now suddenly on edge for months. After a long six month period, the girl’s body was found and subsequently after other crimes came to light, the perpetrator Philip Patrick Westh was found and sentenced.
The docuseries focuses on a close knit and wholly unsuspecting group of friends who considered the perpetrator a close friend. While the case went cold, Patrick partied and lived a normal life with his friends. The psychological toll it took on all friends and more specifically on his closest friend, Nichlas is painful and heartbreaking to watch. Nichlas and Patrick were close friends for over 15 years and were roommates for several years. Yet Patrick with schizoid personality disorder easily lived a double life. For Nichlas, it caused a profound collapse of psychological reality and trust in people. Patrick’s double life had such a deep impact on Nichlas, that it shattered his sense of intuition and led to complete loss of self trust. Nichlas had to take several anti anxiety medications. Another friend Amanda said, “I feared the perpetrator being out there and that I could be the next victim but when I realized it was one of my closest friends, my world shattered”.
Indeed, for a brief few minutes, loss of self trust and grief would engulf anyone watching the series and would make anyone wonder who can we really trust in life, if not our closest friends?
#1 by isisdawne341ce70fd on August 23, 2026 - 11:01 pm
(Written a while back, but not sent.)
Both series that you posted about would engage me; your reviews did a great job of conveying the plot, & the psychological aspects that piqued my interest. I almost skipped reading your post; since both have “Murder” in the title, I’d tend to move on. Makes me reconsider that filter!