A different take on Nordic Noir "Black Sands," filmed in the starkly beautiful, rugged Icelandic area with the famed beaches of the title, has all the trappings of traditional Nordic Noir: exotic location, deeply flawed detective, and a murky conspiratorial plot. But what makes this different is less emphasis on casework (though that emphasis is there), and more stress on character development. This makes "Black Sands" seem slow, as some reviews have pointed out, by comparison with similar series. But the viewer gets rewarded with a deeper understanding of motivations. The one drawback is that the lead character is so deeply unsympathetic it is hard to root for her.