How a pair of handcuffs inspired noir crime thriller ‘Black Sands’

nypost.com:

Viaplay.“There is an Icelandic detective [Ragnar Jónsson] that has been on the force for 30-something years and he had this idea [for ‘Black Sands’] for the longest time,” Hamilton, 32, told The Post. “He wanted to write a TV series revolving around a young male police officer … and we actually met and started talking while I was doing another series and he was training me to handcuff people.“He shared his idea with me and I really liked it and said, ‘Have you ever considered this police officer as a woman?’ He said, ‘No, I haven’t.

I’ll think on it.’ A few days later we met for coffee so he could pick my brain about what it’s like to be a woman.”That meeting resulted in Hamilton and Jónsson co-writing “Black Sands.” As the eight-episode series (already renewed) opens, police detective Aníta Elínardóttir (Hamilton) is driving back from Reykjaík to her remote hometown after 15 years away from her verbally abusive mother (Steinunn ÓlínaÞorsteinsdóttir) from whom she’s been estranged.“[Aníta] is smart, educated and driven but at the same time very immature in certain aspects of being an adult,” Hamilton said. “She probably didn’t get what she needed as a child … she’s an adult but has so many toxic traits of a child.”On the way to her mother’s house, Aníta gets a call from an old friend, police detective Ragnar (Þór Tulinius), who’s discovered the dead body of a young female on the black sands of the nearby beach.The victim is a German tourist who was apparently traveling in Iceland alone; but when another young woman, also German, survives a savage attack nearby, it sets off the search for a serial killer.“We always wanted to focus on foreigners [as the victims],” said Hamilton, who was born in Germany but moved to Iceland.