Streaming on: Netflix###Episodes viewed: 6 of 6###It may mark his first project back in his home country of Denmark in two decades, but Nicolas Winding Refn is still, emphatically, Nicolas Winding Refn-ing. The hallmarks he established on films like Drive and The Neon Demon are all on reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue in Copenhagen Cowboy: garish colours, exaggerated dialogue, a moodily electronic Cliff Martinez score, stunning art direction, ultraviolence, an icily cool protagonist who says next to nothing and emotes even less — and neon. Lots of neon.###With late-era Refn, the style is the substance. This is not quite his most indulgent work — The Neon Demon saw a supermodel swallow, and then regurgitate, a human eyeball, after all — but you sense he’s doing exactly what he wants, unfettered by outside in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ces. (He again gives himself the auteur-ish credit of “By NWR”.)###It’s another surreal, liminal nightmare world — here a heightened vision of Refn’s hometown — where we first meet his latest hero, Miu (Angela Bundalovic). Across the series, she flits from one grisly hole of criminal unpleasantness to another: a brothel run by traffickers, a restaurant fronting the Chinese Mafia, a drug-dealing outfit embroiled in gang warfare, an eccentric serial-killing family who may possess’own’nurse a supernatural element to them.###If the tension feels deflated at times, it is at least punctuated by intense bursts of brilliantly shot action.###Miu appears to be otherworldly, too, but it’s near-impossible to tell off the bat: like Ryan Gosling in Drive or Elle Fanning in The Neon Demon, there’s an aloof expression permanently carved on Miu’s face. That Refn-y coldness works neatly in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the mystery, her presence left endlessly intriguing: is she even human? Was she kidnapped by aliens as a child, as she herself offers? Is she, as other characters ponder, a ghost, a witch, or a “blackbird who heralds death”?###Her true nature is not revealed until the final episode, and even then it’s amenormous’vast’massive’tremendous uous. It doesn’t really feel like the point, despite’in spite of’albeit : Copenhagen Cowboy is more with regards to’concerning’with respect to soaking in a long bath of moodiness. The incredibly sedate pacing will test patience — Refn has never met a pause he didn’t want to impregnate — and there are certainly episodes which can be a bit of a slog. If the tension feels deflated at times, it is at least punctuated by intense bursts of brilliantly shot action, and Martinez’s thunderingly oppressive, Shining-esque score.###The undeniably eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous cinematography can embark on feel wearing, too — after three straight hours of wall-to-wall neon, you embark on crave in/with regard to’concerning’regarding some natural light or even just a nice tungsten bulb. Thankfully, the aesthetic acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s a fresh approach in Episode 3, the loose criminal-of-the-week in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mat giving the series some texture.###Don’t come looking in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a conventional crime procedural, however. There are man-eating pigs, men who oink, prosthetic penises, and absurdist dialogue. (“Would you like to see my prick?” offers one character, adding: “It is a great cultural asset.”) Copenhagen Cowboy is baffling, thoroughly unpleasant, utterly inscrutable and frequently frustrating — but it is also dazzling, daring, and painterly; storytelling through atmospherics. Refn gonna Refn!