As a new season has recently arrived in the UK and looked interesting, we decided to go back to the start and view this Swedish police drama from the beginning, all the way back in heady, carefree days of 1998. Like most crime thrillers, its diverting enough to keep me interested, even if, to an English audience at least, it's an odd mix of occasionally extreme performances and Scandinavian quirk.
Martin Beck (Peter Haber) is a middle aged, divorced, Police detective and the head of Stockholm's major crimes division. Together with his loose cannon second-in-command, Gunvald Larsson (Mickael Persbrandt) and new recruit Lena Klingstrom (Stina Rautelin) they solve high profile murder and terrorism cases. Though the cases initially seem unrelated, a singular shady figure may prove to be the link between them all.
My initial thoughts was that the show reminded me to Glaswegian Detective series "Taggart", both because of the experience lead detective and younger male and female assistant premise - but also because I used to watch "Taggart" in the 1990's and the style of this mirrors a lot of that. Cell phones but not much internet, homophobia and misogyny, even the grainy stock used reminds me of that show.
I will say that there are several aspects of this show that felt off to me. Beck has a neighbour, Grannen, played by Ingvar Hirdwall who is there to provide comic relief. Occasionally his scenes are so bizarre though that they stretch the credulity of the episode. Many of the characters are . . . Uneven . . . But none more than Gunvald, played by "Sex Educations" Mickael Persbrandt - who ranges from borderline psychopath to "I'd like to raise this child" in the same episode. He's never less than watchable though.
It's somehow both cliché and wildly odd at the same time and though it's hard to actively recommend it, I didn't struggle to watch it and have already powered into season two.
Martin Beck (Peter Haber) is a middle aged, divorced, Police detective and the head of Stockholm's major crimes division. Together with his loose cannon second-in-command, Gunvald Larsson (Mickael Persbrandt) and new recruit Lena Klingstrom (Stina Rautelin) they solve high profile murder and terrorism cases. Though the cases initially seem unrelated, a singular shady figure may prove to be the link between them all.
My initial thoughts was that the show reminded me to Glaswegian Detective series "Taggart", both because of the experience lead detective and younger male and female assistant premise - but also because I used to watch "Taggart" in the 1990's and the style of this mirrors a lot of that. Cell phones but not much internet, homophobia and misogyny, even the grainy stock used reminds me of that show.
I will say that there are several aspects of this show that felt off to me. Beck has a neighbour, Grannen, played by Ingvar Hirdwall who is there to provide comic relief. Occasionally his scenes are so bizarre though that they stretch the credulity of the episode. Many of the characters are . . . Uneven . . . But none more than Gunvald, played by "Sex Educations" Mickael Persbrandt - who ranges from borderline psychopath to "I'd like to raise this child" in the same episode. He's never less than watchable though.
It's somehow both cliché and wildly odd at the same time and though it's hard to actively recommend it, I didn't struggle to watch it and have already powered into season two.
