Sometimes long-running detective series like BECK can become too entrenched in their ways. With guaranteed audiences and repeated commissions from the television companies, there might be no need to do anything other than plod through yet another murder-plot while emphasizing the sparky interplay between the main characters.
Thankfully "The Weak Link" avoids such pitfalls. Harald Hamrell's production begins with the savage - and apparently motiveless - rape and murder of a teenage girl (Nadine Kirschon) close to her home. This is the latest in a series of assaults taking place near Stockholm's Blue Line on the subway. Beck (Peter Haber) and Gunvald (Mikael Persbrandt) are deputed to solve the case, but Beck is haunted throughout by concern for his daughter Inger's (Rebecka Hemse), even though she is nearly thirty years old with a son to look after.
The plot ends up dealing with sensitive race-issues - despite its reputation for tolerance, we discover that Stockholm is not always kindly disposed towards immigrants, especially if they are members of the so-called "black" economy. Unlicensed cab-driver Juri Govalenko (Jamil Drissi) is automatically classed as a suspect in the murder on account of his being a Russian émigré. Even the so- called hero Gunvald is not above hurling a few racist insults.
Eventually the murderers are caught, but we are left with the impression that such serial rapes are commonplace in a city full of dark, lonely spaces, whose people are more likely to turn their backs rather than become involved in something unsavory.
