I have enjoyed the previous series of this Swedish police procedural which focuses on the cases and private lives of a special unit of disparate detectives called into action for particularly unusual and invariably nasty crimes. I was therefore pleased to see a new series appear on TV and hoped that this introductory episode would be up to the standard of previous ones.
Unfortunately, I don't think it was. For one thing the team is different, with the old female boss now replaced by the promoted Kerstin Holm who just happens to be sleeping with now ex-member of the team, divorcée Paul Heim who's now moved onto Internal Affairs of all things. No prizes for guessing that his first assignment involves checking up on one of his former colleagues. There's also a new arrival in the form of an even younger female detective, Ida, keen to earn her spurs which means naturally she puts herself in harm's way on her own the first chance she gets. Oh and the maverick Chavez has been apparently replaced with a new actor altogether but none of his super detective chums seems to have noticed. The meat of the plot takes in the tracking down and ritual slaughtering of a group of young Polish girls by the equivalent of the Polish Mafia. The sub-plots involve the travails of the new Chavez and his propensity for going off the rails, the on-off relationship between Heim and Holm and for some light relief the banter between Heim and his new, gobby P.A.
While I enjoyed initially seeing (some of) the familiar faces again, this adventure failed to really hold my attention like before. The young new recruit I didn't really buy into and ditto Kerstin as the new group leader who just doesn't exude leadership qualities at all. The two-parter was extended beyond its apparently natural conclusion with a tagged-on seeming twist in the tale which again failed to excite or intrigue.
I hope the standard improves but I'm afraid on first viewing everything here just looked a bit second-hand and overdone, the writing, direction and acting. And no, I didn't pick up on the Shakespearean reference in the title either.
