8/10
Family ties
23 July 2013
Yet another intensely entertaining double-episode of the excellent Swedish cop-drama covering the lives and work of a crack crime squad. As is its practice, it commences with a seemingly random murder, in this instance, the shooting of a high ranking Nigerian immigrant by a cop in a police-raid supposedly gone wrong, but which proves the key to all sorts of interrelated events, including the violent murders of the adoptive mother and father of a young boy, ditto that of a one-time company director brought down by the rejection of a lover who it turns out has aborted their expected child, industrial espionage all of which eventually centres on Kerstin Holm's past romantic involvement with a past drunken, abusive colleague.

Somewhat slower and lower-key in tone, this story started slowly but soon started to spin its own habitual web of intrigued drawing in the viewer's interest and if the placement of Kerstin at the centre of the afore-mentioned web stretches credibility, it nevertheless effectively draws in all the pieces together to provide an effective, all-loose-ends-tied-up ending.

Again as usual, we get insights into the team members' own private lives and hike the accent was firmly on Kerstin, we also witnessed the continuing stress in Hjelm's marriage, a crisis in the health of Norlander's young baby and the growing pangs of Chavez's marriage. The acting as I've said before is excellent across all the roles, the ensemble's unflashy teamwork reflecting the same approach as the unit itself. I also like the little dabs of quirkiness inserted just to spice matters up, particularly the mysterious old office-cleaner who flits in and out of the Incident Room interacting tellingly with individual team-members usually to their baffled betterment.

This particular two-parter took time to really inveigled me in but once I got there, as before, I was hooked and would if anything rate this story as probably, if marginally, the best in the series so far.
9 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed