The Åre Murders

I have watched all five episodes and enjoyed them.

They are based on a series of books by a very well known author, Viveca Sten.

There are two distinct stories here... so the first three eps are a complete "story" and then they are followed by two more which extend the characters a bit more.

These are good. I am a huge Scandi Noir fan and love series like this. I find the ones filmed in winter particularly interesting and enjoyable. The conditions are often awful and I just love how the characters move thru the weather like it is nothing special (which it isn't in Scandinavia).

The first story takes a bit of time to get started. By the point we get to the second story, we're familiar if not comfortable with the characters and can sit back and appreciate the plot.

BTW if you're wondering "why two stories?" this is not unusual for series like this. Go with it.

There's nothing super special here. It isn't Beck or Wallander or etc. But it is solid acting and good, engaging plots.

The two main characters (Carla and Kardo) have charisma and a certain *something* between them. And alas, in part this is the reason I'm giving this an 8 instead of a 9 or 10... I don't want to spoil anything but there are hints of something that I'd rather just be left out.

Alternatively, I liked the Charlie plot line in eps 4 and 5.

The other criticism, is, of course, that we see one of the characters doing stupid stuff that in reality I'm guessing the police would never do. But this is common throughout the genre in order to add danger to the plot. So I'm not going to criticize it too much.

So if you're a Scandi Noir fan, or even just a fan of a good detective series, I recommend this.

And as always I recommend watching it in the original language with subtitles. Seriously.

The plots are clever enough to keep you guessing, and yet this is fairly straightforward and dare I say simple storytelling. There's humor. There's drama. There's some intense stuff that gets scary.

Recommended.