Arne Dahl: Efterskalv (2015) User Reviews

Subway strain

[Lejink · 8/10 · 20 January 2016]

I really enjoyed this latest two-parter involving the team. Perhaps I'm just getting familiar with the new line-up and the different dynamics this engenders but what I think I liked most about this episode was that the private lives of the team-members themselves (bar a lingering aftermath of the Paul and Kirsten fall-out) were relegated to a much lesser part in proceedings, leaving them to do their usual round of staking-out, sleuthing and shooting.

The first of the two episodes started with a bang with what looks like a terrorist attack on an underground train, but as ever all isn't quite what it seems as events take in a feminist group of women out to ridicule a bunch of male prostitute-users, a nasty group of young racists who take pleasure in beating up innocent Asians and lastly an ice-cool assassin who arrives in town to clean up, literally, the mess caused by afore-mentioned bigots. It all ends with the hit-man looking to take out a female European diplomat with whom Kirsten strikes up a bond. I wonder who might come to her rescue at the last gasp...

There were many tense and exciting moments as the various plot strands separated out and came back together like the points mechanism on a railway. Despite no longer being part of the core team, Paul Heim keeps finding ways to support his erstwhile colleagues even while officially now in Internal Affairs. No one team member hogged the limelight and I must say I was impressed by the steely calm of the actor playing the killer.

All in all, this was a superior episode of this occasionally hit and miss but more usually enjoyable series.

Arne Dahl: Afterquake

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 8 November 2015]

When a bomb goes off on a Stockholm underground train terrorism is suspected and it isn't long before a phone call claiming responsibility is received. The call comes from a previously unknown group calling itself "The Holy Riders of Siffin"… an apparent reference to an event in Syria in the early days of Islam. Somethings are a little strange though; the front coach of the two coach train was empty and all the victims were seated in the same area but apparently not together… it also seemed strange that a terrorist group would target a night train with a few people on rather than a crowded commuter train. The phone call is traced, and after some misdirection, leads to a local member of a far right group… but as the police start to close in on its members somebody keeps getting there first and killing the suspects with military precision. If that wasn't enough it seems that somebody in the security services is determined that the identity of the bomber isn't revealed.

This is another gripping instalment of this Swedish crime drama; the opening scenes quickly grab ones attention and even though most viewers will guess that it won't really be an attack by Muslim terrorists there is still a sense of mystery; and not just about who detonated the bomb and why. We also have the question as to why a far-right group put in a false claim and more importantly why is one of their members eliminating the rest of the group. When we finally learn who detonated the bomb and why it is rather far-fetched but by then it doesn't matter as we are more interested in what the other killer is up to and whether he will be stopped. As in previous episodes the ensemble cast does a good job and there are plenty of exciting moments before the case is over.

These comments are based on watched the story in Swedish with English subtitles.

Wıldly Implausible Plot Full of Unexplained Threads

[l_rawjalaurence · 4/10 · 16 November 2015]

This episode of the crime drama has a bomb going off in the Stockholm subway, killing ten people. Initially it is suspected to be the work of ISIS terrorists, but following a spate of killings our indefatigable police officers are hot on the trail of a Dutch hit-person (Erik Madsen), while suspecting a member of the Swedish Secret Service (Philip Zandén) of complicity in the whole affair.

AFTERQUAKE is the weakest entry in the series so far, where budgetary restrictions actively undermine the plausibility of the plot. On at least one occasion Gunnar Nyberg (Magnus Samuelsson) tells us that a support team is "on the way" to provide back-up as the police visit lonely apartments during their investigations. Yet it seems that this support is particularly slow in coming, as Ida Jankowitz (Natalie Minnevik), Sara Svenhagen (Vera Vitali) and Kerstin Holm (Malin Arvidsson) regularly put themselves in danger by going to investigate on their own. If the hit-person is as ruthless as the story suggests, then they are risking almost certain death should they become involved in a shoot-out. At times it seems as if the "A-Team" are the only representatives of the Swedish police force, bravely going where no officer would dare to go.

The plot is full of implausibilities, with the two strands involving the hit-person and the Secret Service member failing to cohere. It's always a good indication of the weakness of any drama when the threads have to be tied up in deus ex machina fashion at the end. In this case it is a television broadcast that ostensibly explains what happened and why.

The drama itself ends with a clichéd image of Kerstin returning home to embrace her son while thanking her neighbor (Sofia Pekkari) for baby-sitting services. This coda looks just what it is - something tacked on to the end of a poorly constructed episode to prove how arduous Kerstin's job actually is, thereby taking her away from her family.

Shame on you!

[munkebo-10182 · 1/10 · 4 December 2020]

Ukrainian fascists? Really? That's gross. And that and demonstrates the primitiveness of those who wrote this story. As well of those who consume it without any thinking. Shame and disgrace. I'd like to rate it as zero or even below.