I'm a big fan of the Wallander series. The characters are interesting and it's always kind of fun trying to guess who the criminal is in the episode. As with most cop dramas, sometimes they can be a bit too formulaic and sometimes the suspension of disbelief is necessary (can there really be so many "terrorist attacks" and multiple-murderers in a tiny Swedish city of only 18,000 residents?). That said, the plots are generally good and I've enjoyed nearly every single episode I've watched.
This episode, however, really felt like it didn't belong in the Wallander series. It's more like a bad horror movie. And while I'm willing to suspend disbelief a bit, this one got very out of hand. None of the characters behave as they normally do and they somehow all seemed to lose all the senses they use to solve other cases.
Then there's the matter of the "mastermind." He's not a realistic character. First off, in order to do the stuff he did in this episode, he would've literally had to have spent millions of Dollars (or more accurately, tens of millions of Swedish kronors). Where does a guy who's been in prison for years end up with all the resources to conduct this operation? They have the guy renting out half the city to install expensive surveillance equipment everywhere. Then somehow, he seems to have no realistic limitations like time or need for sleep. He works right under the noses of the cops and they don't notice him, which is far-fetched enough, but how does he keep his job without anyone noticing that he's never around? It just doesn't make any sense. That might be OK in another series where that's the norm, but it was a huge departure from the rules of the Wallander world.
I enjoy that the Wallander movies are all like puzzles that you are slowly trying to solve, but in order to "solve a puzzle", there has to be some logic and reason behind it. There was no logic or reason behind this episode. For that reason, I consider this the worst of the Wallander episodes. This should've been a horror movie; not an episode of Wallander.
This episode, however, really felt like it didn't belong in the Wallander series. It's more like a bad horror movie. And while I'm willing to suspend disbelief a bit, this one got very out of hand. None of the characters behave as they normally do and they somehow all seemed to lose all the senses they use to solve other cases.
Then there's the matter of the "mastermind." He's not a realistic character. First off, in order to do the stuff he did in this episode, he would've literally had to have spent millions of Dollars (or more accurately, tens of millions of Swedish kronors). Where does a guy who's been in prison for years end up with all the resources to conduct this operation? They have the guy renting out half the city to install expensive surveillance equipment everywhere. Then somehow, he seems to have no realistic limitations like time or need for sleep. He works right under the noses of the cops and they don't notice him, which is far-fetched enough, but how does he keep his job without anyone noticing that he's never around? It just doesn't make any sense. That might be OK in another series where that's the norm, but it was a huge departure from the rules of the Wallander world.
I enjoy that the Wallander movies are all like puzzles that you are slowly trying to solve, but in order to "solve a puzzle", there has to be some logic and reason behind it. There was no logic or reason behind this episode. For that reason, I consider this the worst of the Wallander episodes. This should've been a horror movie; not an episode of Wallander.