I sat through this tripe to find out who the murderer was. Well I'll be blowed, we are not told. We have to sit through another season to know. I promise I am not going to lose another seven hours of my life on this.
I usually love adaptations and scripts with Camilla Lackberg's input. OK, they're samey - overgrown village by the sea, everyone knows each other, loads of eccentrics. Yes, this one had all of it, but the magic had deserted the writers, producers and director. It was simply awful. It couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Was it a detective story? Clearly not as probably only ten per cent of the action was devoted to solving crimes. Was it a teen drama? Nearer, as much of the story was taken up by teenage angst, pregnancy, blogging, break ups, puppy love. Or was it some sort of short soap series? Well, we had adult affairs too and infidelity as well as evil businessmen plotting and loathsome family members trying to cheat relatives out of their inheritance. The series just couldn't work out what it was.
Then we had the utter cliches. Everyone's seen the one where the person who can solve the murder rings up and tells their favoured cop that they have a major clue but they "can't say it over the phone" but need to meet later in person. Well here it was even more ludicrous. The witness came to the cop shop to say that they couldn't tell all here in the completely secure and safe police station, but would reveal what they know later in the deserted, closed-down, dangerous industrial docks.
Then we had the most absurd characters. A cop who looked fresh out of police school leading a murder investigation while the experienced city cop is sidelined. A police station receptionist who sits around with her feet up in her slippers and sits doing make up or surfing all day and neglects her work. A plumber who is totally incompetent. A fake report of attempted murder. No one is punished for this. No one is sacked, disciplined or charged.
The story trails off into side roads and these are simply dropped. Ridiculously, in a town of twitching curtains, a pair of adulterous lovers who have already been caught out once and would be, one would have thought, much more careful, spend a whole weekend together with their cars in full view of the whole town in front of a seaside summerhouse. A state prosecutor is prepared to commit arson and shield alleged criminals. A shop owner removes a listed museum. It is totally unbelievable.
Then the acting. It's just shy of being so bad that it's good. It's not possible to watch for the pleasure of seeing how bad it is but only possible to groan at the fake smiles, anger, attractions.
This series could have had so much going for it. It was set in a lovely part of Sweden, it had a famous writer as consultant and creative, it had an unsolved murder. It should have been exciting.
The second season seems to be airing right now. I'm not going to waste my time. I don't care that I won't discover the murderer. I'm going to save myself some time and look at the official site and find out after the season ends.
Honestly, don't bother with this nonsense.
I usually love adaptations and scripts with Camilla Lackberg's input. OK, they're samey - overgrown village by the sea, everyone knows each other, loads of eccentrics. Yes, this one had all of it, but the magic had deserted the writers, producers and director. It was simply awful. It couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Was it a detective story? Clearly not as probably only ten per cent of the action was devoted to solving crimes. Was it a teen drama? Nearer, as much of the story was taken up by teenage angst, pregnancy, blogging, break ups, puppy love. Or was it some sort of short soap series? Well, we had adult affairs too and infidelity as well as evil businessmen plotting and loathsome family members trying to cheat relatives out of their inheritance. The series just couldn't work out what it was.
Then we had the utter cliches. Everyone's seen the one where the person who can solve the murder rings up and tells their favoured cop that they have a major clue but they "can't say it over the phone" but need to meet later in person. Well here it was even more ludicrous. The witness came to the cop shop to say that they couldn't tell all here in the completely secure and safe police station, but would reveal what they know later in the deserted, closed-down, dangerous industrial docks.
Then we had the most absurd characters. A cop who looked fresh out of police school leading a murder investigation while the experienced city cop is sidelined. A police station receptionist who sits around with her feet up in her slippers and sits doing make up or surfing all day and neglects her work. A plumber who is totally incompetent. A fake report of attempted murder. No one is punished for this. No one is sacked, disciplined or charged.
The story trails off into side roads and these are simply dropped. Ridiculously, in a town of twitching curtains, a pair of adulterous lovers who have already been caught out once and would be, one would have thought, much more careful, spend a whole weekend together with their cars in full view of the whole town in front of a seaside summerhouse. A state prosecutor is prepared to commit arson and shield alleged criminals. A shop owner removes a listed museum. It is totally unbelievable.
Then the acting. It's just shy of being so bad that it's good. It's not possible to watch for the pleasure of seeing how bad it is but only possible to groan at the fake smiles, anger, attractions.
This series could have had so much going for it. It was set in a lovely part of Sweden, it had a famous writer as consultant and creative, it had an unsolved murder. It should have been exciting.
The second season seems to be airing right now. I'm not going to waste my time. I don't care that I won't discover the murderer. I'm going to save myself some time and look at the official site and find out after the season ends.
Honestly, don't bother with this nonsense.