L'homme de la chambre 301

The casting was all wrong. The audience were drawn into a "who is it" rather than a "who dunnit" plot and the production cheated. Leo (confusingly played by Elias Gould) - was an obvious choice to play the older Elias Leppo. He would have been very believable and had the right colour hair. In the end it proved that Elias Leppo was played by somebody who looked nothing like the younger version of himself and even had the wrong hair colouring. Ginger hair does not turn into black!!! Add in the holes in the plot and the end was all rather disappointing after a promising start. Even the title was misleading.

We've now got used to these thrillers dramas etc . I looked forward to this one , my biggest problem is the way they've put it together , jumping to different years so if you look away for a second suddenly you find it's leapt back or forward to a random year it seems !! Otherwise it's pretty enjoyable but it does need your full concentration

Wasted potential. Starts off strong and I was intrigued by the family secrets. But...This show was so frustrating to watch and the ending made no sense. Multiple creepy young men creep around, but no one ever seems to be creeped out until it's too late. I yelled "ASK WHY?!?!" at the screen many times. No one seems to want to know why anyone does inexplicable creepy things.

Usually, the Nordic nations are masters of thrill and suspense, with static meaning not boring, but here, in spite of a promising starting point, it becomes protracted soon, with too heavy dominance of burden and oppression. Perhaps the number of episodes could have been less (4, for instance), some confusing twists added, and the round-up less sophisticated. The characters and performances not too elaborate either...

Finland has produced several interesting crimes series, e.g. Sorjonen or Karppi. Alas, Huone 301 is long behind of them.

This Finnish drama is set in two time periods; 2007 and 2019; the events in the former coming back to effect those in the later. In 2007 the Kurtii family have assembled to celebrate midsummer in a woodland area. Tommi, a young boy wanders off into the woods. Here troubled teen Elias Leppo is shooting a rifle. The next thing we know Tommi is dead; while it is strongly implied that certain things happened nothing is initially shown. In 2019 the family is planning to meet up again, this time in Greece. Shortly before they go Tommi's father and grandfather, who know what happened in 2007, receive letters implying a threat to Tommi's sisters and his twelve year old cousin, Kalle. The grandfather becomes convinced that 'Leo', the man staying in Room 301, is in fact Elias; a fear that is compounded when the man takes an interest in Kalle. As each timeline is shown we gradually learn the truth about what happened in 2007 and what is about to happen in 2019.

I rather enjoyed this short drama series. It was clear from early on that there would be many twists and turns and that certain things we assumed didn't happen quite as we thought... I deliberately wrote my precis after only four episodes to avoid accidental spoilers! The story moves at a good pace and there are plenty of tense moments including the heart-wrenching scenes where we finally see what happened to Tommi in 2007. The cast does a solid job and the locations, in Finland and Greece contrast nicely. Overall I'd recommend this to those who enjoy plenty of twists in their drama; just don't expect 'Scandi-Noir'.

These comments are based on watching the series in Finnish with English subtitles.