Maria Wern

Well, first, how there could be that many murders in Gotland, but never mind. What confuses me is what exactly was made. According to IMDb, we got a four part series in 2008, and four separate episodes in 2010 (plus the feature movie in 2012). I have four English subtitle files for the 2008 series, but not the vids, and I've watched six episodes from 2010, not four (five of the English sub files needed to be re-synched). I have the movie vid, but there are no English subs (yet).

As far as the show goes, well, nothing special. The Maria Wern character is a pretty ordinary cop, she seems to have no special gifts, no unusual personality quirks. Aside from the actress being pleasant to watch, I don't really get why this needed to be made. I enjoyed it well enough, but am I jonesing over the 2008 and 2012 material I haven't seen? Not really.

This Scandinavian series is set in Gotland, which is the only saving grace for it. The writing is terrible, the editing much, much worse. The stories make no sense and the ridiculous manner in which they are edited offers little in the way of a continuous narrative. The scenes are often randomly sequenced without any regard for logic. It's as if the story is made up on the fly without using a story board to tell it. The actors are drawn from the usual small, recycled pool of Swedish actors, many of whom have been seen in other Swedish productions year after year. Many of the scenes have tremendous bloopers, which make them quite laughable. It's really a very poor level of production.

This series has been going on for ages, and originally it was not much to brag about, even the dialogue felt very stilted and the whole thing wasn't that good, so not surprising it went directly to DVD for two seasons.

But then Warner Bros. And a few other more foreign companies took notice, and from say series 6 it is damned good.

As good as many British crime series, and that is a surprise! The actors are surprisingly good, even the young ones, and the dialogue and story is now very good.

I rarely like Swedish series, but this is top notch!

Years ago I belonged to MHz Choice and watch many Scandie Noir series. Maria Wern was one of my favorites., in part because of the amazing Eva Rose (who plays Maria). Also because of the very good mysteries.

Recently I've found that the series has kept on going and it just keeps getting better and better.

The action takes place in Gotland, Sweden.. So we've got another small place that has an inordinate number of murders!

Maria is a police detective and works with a dedicate team.

Somewhere along the way a partner named "Sebastian" shows up and the sparks fly. The two characters (Maria and Sebastian) AND the two actors. (Eva and Erik) have a wonderful chemistry that to the writers' and actors' credit does not overwhelm a la "Moonlighting".

It is good and if you have a chance, worth watching it.

Maria is Sebstian's supervisor. They are lovers and live together. They are always at crime scenes together even when it is unnecessary. They are put in situations when one is responsible for the well-being, safety, and security of the other. Situations when one makes decisions that otherwise would not be made if they weren't lovers. Ridiculous. No police department in the world would allow such a situation to continue. For me, it detracts from generally interesting stories, beautiful scenery, and acting and dialogue that has improved with time. Although at times the two lovers act like teenagers.