The Team

For decades, following the fall of Iron Curtain and fast development of technology, felonies and combating them have become more international as well, money laundry and human trafficking included. Thus, on one hand, it is interesting to follow diverse beautiful places and characters of different nationalities performed by respective actors speaking respective languages, but when the series of eight 1-hour episodes deals with one "enemy", then the plot becomes perfunctory and the role of leading characters unbalanced, with some obtaining too much unnecessary attention and the others' characteristics remain unfinished, with several questions unanswered.

The police characters are obviously realistic, but often not too interesting to follow, and even Lars Mikkelsen is unable to show his talent in full. Plus it is odd that Alexandra Rapaport had so insignificant character. And Jasmin Gerat as Jackie Müller and Veerle Baetens as Alicia Verbeeck provided just okay, but not memorable performance, and those depicting Lithuanians were not particularly catchy, somehow underlining the role of Eastern European villains. Plus, of course, Belgium as a symbol of negligence and corruption...

All in all, not a bad creation, but not on the level of e.g. The Eagle: A Crime Odyssey ("Ørnen: En krimi-odyssé).

I was a fan of Crossing Lines, another European import running on Netflix, and when I read an introductory blurb on MHz there seemed to be some similarities so I decided to give it a try. Both my wife and I enjoy it. The team of European cops assembled to find what appears to be a serial killer is quite good. While they are supposed to work together there are some internal rivalries and one of the countries seems to have its own hidden agenda which they expect to stay that way.

The episodes are short, one hour each, and the story moves along at a crisp pace. Harald Bjorn, the titular leader of the team, seems to have a past with another member; and she seems to be having some issues of her own with her husband. The subplots don't take anything away from the main story, and provide us with back stories on team members.

There are eight episodes you need to commit to if you want all the pieces to fall into place. The cast seems to be quite good and work together well. I would recommend it as it is so much better than the usual crap we see on American TV. If having to read subtitles is a turn off then you will probably take a pass; but I was amazed at how much of the dialogue was English.

I've wanted to watch this for a while since I'm a fan of Lars Mikklesen's work and love European crime dramas, and have travelled extensively in Belgium and Germany. The first season has a great plot, fascinating characters, believable plotline (to the degree its possible) and is very enjoyable. The second has some great actors (totally different teams, no story overlap) and some compelling elements but the story is ultimately filled with problematic and questionable decisions which, without revealing too much, leaves it far less of a satisfying watch despite some great dramatic scenes. Watch the first one it's a gripping story in many ways, but think twice about the second. I'd rate the first one 7/10 and the second 5/10. It's still watchable but there are too many moments of "why didn't they...?" to make it a truly believable scenario. I suspect the relative "failure" of the second season would've been why they chose not to continue with this interesting joint venture between the group of Danish, German, Belgian (and Austrian) collaborators on this project.

This is one of those dramas, like 'Shetland' and 'Vera' where the location plays like a character. The parts in Austria are gorgeous. The story sort of goes occasionally 'off-piste' like the parts about fatherhood but this killed time nicely.

I typically gravitate towards European crime thrillers but The Team left me cold.

The key reason is the so called team are in fact dispirit groups in different nations, who mostly only come together remotely. Its disconcerting, undermining the possibility of any real group cohesion and chemistry between the cast.

Worse still, this approach makes the story hard to follow, constantly breaking up the flow, as it hops, in jarring fashion, between peace meal teams in different countries and geographic locations.

On the upside the acting is reasonable but I found the characterisations a bit clinical and matter of fact. The story is a good one once you get to grips with it but it takes real effort to follow along.

In summary I wanted to like The Team but the core concept is, in my view, flawed, creating issues I don't feel can really be remedied. 5/10.