Bordertown

Watching Season 1 of this Finnish detective series was a wonderful breath of fresh air. Intelligent and progressive characters, story lines, cinematography and script; what a pleasure.

Season 2 however is quite disappointing, the teenage daughters of two of the main detectives are involved in far too many hectic violent cases, even though they had had already been involved in traumatic violent cases in the first series. This is far too unrealistic, unlikely and unnecessary. In addition, although the two detectives move heaven and earth to save their children, the teenage daughters demonstrate no gratitude or love, only anger, and become extremely frustrating to watch. Is this a crime/police series or a teen drama. I can only wonder what happened to the intelligent and thoughtful story lines of the previous series.

I just finished the first case (first 3 episodes) and I just had to write a review for this show! Its amazing and I'm so happy Netflix decided to buy it. I live in The Netherlands so foreign TV shows rarely air here. It's mostly the Swedish crime dramas that air. It's refreshing to see Finland join in on the fun.

This show looks and sounds amazing, great music as well! The characters are great and the acting is on point. A very professional presentation here that makes American shows look like a kids game. If you haven't given this show a thought or a try, please do! I'm completely hooked and pray they make a season 2!

Bordertown features Ville Virtanen as Det. Kari Sorjonen in an engaging performance along with his underlings Niko and Lena (in a compelling role as well). Original and unpredictable plots keep the show riveting from one episode to the next. What doesn't work so well is Kari and Lena's annoying teenage daughters who create one problem after another with their stubborn idiocy. Kari's wife Paulina's subplots are not that interesting (though they eventually pay off), while both her and her daughter Janina inexplicably gripe constantly about Kari's dedication to his work (i.e. saving lives). You begin to dread every time he comes home because you know they're going to give him a load of attitude. As with the other great Finnish Noir series, Deadwind (aka Karppi), you wish the detectives were single and childless. Maybe there's a common perception in Finland that teenage daughters are unbearably full of crap, but it's esp. distracting in Bordertown which is otherwise excellent.

Another review noted that Netflix has dubbed season two. Change the language back to finnish with english subtitles. Much better. Very good show.

A juggernaut of unfolding story lines, relationships and cinematography. Excellent script with a series of independent stories that the main characters develop their ongoing stories and provide their back stories with every subsequent episode. This series is appropriately rated MA with full female and male nudity so if that offends you look elsewhere. If reading subtitles are a issue then this isn't the series for you either.

But if you enjoy a suspense building drama crime series with excellent cinematography and excellent use of music to build tension and horror then don't pass this series up. 9 out of 10 for me.