Rebecka Martinsson

British police procedural(s) get pretty predictable after awhile. So I try Rebecka Martinsson and I really liked it a lot. Being minimalist in concept, scenery, dialogue, and acting is refreshing after the endless chattiness of the Brit shows. I agree with other reviewers that the actress who plays character Maria Mella (Eva Melander) is the acting class must watch BUT I thought Ida Engvoll was excellent. All the details concerning her back story are a bit irrelevant since the episodes don't really hinge on those (much). Sweden (in this series) looks cold, brooding, a bit mysterious (diving for Nazi plane?) and beautiful and that also describes Rebecka Martinsson. Engvoll correctly underplays her character a bit instead of overplaying it, like so many of the British coppers do. Hope there is a season 2.

This eight episode series, made up of four two part stories, follows Stockholm lawyer Rebecka Martinsson, who returns to her home town in Sweden's far north after the death of somebody she knew as a child. Initially it looks as though the woman, the local vicar, died in an accident but evidence soon suggests otherwise. Rebecka gets involved in the investigation, sometimes going beyond what is strictly legal. Various suspects arise but when the killer is identified it comes as a surprise and leads to a tragic conclusion to the first story. After the series opener Rebecka is offered a job working as a local prosecutor before her planned move back to Stockholm in the summer. Further stories involve the murder of a woman connected to a local mining company; the death of two divers exploring a Nazi aircraft and the murder of a woman whose family has suffered a number of tragic 'accidents'.

In some ways this is a fairly traditional murder mystery series with its distinct stories that are wrapped up in two hours; however the events of one episode do have effects on characters that last beyond that story. There are also some fairly dark moments that will shock anybody expecting a Swedish 'Midsomer Murders'. Ida Engvoll does a fine job as our eponymous heroine making her believable even when she was breaking rules. Rebecka may be the title character but there are others who are almost as important; most notably police woman Anna Maria Mella and dog handler Krister Eriksson; Eva Melander and Jakob Öhrman impress in these roles. There is plenty of great scenery to be seen without it feeling like it is being shown just to show us how beautiful the area is. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of Scandinavian drama who are looking for shorter stories than most such series that have aired here in the UK. I hope there is a second season.

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

Overall, I enjoyed this addition to the Scandi Noir TV cannon. The character of Rebecka Martinsson has so much promise. Sadly, this promise did not seem to be fully embraced by Ida Engvoll. Of course, this may be because Ida Engvoll chose to deliberately hold back her portrayal of Rebecka in order to reveal more about her character in a potential second series. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have seen at least hints of a more rounded Rebecka in the first series.

The true strength in this Scandinavian drama, apart from the lovely scenery, lies with the supporting characters. In particular, the very capable and very human police officer Anna Maria Mella, Rebecka's potential love interest and police dog handler Krister Eriksson and her kindly elderly male neighbour Sivving Fjallborg.

I do hope there will be a second series. The first certainly created enough interest in the characters to care about how they develop.

Watched this series on the Acorn streaming service. Even with the subtitles I was surprised at how good a show it is. Some of the scenes are hard to take. This show was much better that anything on air here in the US. Highly recommend.

First episode didn't foretell just how interesting this series would become. Very dull first episode with weak cliffhanger ending. BUT, after that, the interest level of the stories really picked up for me. I almost didn't stick with this one, but glad I gave it a chance.

8 episodes are each 2-parters and self-contained stories with ongoing characters and some slight overlap for all 8

Hope to see a season 2, with possibly more suspense and thrills.