The Team

OK, it isn't Borgen, The Killing or The Bridge, nor even as good as Salamander. I had pretty high expectations and it just about met them despite considerable adversity: 1. the program had Danish subtitles which is of no use to me 2. the main languages employed are Danish, Flemish and German - none of which I understand. There is a bit of French but I only get a bit of that. Some Lithuanian 3. when the Team (detectives from Denmark, Belgium and Germany) and also the bad guys speak to each they often have to use English - Hurrah! 4. my wife was able to interpret most of the German dialogue with a lot of rewinding. Under such circumstances we nearly gave up on this but we persevered and am glad we did so. If you think you can cope with that then give it a go. It has a reasonably good plot with one or two unnecessary red-herrings. It is pretty good in my opinion!

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.

Two episodes into season #2 I was fast forwarding constantly because I found it dragging horribly ... but was curious about the outcome. Sometimes it's hard to look away from a car crash as they say ...and season #2 was certainly that. Awfully cliched characters and some pretty hard to believe police procedural work.

The casting is quite ok for the series, so that is a plus. The story for the first season is doing way more twists than the one for the second season, which seems to crumble under the burden of the message concerning the civil war in Syria. What is a bit sad about the production is that despite the international setup of the team, they never use the local language with subtitles. There are no communication issues between any members of the international team, nor are there any cultural differences leading to problems. Now the second season is a mess, since that season wants to unwrap all the issues related with the civil war in Syria - including the IS (in the series called caliphate union), cultural heritage, torture and the funding of terrorism. What was the worst is that more than once the members of the team go off by their own and endanger their lives. Also when they are going to arrest people, they never seem to be able to secure the back of a building as well, which makes the premise of an international team of top police people a ridiculous premise.

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.