Springfloden

I binge watched season 2 (10 episodes) in just one sitting (!), something that I've never done before. The second season of ''Springfloden'' is based on the second novel in the Rönning/Stilton series, written by the Swedish duo of Cilla and Rolf Börjlind with the title ''The Third Voice''. The two Swedish authors are well-known for their scriptwriting for a number of Nordic Noir television series such as ''Beck'', ''Wallander'' (the Swedish edition with K. Henrikssen), ''Arne Dahl'' and ''Graven''. I've already read the book so I knew what to expect in terms of story and plot but nevertheless the series had a profound effect on me, thus I found myself unable to stop watching it. Julia Ragnarsson and Kjell Bergqvist both deliver strong performances in the primary roles and the same is true for the actors in the secondary ones, especially Dar Salim (Abbas), Cecilia Nilsson (Mette) and Johan Widerberg in the role of wayward police informant Minken. The episodes are short in terms of length (around 40 minutes each) and the plot moves forward in a rather fast pace leading to the final two episodes where the whole truth about the two cases, one in Marseilles and one in Stockholm, is revealed to the viewer. I found the final twists rather satisfying, something rare for every seasoned crime fiction fanatic, and overall I can say that the second season of ''Springfloden'' is worthy of the attention of all Nordic Noir enthusiasts around the globe.

After a couple of episodes I'm really enjoying this series. There are some interesting lively characters, a great mystery & fascinating plot lines. Cinematography is good, nice production values, good acting and the subtitles flow without feeling stilted or intrusive. The lead female is stunningly pretty (almost distractingly & unrealistically so) but contrasts nicely with all the truly scruffy, realistically unattractive blokes around her LOL On the down side, it all seems a little disjointed but I suspect that will lessen later as the story unfolds and disparate story lines are drawn together. I will return to this review when I've finished the series & update it but I saw there was only 1 review for this intriguing show and thought it deserved more. Unlike the other reviewer, I am not a fan of True Detective and don't find it a "benchmark" for anything other than how NOT to make a mystery, crime series. But both of us seem to think this series is good so I guess that in itself speaks volumes for the show! Give it a whirl. If you're not afraid of subtitles it is well worth it.

While not as polished and gripping as the best police dramas out there (with the first series of True Detective as the category benchmark), Springfloden does a good job in most of the departments.

The very beautiful Olivia is a Swedish police academy student who stumbles by chance on an old unsolved murder case that obsessed her father - the detective investigating on it - up until his death. Of course she can't resist the lure of this mystery and embarks herself on an unofficial investigation that will bring a lot of surprises and messes all around Sweden.

The writing and the side stories are well crafted and interestingly enough deal with social issues in developed countries (homeless, children without an economically stable/culturally evolved family). There's also some room for slightly humorous moments that in my opinion just add up points to the realistic tone of the drama.

As a whole I could find very few holes in how the pieces got connected together, yet for some reason or another I couldn't suspend the disbelief: most of the time everything was clearly part of an acted TV fiction. This might be due to the depth of the backstories of the characters we get to know which barely comes to the surface when these characters act. However It's hard to say this is any specific actor's fault (at least the leads showed a proper range): I would instead point the finger to the writing (which may have tried too hard to include cool stuff) or to the direction (which possibly wasn't able to capture the complexity of the characters in an expressive way).

This said Springfloden is a series you can't miss if you are into detective stories because it's more realistic and better executed than the 90% of the genre's other incarnations.

My wife and I just finished Season 1. It was wonderful: well-acted with a gradual unfolding of information and clues that finally allow the police to solve the murders in Episode 10. Unlike many series where there is obvious padding to fill up some of the episodes, every episode is important. This is one of the best series we've watched recently.

Had to score down for some glaring little plot holes, otherwise a very well thought out, acted and unique mini-series.