Anno 1790

As a Swede, growing up with Swedish TV, I am not easily impressed with anything Swedish. It always seemed too theatrical, with lines delivered as if from a stage, with voices and gestures that didn't fit the TV format.

There is still a tiny bit of that present here, but this series proves that we are on the right way, big time! The main character is played by Peter Eggers, who has great presence, reminding me of actors like Ralph Fiennes and Michael Fassbender, because of his looks and fine acting. The rest of the basic cast is very accomplished as well.

The show itself is a detective story set in 1790, with one case solved each episode, but there is also an underlying political drama, and a love story, that stretches over all the episodes. It made me think of the Murdoch Mysteries.

Meny prominent Swedish actors are guesting; I have to mention Thorsten Flinck and Jessica Zandén. Both gave vibrant and scene-stealing performances.

The visual production is top notch; exterior, interior, costume, hair - yep, it looks pretty damn good:) I was seduced, I hope you will be too!

This is a quiet and unheralded series that ostensibly is a police procedural albeit placed in the Enlightenment. But production values, acting, script and direction are all first-rate, truly stunning.

A historical detective story. The author of this review came across this series even when he was a seller of the Soyuz store chain, to which DVDs with the desired series were quite often brought, and in good packaging and for a relatively good price (and even now you can buy it in your collection). At that time, he was not interested in this series except for the country of production - namely, the Swedish Kingdom. And so, after more than ten years, the author of this review remembered about this series and decided to watch it, because it is necessary to learn Swedish cinema, at least for the sake of cultural enlightenment. And the viewing as a whole left a good impression. And here is a brief opinion - A good Swedish historical detective. The series has both advantages and disadvantages (where without them), so you should finish such an important introduction and begin to analyze this work of Swedish cinema.

So, the advantages: 1. Scenario - the doctor of the Swedish Royal Navy, Johan Gustav Dod, returns to civilian life after the Russian-Swedish war of 1788-1790. By chance, he finds himself involved in the investigation of a criminal case in Stockholm, having successfully resolved it, he, unwittingly, is appointed the district commissioner of Stockholm, who is favored by the chief of police, but who is now hated by another applicant for this position - namely, the head of the prison, the cruel official Nordin. Now the new district commissioner will have to guard peace on the streets of Stockholm and investigate complicated crimes and maneuver between law and justice, beliefs and oath to the king, love and duty. His faithful assistant Freund will help him in this. Over the course of ten episodes, we are waiting for murders, assassination attempts, domestic strife and much more. And often the victims were worthy of death. At the same time, against the background of these very investigations, the very life of Dod and his entourage will go on, and in fact they are all very colorful characters. They may be slightly caricatured, but that doesn't make them boring. The ending is somewhat predictable, and ends in an interesting place, without going into details about the fate of both Dod and the rest of the characters (this is sad, because it was interesting to watch all of them). It seems that the audience's interest subsided by the end of the first season, so they decided not to renew the series.

2. Historical entourage - the picture takes place in 1790 and in the Swedish kingdom, which is ruled by the monarch Gustav III, not the most popular and beloved by the people, ordinary people, as well as the army, navy and some of the nobility are dissatisfied with the military adventures of the king and his eccentricity. In addition, the ideas of the First French Bourgeois Revolution penetrated into Sweden (as well as throughout Europe), which could not but affect the minds of those dissatisfied with the royal power. Johan Dod himself adheres to the ideas of revolutionaries, but due to duty he is forced to support the royal power and fight against all the discontented. This could not but affect his state of mind and work. In addition to revolutionaries, the film also shows the attitude towards women, Finns - they are second-class people, and showing executions to children is considered the norm. In general, at this point, the creators of the series have tried very hard, and for this they deserve praise.

3. Costumes and decorations - the costumes are made quite well and largely correspond to the era (they did not cause any complaints, and if there are minor or not very minor mistakes, then historians will correct them in the comments). The decorations are not bad either, but it is clear that in most cases it was a pavilion.

So, the disadvantages: 1. Excessive physiological details - that's why every modern TV series or a work of cinema is simply obliged to show human physiology in all its details? Is it really that important? It just looks disgusting here (and in the vast majority of cases). Why would you do that?

2. A simple detective story - of course, it would be foolish to expect an Agatha Christie-level script from a budget series, but in the end it turned out to be a rather primitive detective story. Almost always, the solution is at the very beginning of the series, and the killer is even easier to figure out. But, despite the primitive, the third, fourth and fifth series were successful. Charismatic villains and the general atmosphere caught on there. But the rest of the series cannot boast of this.

3. Budget - the series is budget-friendly, and it shows. We are almost always waiting for dialogues and a few tense moments. Transitions between scenes are generally made in the form of a panorama of Stockholm. This is sad, because Swedish cinema generally pleases us infrequently, but here it has its own atmosphere and an interesting era, and so little money has been allocated for this? What did the creators expect then? It will remain a mystery.

The actors, in general, played well. Peter Eggers as Johan Dod, Juel Spirra as Freund, Rickard Turpin as Nordin, Linda Zilliacus as Magdalena Wallstedt and so on. It's clear that people didn't care on the set. Nowadays, this is already an incredible achievement!

This series is unique, although quite simple, but definitely deserves your attention due to the country of origin and historical surroundings. But without revelations, and the romantic line is rather weak and strained.

A score of 7 out of 10 and a recommendation to watch!

Although the events happening in the end of 18th century are distinctive and unconventional - with good overview of life in Eastern Sweden then - most of the scripts (10 episodes, in a logical sequence, but still 10 different crimes) are rather tedious, and due to the natural lack of novel techniques and devices, attentiveness and "wild guesses" are the main successes in solving crimes. In some cases, you can guess the offender easily, and the inclusion of outsiders / supporting characters does not provide any additional value. Thus, all the episodes could have been shorter, max 45 minutes instead of almost an 1 hour.

As for acting, I found it good that different actors as usual were employed, but - apart from Linda Zilliacus as Magdalena Wahlstedt - there were no strong performances, no character actors as e.g. Peter Stormare, Mikael Persbrandt, or Rolf Lassgaard. But still, for a change, Anno 1790 can be regarded as a different approach, and there are lots of Becks and Wallanders anyway already :)

Captures the struggle of fairness in justice, women equality, and the unavoidable power of romantic love.

The sense of balance of the main characters made the story interesting, different from other TV series of the same kind.

The leading actor is captivating, not allowing you to loose detail.