Modus

IMO, Season 2 was much better than Season 1. If I were to rate each season separately, Season 1 would rate a 5-6, and Season 2 would be an 8. So, if you are OK with the first season, hang in there for the second and you'll be rewarded.

This doesn't meet the higher standards I'm used to in watching Scandinavian shows (The Bridge, The Killing, Borgen, etc.). Frankly, it comes across as a a more lazy American version. Too bad.

So many good detective shows coming from Scandinavia -- this is not one of them. It's way too long for the minuscule plot, which has constant and weird holes throughout. The lead actress is absurdly bad -- she only seems to have three facial expressions, all of which are rather unpleasant. The southern American accents are ridiculously wrong. The lead character is supposed to be a brilliant profiler but she's lame beyond belief -- her comment when seeing a CEO with a portrait of his grandfather rather than his father in his office is that the man must love his grandfather more than his father -- um, right. Finally, the series ending is quite possibly the silliest and the most predictable in tv show history. The reason this monstrosity is worth two stars instead of one is that the two young girls who play the lead's daughters are excellent -- they totally upstage the adults. But that's not enough to waste so many hours of your life on sub-standard tv.

This series is so bad it's hilarious. It's one of the worst written, poorly acted series I've seen for some time. The person who wrote this has absolutely no idea how actual police procedures work. Almost everything the police do here is something that would never happen. The male lead detective goes through the whole series like he's stoned. He's barely alive he's so laid back and slow moving. And he does no detecting whatsoever. He just seems to be there to give the female lead a ride home and gets phone calls from all the people actually doing some work. And if you want to hear some atrocious American accents, watch this show. Even the minor details are ludicrous, like the female lead driving a car she has to hotwire to start. By the 5th episode we were watching this just to see how many stupid, ridiculous things happen (it's almost every scene).

With the explosive blooming of Scandi Noir, this decade has seen several dozens of thrilling series where something bad is developed and solved/removed using suspense and uneasiness... Some concepts and approached are distinct, the others not, and even in a relatively big country like Sweden, there are many recurring actors-actresses having bigger or smaller roles in various thrillers, including here, that it takes some time to get used to it. Well, most performers are good at least, but in Modus, it often seemed that the leading characters or performances were more static and trivial that many supporting ones, Melinda Kinnaman and Henrik Norlén did not impress me too much.

As for the plot and it's entertainment level, Modus had a few twists only, and the basic reasons for the wrongdoer's actions were revealed too soon, with some excessive moralisation, and the gay topic was over- exploited in this context. The police work was oddly weak, the killer of foreign origin could easily advance openly, paving the way for protracted scenes and unnecessary cast. But still, the general atmosphere was OK - probably for those having some knowledge of Scandinavian way of living and attitudes; I can hardly imagine that the series in question could be an interesting fellow to viewers outside Nothern Europe.