Rebecka Martinsson

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.

The atmosphere and ambient of gloomy but astonishing Norther part of Sweden, has been achieved fully. Thats why I watched this show. Also, minimalist, but still very compact police station crew is excellent. The main inspector, Ana-Maria Mella, local with three kids at home, but still with all skills necessary for the police inspector, is a brilliant character. The other supporting characters, who all don't talk much, but say whats necessary, are all well done. The only real misfit, for completely unknown reason, badly written and poorly conceptualized character is the lead character - Rebecka Martinsson, who is wage and unclear from the beginning, but still not a mysterious at all. It seems she is a girl who has everything, a spoiled, educated, rich, who simply despises everything due to some traumas from early life, and finds her fulfillment in solving murders . However, we don't see why and how someone who had lost her parents early in life, and had to struggle heavily to achieve something, would behave like a spoiled careless diva, who wonders around and does what pleases her. Also, nobody understands how all of a sudden a corporate layer age 28 can become a chief criminal prosecutor, and how come she is qualified for that. It seems that her character is simply badly written and badly incorporated in the plot. Also, the acting in itself fails in this cases - no charisma, no chemistry at all between the actress and her role. In general, good show, with a wrong lead character. The authors should think about it.

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.

The teasers before the title credits got me interested each time and how each story played out kept my interest. The characters were given real depth and quirks - Some of them are shown to be quite imperfect and therefore very human. I really like the format of 4 x 90 minute contained stories. Afterwards, I found myself looking up several of the cast member's back catalogue and that's always a good thing. Quality stuff.

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.