Assassinato do Primeiro-Ministro

If this shows us one thing, that it is impossible to trust eye witnesses. At least you should question most of them - so best way to know for sure is surveilance? Do we really want every inch of this planet to be filmed at all times? It would solve certain questions and problems ... on the other hand, forget about privace, not to mention that even that wouldn't be something that you could trust entirely (with hackers and software that can alter video footage and so forth).

All that aside (conspiracies be damned), the show goes on to bring us close to a murder mystery that some still may feel is not entirely solved. The main thing missing is the why - although if you google the case, you may be able to find an answer to that. But also just if you believe what this show is based on. It may be the most likely case (no pun intended) of what occured back then ... but who really knows? Still this is quite the intriguing if very slow burning retelling of what happened ... something that will excite certain people and not be enough for others.

The actors are great in this - and the subtle treatment works most of the time. You may feel like certain things are pointless, but such is life ... (un)like it or not.

An interesting true crime story and a good job bringing it to life. The characters were well acted and the storyline flowed easily. Toward the end it gets a bit cluttered with multiple time lines being developed, but it works out.

I was working in nearby Denmark when Palme was murdered. I'm not an expert at all but I have followed the news coverage of case then and all along.

I think the Swedish authorities and Swedish and general European press were caught up in the same kind of cognitive bias as occurred with Oswald, which was the core of fueling the conspiracy theories. To wit: How could Engstrom, this meaningless, pipsqueek, this nebbish, be the mover of such a large effect event? In the case of Oswald the evidence was so overwhelming. In the case of Engström the evidence was ignored because the press and much of the Swedish authorities were looking for a conspiracy. (It turns out to not be even poltical at all.) One would think the Nordic press would be staid and sober but the investigative journalists there were pumping every wild conspiracy theory including the absurd idea that the CIA was responsible. And the guy who was there, on the scene, had known access to handguns (rifles are/were common in Scandavian countries but pistols were NOT). He did not have an credible alibi. And he had a motive (a lifetime of insignificance and now being famous/hero).

I brought up Richard Jewel (falsely accused by FBI of 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing) , whom the US FBI destroyed, vilifying even after they knew he was innocent, because that was the opposite wing of the pendulum on the nebbish perpetrator. Jewel (like Engstrom) did have some inconsistences in his story, but those were from FBI high pressure, an unethical tactics with the problem ridden Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno wanting to close up the case without regard to doing it right. In that case FBI "profiling", which has failed countless times, including spectacularly during Unibomber, fit Jewel perfectly (and incorrectly) as a nebbish guy. Even though all the remaining evidence indicated he was innocent.

"The Unlikely Murderer" touches upon some of the most glaring screw-ups by the Swedish Authorities, but in my view does not do so nearly enough. This was a grand decades long sustained investigative cluster#&!k. Event the title is ironic, since, with the evidence Swedish authorities had within weeks of Palme's killing, it was clear that Engstom was NOT an "unlikely" assassin at all but quite likely

As a TV min-series I give this 5/10 as it is pretty mediocre and while critical, not nearly critical enough, of the Keystone cops running the successive investigations. Overall the pacing seems to contain a lot of filler and this could have been done in half the amount of screen time.

I am sure I will be marked as "unhelpful" by the conspiracy theorists still clinging to the disinformation spread by the KGB (and acknowledged as KGB generated nonsense by defectors), but there is no convincing of some people.

Its more of a personal portrait than a thriller. A depressing portrait. The disastrous police investigation was mostly shown in the first parts of the series.

The hypothesis is not bad and Engström is clearly someone the police should have investigated further - but ignored. However...the explanations - the constant insinuations the creators have given Engström to enigmatically mumble from time to time - feels somewhat forced a lot of times. Every one of Engströms odd behaviors that is presented to the viewer and that tells you why he had the motivation and did the murderer, can easily just explain that he did and said all the contradictions just because he wanted some attention. Add the alcohol problems and the results will probably be confusing. It could have gone either way and we will never know.

To sum up - decent theory but not convincing.

I do appreciate that they at least informed viewers at the beginning of each episode that this crime is still unsolved. I also like how they captured the time-period: Things like clothing, cars, and architecture feels really true to the mid-1980s Sweden. Robert Gustafsson's performance is also really solid, even if the writing of his character (Engström) is not really in line with how most people in his close proximity described him in real life.

Now, I feel like I need be honest. You see, when it comes to the murder of Palme, I'm a bit of a nerd. I've gone through some of the material revolving the investigation and I've even read the book of which this series is based on. With that being said, I was quite shocked when I saw how poorly this series re-enacts the actual murder. For someone who is at least somewhat well-informed, there are fatal mistakes to be found everywhere. Several witnesses being placed in entirely wrong places, the murderer running on the opposite side of a street, the size of the weapon, plenty of accounts that are totally ignored. I can go on and on.

It is abundantly clear that the people who directed/filmed this didn't do their research and it begs the question; why would you try to present this as a credible and legitimate theory if you're not going to pay any attention to many of the most fundamental facts? Personally, I'm not a believer in the theory presented but I still liked the idea of being able to immerse yourself in it though a tv-series. But it turned out near impossible to take any of it seriously due to the sloppy execution...

4/10.