Moscou noir

After watching Young Wallander on Netflix, I was in the mood for more Scandi TV and found this on All 4. Yet again, Adam Palsson plays the protagonist and he's easy on the eye and better in this than YW. A strong supporting cast and excellent production values lift this twisty thriller set in the world of high finance, above the usual potboiler and it's quite gripping in parts. It does get a little convoluted as it goes along but it's still entertaining enough. I can see comparisons being made with "McMafia" but this is not in the same league. The theme music and titles are awesome!

For the most part, a taut and evenly paced thriller that works on many levels.

Yet it suffers from one big flaw - the central premise is a money making scam that isn't quite believable, or else it's not nearly well enough explained.

Adam Palsson may not be everyone's choice of lead actor either. He has been blessed with one handsome and enigmatic expression ... eyes and eyebrows straight out of the Roger Moore School of Acting. But should it be a look that suits every mood and occasion?

Add to these misgivings the feeling that the ending dragged on a bit, and you are left with something that fails to reach its full potential, but is still entertaining. - 7.6/10

This Swedish series is set in Moscow at the turn of the Twenty First Century. Swede Tom Blixen works as an investment banker for an international company. When his friend's wife, Olga Ukolova, tells him they are having financial problems he agrees to look through their investments and see if there are any of any value. Most of their shares are worthless but there is a possibility; Tom thinks some apparently worthless oil shares might have some value. He tries to acquire the other shares he can find hoping to arrange a merger with another oil company... soon shareholders are starting to be murdered. As the story continues we are taken deeper into a world of dangerous oligarchs, corrupt politicians and learn more about why Tom came to Russia in the first place.

I really enjoyed this tense thriller. It might not be the first to explore the murky world of Russian business; 'McMafia' explored similar territory as did the film 'Gorky Park', which was set in the Soviet era; but it still had plenty of original ideas. Once the action started, in the first episode, there was constant tension which managed to increase as the story approached its conclusion. The cast did a fine job; most notably Adam Pålsson, who played Tom; Karolina Gruszka, who played Olga; and Georg Nikoloff, who played Prosecutor Dmitri Skurov. As the conclusion approaches there are some twists and nice misdirection. Overall I'd recommend this series to fans of the genre.

The presentation and building up of the plot and characters is indeed promising. Sadly it fades out into solutions that both are too obvious as they also try to keep up a complexity where the aspects revealed become exaggerated. Still, the play is kept in a mellow mood in an effort to maintain realism, and many characters are credible, though the plot developes away from credibility, and rather far into a slow emotional drama. This way much of the thriller feeling is lost. Several actors do a brilliant job, some of the extras not, and it's always gratifying to experience a well-balanced soundtrack.

This series has surprising turns all the time, exactly how a good tv-series should be. Highly recommended.