Paratiisi

The show would've been a lot more enjoyable if the English subtitles weren't so incredibly bad. Terrible grammar, really awkward phrasing and badly chosen vocabulary made them excruciating to read.

I was so pleased to see this series back for a second season, which I have just finished watching. All the old characters were back and a completely new storyline.

Fortunately, I was watching a version subtitled into English for all three languages used. On the face of things, it seemed an odd combination to have Finland and Spain in the same series yet it worked. But the Costa del Sol is teeming with Finns - three Finnish friends of mine have holiday homes there. We got a glimpse into this community during the two seasons.

Both storylines hooked me in. This was a series to be consumed at a pace to find out what would happen next. And the tension was unbearable sometimes. We knew that one of the main characters was going to be shot at some point but the lead up to it was pretty unbearable. It's a huge cliffhanger, of course. So we are looking forward to season three. I can't wait.

Great story line, acting & scenery. Surprise ending. Kept me engaged the entire time. Interesting having the 3 languages. Not hard to follow at all. Fell in love with the main characters after the 3rd episode. Is there a season 2, I hope so.

Paratiisi is fun to watch. It is something as rare as a crimer series that feels contemporary. It is a trilingual series (Spanish, English, Finnish) with a lot of border crossing cooperation and people. The actors actually feel like normal people. Some will like that, others will not. Most of the series takes place in southern Spain, in the interplay between expat community and police in the city of Fuengirola.

The actual story is a rather unoriginal murder plot taking many turns. Not all the turns feel reaslitic and the end is not the best. The police investigators are far from superstars, even less than glamorous. There is also some added, seemingly redundant, storyline concerning dementia. Still the overall impression is Paratiisi is a solid 8x45 min piece crime series fitting well with the modern world.

Not bad Finnish-Spanish cooperation at all, with intertwining relations between several Finns and Spaniards... No fierce action and even the Spanish side is "calmer" than usual - evidently the Finnish influence :)

The script is also OK, I did not guess the wrongdoer, but the performances are not too memorable, I presume with B-grade performers as I am unable to recall any of the actors-actresses involved here from some other series. There are some excessive storylines and characters decelerating and confusing the general pace, but they are not annoying; the only thing I can consider annoying is listening to the English spoken by the Finns - their constant non-use of sibilants is so contrastive :)

But in general, as mentioned, rather good, definitely no waste of time.