The Team

Ok, don't take the plot too seriously but overall it is better than anything the UK is turning out these days. If you like Scandi drama, then you should like this.

OK, it isn't Borgen, The Killing or The Bridge, nor even as good as Salamander. I had pretty high expectations and it just about met them despite considerable adversity: 1. the program had Danish subtitles which is of no use to me 2. the main languages employed are Danish, Flemish and German - none of which I understand. There is a bit of French but I only get a bit of that. Some Lithuanian 3. when the Team (detectives from Denmark, Belgium and Germany) and also the bad guys speak to each they often have to use English - Hurrah! 4. my wife was able to interpret most of the German dialogue with a lot of rewinding. Under such circumstances we nearly gave up on this but we persevered and am glad we did so. If you think you can cope with that then give it a go. It has a reasonably good plot with one or two unnecessary red-herrings. It is pretty good in my opinion!

Two episodes into season #2 I was fast forwarding constantly because I found it dragging horribly ... but was curious about the outcome. Sometimes it's hard to look away from a car crash as they say ...and season #2 was certainly that. Awfully cliched characters and some pretty hard to believe police procedural work.

Very watchable European cop drama. Lars is just Lars very solid and dependable. I really like the Mary Bach Hansen but not so the Jackie one! Does Lars jump into the sack with Jackie or stay with his wife and newborn, have to watch and see! I shall take a break before trying the second series but from what I have read it basically is different!

I've wanted to watch this for a while since I'm a fan of Lars Mikklesen's work and love European crime dramas, and have travelled extensively in Belgium and Germany. The first season has a great plot, fascinating characters, believable plotline (to the degree its possible) and is very enjoyable. The second has some great actors (totally different teams, no story overlap) and some compelling elements but the story is ultimately filled with problematic and questionable decisions which, without revealing too much, leaves it far less of a satisfying watch despite some great dramatic scenes. Watch the first one it's a gripping story in many ways, but think twice about the second. I'd rate the first one 7/10 and the second 5/10. It's still watchable but there are too many moments of "why didn't they...?" to make it a truly believable scenario. I suspect the relative "failure" of the second season would've been why they chose not to continue with this interesting joint venture between the group of Danish, German, Belgian (and Austrian) collaborators on this project.