It disturbed me a little a few years ago when the whole Scandinavian
crime book wave swept the genre. There
were a whole bunch of them suddenly, crowding out my vested interest in British
and North American fare. I’m not sure I
have them in the right order, but with books and films came two different
Wallanders and a Martin Beck. They, and
others from the cold corner of the planet climbed the charts. Then, at an
insurmountable peak, there was that woman with the tattoo. Just how much fascinating crime fiction could
a relatively small country like Sweden produce?
Turns out, quite a bit.
I imagine that many of you are way ahead of me here, but if you’ve
somehow neglected to watch Annika
Bengtzon: Crime Reporter and Johan
Falk, both Swedish imports, go back and take a look. In addition to the
country of origin, they have quite a bit in common — high production values, an
evolving but not intrusive backstory and a thriller rather than who-done-it
structure.
Annika, Malin Crépin, is a devoted reporter, perhaps
too devoted, who will do nearly anything to get the story before her
competitors. Her marriage is on the rocks
and her husband, no saint, tries to make the case that the children deserve a
more devoted mother. The cracks in her
character add to the realism of the drama.
And we can choose whether her obsession with the cases she investigates
is based on mental deficit, pursuit of justice or empathy for the victims. What
this reminds us is how similar an investigative reporter is to a private
investigator. Both have professions that allow them some special access, but no
real authority and both seem to have a confrontational relationship with
authority. The series is based on novels by Liza Marklund.
Johan Falk, Jacob
Eklund, is another in a line of
seemingly thousands of troubled ex-cops as protagonists. He believes in good
and evil and is generally demoralized by the corruption of the judicial system
and, personally, how the system has treated him. As we meet this specially trained tough guy,
he is a member of the police force, but things change during the course of this
exceptionally, deceptively smart series. The good thing here is that we don’t
just have clash of good and evil, we are exposed to and scared of just how evil
the world might be in stories we wish we couldn’t believe.
While Annika, the crime reporter, can handle herself with a gun,
or a crowbar if necessary, Falk is the more, beat’em up, shoot’em up, car-chase,
explosion-oriented series for those who like that sort of thing. And I do. There are several episodes in each
series and more to come.
It is said that Sweden has become more European in its
tastes, so recommending a fine wine accompaniment for the evening wouldn’t be
wrong. However, vodka is still the
national drink. You might want to skip
Russian vodka for the evening, or forever, and enjoy the Vodka from Sweden — Absolut.
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