Annika

How badly does this show want to be Scandi Noir? Let us count the ways…

Moody theme music – however throwing some random words together and seen them in a breath of voice to ethereal keyboards does not a classic theme make. Remember the theme to the original language version of Wallander? That was a proper song the actual lyrics sung by an established and talented artist (and still one of my favourite pieces of sublime and relaxing music).

Character names – let’s make the main character of Norwegian origin and also use Nordic names for some of the supporting cast even if they don’t have a family connection (looking at you Ingrid). Oh, and let’s send one of the supporting cast off to a “conference” in Norway for no apparent reason.

Dysfunctional families – although to be fair every hard-boiled detective has to have a messed up relationship and to be a estranged from at least one significant family member!

Literary references – our hero must be well red and make as many classical references as possible as a substitute for having proper relationships.

Getting kind of dark – so our series finale involves a (rather unconvincing) criminal mastermind, child abduction and the lingering threat that our lovely Lakeside Home might go up in flames.

And now let’s consider the flaws and features that the show develops all by itself…

Identical plots – every episode we have a water themed murder and a single person of interest who introduces us to be series of other involved characters, at least one of whom will run when confronted by the police but we’ll be easily captured after a sub comedic moment. Oh, and this person is never the one that did it, that role will be filled by a peripheral character that we met in passing earlier on.

The premise strained to the limit - the conceit of the show is that there are both a sufficient number of murders and that they are of an special complexity that a homicide unit is created to deal with water related crime. So in this series we find bodies in lochs, firths, rivers, blocks of ice, at least convincingly of all, a large fish tank. Not only that but a surprisingly large number of suspects live in locations that are easily visited by water and even completely arbitrary meeting points can be accessed by the SWAT team riding in a boat (obviously paid a lot to get that RIB tricked out in police colours so they might as well make the most use of it).

The soap opera sub-plots – long buried family secrets that might tear apart not one but two families! When will they be revealed and what will happen?

Having said that, I really quite like this. Indeed, I was more invested in the soap opera plot than the rather by-the-numbers murder mystery. I also like the way that mid-season a character gets promoted and disappears and another character quite closely appears from an earlier episode to take their place. I like the dynamic between all the main characters, the banter was witty and the pieces to camera improved even from the first season. First time around we got the complete in a monologue, second time Annika was often able to communicate everything that we the audience needed to know about her in a turmoil with just a particular look direct at the audience, quite a nice piece of acting.

I didn’t like the ending, the criminal mastermind came across like a second right pub comic yet the underlying threat was nasty and unsettling. I’m quite jarring against the happy resolution of the family drama and Annika’s personal relationships. I didn’t really want to know what happened after that point and I guess the commissioning producers didn’t either as far as I’m aware there was no third season yet.

Even so, this was a fun watch and worth your time if you ever have a few hours to spare and want to binge on something just a little bit different.