If you get the chance to watch the Swedish version of Wallander, don't

[Joe Chi Minh]

miss it. It's brilliant.

Two or three weeks ago I said to my wife, "That young side-kick of Wallander (Stefan) is a very uninteresting kind of character, isn't he?" No sooner had I said it, than he seemed to become hilariously irascible towards cheeky or insolently unresponsive characters they were dealing with. But then, perhaps, that's not such a funny topic in the US.

In this latest episode, Wallander's daughter's post-traumatic stress syndrome, after finding the decaying bodies of the trapped, illegal immigrants, has eerie and disconcerting resonances with what was to happen to her later. I believe the young actress who plays her, Johanna Sallstrom, committed suicide after witnessing the tsunami and its aftermath, and I kept thinking about it when she and Wallander were talking about her PTS and its delayed effects.

I love the little crazy moments which make it so true to life. Wallander dopily wondering aloud to wild-eyed Stefan how the driver of the truck with the illegal immigrants (and heroin) could have got mixed up with criminals... Whereupon Stefan explodes with a blasphemy that he's an effing criminal, himself! "He transports illegal immigrants!" Hilarious stuff. And then they immediately cut away to another scene. So there's no signalling or next to no signalling that something's supposed to be hilarious or shocking. We're treated as adults.

Also, I know it's a small town station, but it tickled me to see the PC plod chap leaning aginst the office door-post, listening to the detectives discussing the case in their desultory way. None of your pretentious Morse-like, disquisitions. Nor any of that, "Yes, guv. No guv. Three bags full, guv." rot. Doesn't it sound weird having some poor young police-woman
having to trot out that "guv" jargon in our police series.

It was by far the most "edge of the seat" episode for me. Definitely, heart-tabletworthy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Yes, I like it much better than the Kenneth Branagh version

First of all, the Swedes are played by real Swedes. :-)

Second, while Wallander is a dark character, Branagh's characterization made him look as if he'd slept in a back alley in the rain after a bender.

Mhz Worldview TV shows episodes of Wallander one Sunday per month, alternating it with Varg Veum (Norway), Inspector Maigret (France), Scene of the Crime (Germany), and Homicide Squad (Italy).