Young Wallander (2020)

Watchseries; This show hit Netflix on Thursday and with it having only 6 episodes I thought I would give it a watch, I mean I got distracted by playing the new Avengers Game on my PS4 but here is my review for the show. The premise of the show sees a young cop come across his first investigation which changes his look on his life.

Main Character Adam Palsson who is about the only thing Swedish about this show, which I will go into more later plays Wallander here and he does an alright job, I know very little about the character in the books so I am just judging him on his performance here. He is a likeable enough guy in the lead and you will end up rooting for him in his investigation. But there is just nothing special about him here, honestly he is just a police officer and I just didn't find anything to truly hook myself onto him. I think it is mostly the scenes that involve his personal relationships that I didn't quite care for and it were the weaker elements of the show.

Supporting Characters Now we get into the cast, which are not Swedish at all, first of all is Richard Dillane who plays Wallander's boss and I thought he was good here. He is a good boss, tough when he needs to be but willing to support his staff when necessary and I think that comes across well, he is just a cool mentor for Wallander and their dynamic investigating the crime is the highlight here. The rest of the cast didn't do much for me, their is a romance here, and I guess it is okay I just never got invested into it because it is totally rushed and feels like it was just thrown in here because every show needs a romance. The villains aren't given much time for you to care and when the motivations are revealed it isn't that interesting and it is more that we don't actually learn enough. Also Wallander has a friend that he seemingly cares about, until he forgets about him for the second half of the season.

Story The story is interesting as you see the cops attempt to work out a murder which takes place at the beginning of the show, the show takes twists and turns that mostly work well and will keep you watching and invested in the plot. It is just that there are some parts of the plot that didn't quite work for me and they mainly involve Wallander's personal life, I understand why they are here but they didn't do much for me and mostly get forgotten about towards the end of the season. Also the ending just straight up sucks, it totally screws over Wallander as a character and makes you wonder why you supported him throughout this show.

Script The script does a good job with its twists, for a show like this that is crucial, as it keeps you watching for the six episodes. But none of the dialogue really stands out at all, there is no humour and the drama just never hits the really high levels.

Style This show does a good job in intriguong you as these people go though investigating different people and places and I must admit I wasn't sure where it was going with it's story and that is down to how it is filmed. This show has a methodical pace, it works at times and doesn't work at others, mainly it feels like you can go a whole episode without the pace picking up at all and it does come across as more slow then methodical. Also the cast is just a bit strange, it really emphasises the different cultures in Sweden yet a pretty much all British cast slaps that notion in the face and I wish more Swedish actors could have been used.

Overall Overall, this is an average show th

This show hit Netflix on Thursday and with it having only 6 episodes I thought I would give it a watch, I mean I got distracted by playing the new Avengers Game on my PS4 but here is my review for the show. The premise of the show sees a young cop come across his first investigation which changes his look on his life.

Main Character Adam Palsson who is about the only thing Swedish about this show, which I will go into more later plays Wallander here and he does an alright job, I know very little about the character in the books so I am just judging him on his performance here. He is a likeable enough guy in the lead and you will end up rooting for him in his investigation. But there is just nothing special about him here, honestly he is just a police officer and I just didn't find anything to truly hook myself onto him. I think it is mostly the scenes that involve his personal relationships that I didn't quite care for and it were the weaker elements of the show.

Supporting Characters Now we get into the cast, which are not Swedish at all, first of all is Richard Dillane who plays Wallander's boss and I thought he was good here. He is a good boss, tough when he needs to be but willing to support his staff when necessary and I think that comes across well, he is just a cool mentor for Wallander and their dynamic investigating the crime is the highlight here. The rest of the cast didn't do much for me, their is a romance here, and I guess it is okay I just never got invested into it because it is totally rushed and feels like it was just thrown in here because every show needs a romance. The villains aren't given much time for you to care and when the motivations are revealed it isn't that interesting and it is more that we don't actually learn enough. Also Wallander has a friend that he seemingly cares about, until he forgets about him for the second half of the season.

Story The story is interesting as you see the cops attempt to work out a murder which takes place at the beginning of the show, the show takes twists and turns that mostly work well and will keep you watching and invested in the plot. It is just that there are some parts of the plot that didn't quite work for me and they mainly involve Wallander's personal life, I understand why they are here but they didn't do much for me and mostly get forgotten about towards the end of the season. Also the ending just straight up sucks, it totally screws over Wallander as a character and makes you wonder why you supported him throughout this show.

Script The script does a good job with its twists, for a show like this that is crucial, as it keeps you watching for the six episodes. But none of the dialogue really stands out at all, there is no humour and the drama just never hits the really high levels.

Style This show does a good job in intriguong you as these people go though investigating different people and places and I must admit I wasn't sure where it was going with it's story and that is down to how it is filmed. This show has a methodical pace, it works at times and doesn't work at others, mainly it feels like you can go a whole episode without the pace picking up at all and it does come across as more slow then methodical. Also the cast is just a bit strange, it really emphasises the different cultures in Sweden yet a pretty much all British cast slaps that notion in the face and I wish more Swedish actors could have been used.

Overall Overall, this is an average show th

Young Wallander watchseries. Definitely not Nordic Noir. What a disaster. English speaking Swedish lead, Adam PÃ¥lsson (Before We Die/Moscow Noir/The Bridge), with a British cast. It just doesn't work. Why not in Swedish with Swedish actors. This incarnation of Wallander is not a patch on the forerunners and Adam PÃ¥lsson is just not convincing in the role. His whispered hoarse delivery made me think he had been watching too much Eastenders. It had the feel of so many run-of-the-mill UK dramas. Also, I felt uncomfortable at the portrayal of ethnic minorities/immigrants. i.e. Sterotypical low-life. Political correctness has gone too far I recent times, but they could have done with applying some to this production. We ditched this after episode 2 which was boring and I just plain awful.

It is a depressing movie, the story has been told about 10,000 times and I think I'll puke the next time a crappy cop show crosses my tv. Plus all that, I didn't relate to any of the characters because they were cardboard figures who I've seen dozens of times. Note to NetFlix - soften up on the cop shows, there are too many already.

Young Wallander

I liked this very much, Adam PÃ¥lsson who took the lead, and upon which the whole show rested, was a really great actor and quite brilliant casting. A theatrical training is quite evident in a comprehensive range of emotions he conveys with micro-gestures in a total commitment to the role.

A very ambitious idea to undertake a prequel to Kenneth Branagh's brilliant, complex and dark portrayal of older Wallander. The original Wallander is not Scandi-noir, it has none of those formulaic elements, it is more Prime Suspect, old fashioned complex criminal cases with a simple linear story.

Overlooking the glaring error in episode 1, policemen of whatever rank have to live in another place from the locale in which they work as this would compromise their neutrality and place them in direct danger of reprisals. I did think the story of a staged crime to drum up hatred leading to financial gain or political advancement was implied from the start so we kinda of just watched it play out.

To insert race and immigration is a fashion trend now done to death, surely writers can come up with something more gripping. Secondly if a programme is going to look as asylum seekers they are duty bound, for balance, to present why borders exist and why the migratory footfall is to Northern European countries and not from them.

They pulled out all the stops to make the Cube edgy/sleazy but it was so tame and no one can buy GHB or ketamine in a club as these are all pre-planned drugs requiring strict administration. Wallander was then viciously beaten when he had been recently stabbed, quite absurd!

Episode 4 it all started to flag and sag, in 5 we were back on the case rather than banging on about gangs and the underclasses.

I think people have been over generous here at best it's a 6 out of 10, everything was great except the script with unavoidable snowflake inclusions. The ending was a disaster on every level, if I had commissioned this programme I would not be renewing.

This was a huge let down! Everyone speaks English but drive around in police cars that have Swedish writing. The "Swedish" people all have British accents. Why make such a mess of a Swedish classic like Wallander? It was unbearable to watch. If Netflix wanted to do an adaptation, fine, but to pay for a half-baked production like this, with fake "Swedes" and filmed in fake "Sweden" is just garbage.....pretty much like the series! Discerning audiences want authenticity, not fake rubbish like this!

Chocked full of "woke goodness", this UK knock off is nothing at all like the superb original series, from Sweden.

The only upside is quality acting and polished production values whilst everything else, that defines any decent crime drama, is absent.

I gave up after the first tedious twenty minutes and moved on to the latest series, of the "real McCoy", from Sweden.

2/10.