So, due to the vagaries of an international schedule, I've not had chance to season seven or eight of Swedish crime juggernaut "Beck". Having debated whether or not to wait, we decided to watch season nine now and hopefully backfill at some point in the future. It remains a decent police procedural.
With is grandson Vilhelm (Valter Skarsgard) joining the force, Martin Beck (Peter Haber) returns to his desk job, with Alex Beijer (Jennie Silfverhjelm) lead investigator. Vilhelm is quickly involved in a murder case though, when he discovers a dead body at the scene of a burglary. Steinar (Kristofer Hivju) returns to the team to investigate a murder at a flea market, but SAPO, the Swedish Security Services become heavily involved.
It's sometimes slightly difficult to review these as a season of TV because they're effectively four movies but this particular season does have some through story. Klas Freden, Beck's overly political boss, played by Jonas Karlsson, takes a role in SAPO and his under the table deals have several consequences for the wider team. Beck's grandson, now played by yet another in the Skarsgard dynasty, is another through story. He is idealistic in these first episodes and resistant to the claims to be a little more distant, but it'll be interesting to see what happens. There are often time jumps between show and even seasons so I'd imagine that Vilhelm will be a junior on the murder team by the time season ten comes around. Not returning will be Ingvar Hirdwall, who sadly passed away earlier this year and his odd neighbour character will be sorely missed.
Despite its lengthy heritage, I suppose "Beck" is just another police procedural and you could easily spend your time watching nothing but those on TV. Normally I'm not into the genre much though, so that Beck has held my attention for so many episodes must speak to it's under writing quality.
With is grandson Vilhelm (Valter Skarsgard) joining the force, Martin Beck (Peter Haber) returns to his desk job, with Alex Beijer (Jennie Silfverhjelm) lead investigator. Vilhelm is quickly involved in a murder case though, when he discovers a dead body at the scene of a burglary. Steinar (Kristofer Hivju) returns to the team to investigate a murder at a flea market, but SAPO, the Swedish Security Services become heavily involved.
It's sometimes slightly difficult to review these as a season of TV because they're effectively four movies but this particular season does have some through story. Klas Freden, Beck's overly political boss, played by Jonas Karlsson, takes a role in SAPO and his under the table deals have several consequences for the wider team. Beck's grandson, now played by yet another in the Skarsgard dynasty, is another through story. He is idealistic in these first episodes and resistant to the claims to be a little more distant, but it'll be interesting to see what happens. There are often time jumps between show and even seasons so I'd imagine that Vilhelm will be a junior on the murder team by the time season ten comes around. Not returning will be Ingvar Hirdwall, who sadly passed away earlier this year and his odd neighbour character will be sorely missed.
Despite its lengthy heritage, I suppose "Beck" is just another police procedural and you could easily spend your time watching nothing but those on TV. Normally I'm not into the genre much though, so that Beck has held my attention for so many episodes must speak to it's under writing quality.
