Those questions loom large over the action and the wind-swept Swedish landscape, captured in a haunting blue hue that perfectly matches the detective's own psychic malaise. Can Wallander be the son that his father expects him to be? The father than he daughter wants? The man that he himself wants and needs to be? Is Wallander racist? Or is he just taken aback by his daughter's ability to surprise him?Įven as he attempts to grapple with his inner conflict, he's presented with further pressure: the condition of his father (the great David Warner) is greatly deteriorating and a series of inexplicable behaviors point towards his Alzheimer's significantly worsening. In "Faceless Killers," the season's first episode, a stray remark sparks an all-out race war in Ystad, even as he comes to terms with the fact that his daughter Linda (Jeany Spark) is dating a man of Syrian origin. It's hard not to love Wallander, even as he shoulders an increasingly heavy burden. ![]() So strong is his repugnance to these crimes that he takes on culpability for them, simply for being a member of the human race, turning a magnifying glass on his own failings. (For more on Branagh's take on the character, you can read my interview with him over at The Daily Beast.)īut Wallander's purview isn't just finding the perpetrators of these crimes-which include, in the first installment, the brutal murder of an elderly farmer and his wife-but in examining both the damage that such crimes cause and the fractured psyche that carries them out in the first place. The series stars Kenneth Branagh as Ystad detective Kurt Wallander, a man gripped by his own concerns as he investigates the grisly and brutal crimes inflicted on the inhabitants of his Swedish port town. Right now, that series is none other than PBS/BBC's haunting and existential mystery drama Wallander, which returns for its second season on Sunday as part of PBS' Masterpiece Mystery (check your local listings). Every now and then a series comes along that features the perfect actor, the perfect character, the perfect scripts, and the perfect setting.
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