Reboot To Swedish Detective Series Returns

Young Wallander is back on Netflix for Season 2. The younger version of the beloved world-weary Swedish detective is on a new case, but still lacks the trademark psychological pathos of his older self. If you have not watched season one, this review contains spoilers.

With only six episodes, Young Wallander: Killer’s Shadow is an easily bingeable series. The mystery surrounding the case will keep you sufficiently intrigued. Young Wallander reboots Henning Mankell’s much-loved detective series as a rookie detective in contemporary Sweden. However, it never quite gets on a par with the original Swedish series, nor the BBC version starring Kenneth Branagh.

In Young Wallander: Killer’s Shadow, Kurt Wallander (played by Adam Pålsson) rejoins the police force to solve a seemingly straightforward hit-and-run case. As Wallander starts investigating with Detective Frida Rask (played by Leanne Best), the case turns out to be anything but simple. The detectives soon find a connection to an old brutal murder, one of Rask’s first case as a detective, which may have further implications on Rask’s own career.

As a reminder, Season 1 ended with the violent death of Wallander’s mentor, Superintendent Hemberg (played by Richard Dillane), which led to Wallander leaving the police force. Or so he thought, as this new season quickly reveals. It turns out that detective Rask never filed his resignation letter, so he never technically left the force, which is very convenient for Kurt, who now wishes to return. His disillusionment about the police force is soon forgotten once he is back working as a detective trying to solve this new case.

Scandi noir fans will recognize an attempt at creating a crime case with much complexity—a simple crime turns out to be much more complicated when it is connected to an older case. However, there are many inconsistencies that arise within the six episodes, one of the more obvious ones being the plotline involving the witness to the hit-and-run. It leads to quite the frustrating watch.

One of the saving graces of this new season is the introduction of a new character. The Major Crimes Unit has a new Superintendent, Samuel Osei (played by Tomiwa Edun), who wants to bring everyone back in line with protocol, as the detectives in this department have a tendency not to go rogue. Osei brings a new energy to the series, and is the first character to address last season’s issue surrounding officer Reza (played by Yasen Atour), who was overlooked for the position of detective in favor of Wallander. Reza’s character also has an interesting storyline this season. In one dramatic chase scene, Reza is clearly shown as suffering from PTSD and is struggling. Yasen Atour is great as Reza and offers contrast to the emotionally-distant and youthfully naive Kurt Wallander. The two make an interesting team once they are partnered up.

Overall, Young Wallander feels like painting by numbers. It fills all the right plotline spots of a good Scandi noir, but the connecting lines have at times been smudged over. In so doing, by the end of this second season of Young Wallander, nothing quite ties together, with the very first murder that opened the new season making no sense at all. There is only one brief scene with the suspected killer, with his motive more or less brushed over. This amounts to a rather underwhelming climax to the case.

Beautifully shot, Young Wallander presents an intriguing murder case, but its ending is anti-climactic and disappointing. Kurt Wallander isn’t quite yet the wearied detective that he will become, but a naive and trusting young man, who isn’t too bad at solving cases.