Beck: 10-12

Swagger
Before there was the girl with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Joe Nesbo, Henning Mankell and all of the other excellent authors in the Scandinavian mystery invasion, there was the Martin Beck mystery series witten by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo published between 1965 and 1975. They are the Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler of the Scandinavian school and their books stand up quite well against the best of Hammett and Chandler. This more modern television series captures the spirit of the books. While these are very tough minded mysteries, they offer more by way of humanistic values than we are used to seeing these days. Martin Beck, a middle aged policeman, is a bit neurotic - but his heart is good. The supporting character of the swaggering Gunvald Larsson, played by Mikael Persbrand, is one of the best characters in detective literature and television. Everything about this series is first rate and it is not to be missed by the lovers of Scandinavian noir or noir in general. As...

Beck is back and better
In dvd set # 4 Beck is back with better filming and just as good if not better stories from Stickholm. Gruvald is tougher and has a new female accomplice. This takes the series from Set one at year 1997 to 2001. Beck is still being shown on Sweeden Tv til 2010. You just have to wait for MHZ to make the dupes and pay off the production companies. Can't wait for set #5.

Nordic Noir
This is a police story as good or better than classic American detective television. Good studies of the main characters.

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