This eight-part Swedish TV series shows that being a serial killer isn’t much fun. At the bidding of his hidden masters, Richard Forrester (Marek Oravec) runs his killing campaign over Christmas and he lives in a small caravan in the middle of a snow blanketed forest. No wonder he is so grumpy.
As the title sequence underlines, Richard is linked to images of angels indicating that he is on a heaven-sent mission to avenge the perceived failings of humanity. Certainly this series reveals a whole web of secrets and lies linked to the victims, their families and to a religious cult in the USA.
Criminal psychologist Inger Johanne Vik (Melinda Kinsman) is the stoney faced mother of two daughters. Her eldest daughter, Stina (Esmewralda Struwe) witnesses the first murder by Richard when they are staying at a hotel, but she is autistic and is unable to tell anyone about what she witnessed. Rather surprisingly, the murderer rushes to help save her from certain death not long after the event.
The murder of a female bishop, on Christmas Eve, draws Inger into the official police investigation but it is only when she discovers her daughter was the only witness to the previous murder that she fully commits to finding the murderer. This is difficult as her estranged husband is a bit useless at keeping an eye on the children when they come under his custody, and her car never wants to start. Fortunately, the handsome police detective Ingvar Nymann (Henrik Norlen) comes to her rescue and they both track down the murderer and his twisted motives.
The series based on Norwiagian Anne Holt’s novel ‘Frukta inte’ (Fear Not), opens out to look at other characters including a highly successful businessman, an Afghan refugee living in the underground railway system, a controversial artist and the secrets of the slaughtered bishop’s life. Could Marcus Stahl (Magnus Roosman) the homosexual businessman be the prime target for the killer? Or is he the killer, when he is caught with a murdered body just outside his office building.
There are plenty of twists and turns in the story, and the full reasons for the murders are enticingly teased out until the last scene. All-in-all a satisfying series that ticks all the boxes but doesn’t quite achieve the above average grade. Nonetheless this writer would watch another sequel series, just to see if Inger gets her car fixed.
MODUS / CERT: 15 / STARRING: MELINDA KINNAMAN, HENRIK NORLEN, MAREK ORAVEK, KRISTER HENRIKSSON, MAGNUS ROOSMANN / RELEASE DATE: 19TH DECEMBER 2016
