The Swedish team of detectives is reunited to use their specialist skills to crack more crimes. The A-unit, is now headed by Kerstin Holm (Arvidsson), a tough but fair, single mother who has a predilection for falling in love with her fellow detectives.
The other members of the team, include Gunnar Nyberg (Magnus Samuelson), he’s a big tough guy, who enjoys beer and singing in the church choir. Arto Söderstedt (Niklas Åkerfelt) comes from a legal background and uses his cool intellect to analyse criminal activity. In contrast, Jorge Chavez (Alexander Sulzberger) is an ambitious and restless IT expert, whose best friend is Paul Hjelm (Shanti Roney), the Head of Internal Affairs. Paul’s life is difficult because not only does he have to investigate any wrong doings by his fellow police officers, he has to keep secret his growing relationship with Kerstin. Sara Svenhagen (Vera Vitali) is an expert on paedophilia and trafficking, and is married to Jorge. Finally, there is the young and inexperienced Ida Jankowicz (Natalie Minnevik), a new member of the team who is a linguistics expert.
The dynamics of these different characters and how they react and investigate crimes involving murder, abduction, human and drug trafficking, assassinations that often have international connections, is explored over these ten, two-part episodes of Season Two.
Like the first series, the stories are based on the Intercrime novels written by Jan Arnald using the pen name Arne Dahl. This time the team, two years after the events of the first series, is re-formed to deal with the murder of Polish health workers in Sweden. It seems they were forced to kill patients by the Polish mafia and they escaped them and the Polish health authorities by fleeing to Sweden, unfortunately they are now being assassinated one by one. Given the political implications and the need to deal with an international situation resurrecting the A-unit was the obvious answer.
Each episode centres on a major crime interlaced with the complex lives of the officers and one or more secondary criminal cases. It is fast-paced and entertaining, but is a little more like The A-Team that they jokingly compare themselves to than the more serious-minded Nordic thrillers. Instead of being dark, broody and depressing, it is comparable to such British crime procedurals as Silent Witness or New Tricks. So it might not be challenging or ground-breaking, but it is still an above average series that has a good blend of characters and intriguing murder mysteries.
ARNE DAHL: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MALIN ARVIDSSON, MAGNUS SAMUELSSON, NIKLAS ÅKERFELT, ALEXANDER SALZBERGER, SHANTI RONEY, VERA VITALI, NATALIE MINNEVIK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
