I'd guess the popularity of Scandinavian crime dramas (Wallander, The Killing, The Bridge, 'The Girl Who' trilogy, etc) has been mainly down to the depth of the characters, detailed mundane realism, great script-writing, and non-patronising portrayal of women and social issues. Unfortunately Arne Dahl bucks this trend and appears to be a propaganda exercise for an embittered MRE.
What I've noticed:
- Glorification of male violence - characters who made it to the A team seem to violently overstep professional boundaries. Paul Hjelm shot a refugee, Jorge Chavez beat up a suspect.
- Apology for male violence- Gunnar Nyberg draws a lot of pathos for estrangement from his kids since beating up his ex wife when he used to take steroids. A great deal of attention goes to his reformed character - his church-going and choir singing are often referenced.
- Unaware misogyny - When Gunnar plucks up the courage to contact his kids - he starts with his daughter, its no big deal - he calls her, but she is suspicious of him- she doesn't go all gushing. For some reason the thought of contacting his precious son causes him so much more anguish and turmoil - and us, the viewers are presumed to know exactly why contacting ones estranged son would be more of a big deal than contacting the estranged daughter. When he does pop in to see his son, he discovers not only that his son isn't frosty like his daughter, but he is so loyal and forgiving he called his own son Gunnar.. Gush, gush, gush... Also the unrealistic and unconvincing relationship between the only woman selected for the team Kerstin Holm and an old priest with leukaemia, nothing about their attraction to one-another is explained or portrayed so she is reduced to a symbolic 'good woman' without any complexity as a human being (perhaps the writer is an old priest who likes the idea of getting his hands on a young policewoman?
)
- Overt misogyny - hatred of women's reproductive systems. Viggo's unrealistic story is where his one-night stand with a woman who deliberately became pregnant leads to her unrealistically present the new-born to him, then dashes his hopes by saying she wants him to have no part in raising his daughter. Chavez's implied 'unreasonable/crazy/demanding' girlfriend has spoilt his opportunity for a great relationship with someone new by announcing she is pregnant. Ahh - poor Chavez eh? Also there's Paul Hjelm's wife who discourages him from following his instincts as a dad which is presented as the reason the son goes off the rails... until Paul violently beats the living crap out of the one who has supposedly led the son astray in front of him, which brings the boy cosily back into the fold again.
More shit things about it is some squirmingly bad script-writing, America-worshipping crap that deviates from the high quality local Scandinavian portrayals in the other dramas, and the reliance on attention-grabbing gore.
Has anyone else noticed this?