We'd barely recovered from dealing with Stieg Larsson's 
dark, absurdly anti-feminine portrayal of Swedish culture in the Liz Salander trilogy. Now we are being assaulted by the recent ascent of his countrymen Henning Mankell's work and its telling of an equally bizarre if decidedly more grounded and depressing tales of a Swedish culture that truly seems to be on the brink of brutally assaulting and killing all woman living there. And we thought that was South Africa's prerogative.
dark, absurdly anti-feminine portrayal of Swedish culture in the Liz Salander trilogy. Now we are being assaulted by the recent ascent of his countrymen Henning Mankell's work and its telling of an equally bizarre if decidedly more grounded and depressing tales of a Swedish culture that truly seems to be on the brink of brutally assaulting and killing all woman living there. And we thought that was South Africa's prerogative.
In any case, the BBC TV Show Wallander, starring a haggard Kenneth Branagh, is entertaining if you can stand watching all kinds of insane criminality and senseless violence happening in a landscape so dripping with idyllic beauty that it practically makes no sense to want to commit any crime let alone the gruesome, dark crimes commit in the show.
Seems like Mankell, and probably other Swedish writers, are generally dismayed by the path their country is taking and Mankell specifically wrote the Wallander books particularly as a showcase of what was happening and destined for the Swedish society. The books bring that out a lot and I particularly enjoyed 'The Pyramid' and maybe even 'The Faceless Killers' but the show is a bit more personal to the detective and less about the general state of affairs though you do catch the drift.
Seems like Mankell, and probably other Swedish writers, are generally dismayed by the path their country is taking and Mankell specifically wrote the Wallander books particularly as a showcase of what was happening and destined for the Swedish society. The books bring that out a lot and I particularly enjoyed 'The Pyramid' and maybe even 'The Faceless Killers' but the show is a bit more personal to the detective and less about the general state of affairs though you do catch the drift.
We recently saw all three seasons on Netflix and thankfully each season only has 3 episodes or I'd be wiping more blood off my couch. Though the episodes are rather long - about 90 minutes so it is like watching a slow movie.
