Movie Reviews

There is a weird thing going with Scandinavian people. They all seem to have an unhealthy interest in crime. There is no other way of explaining just how many books, movies and series about murders keep coming from there. Some of the stories are really good, some are good and some are… well, not so good. The Sandhamn Murders - based on a series of books by Viveca Sten – unfortunately falls in the latter category.

Thomas Andreasson (Jacob Cedergren) is a police officer who gets sent to Sandhamn, a small island two hours away from Stockholm. It’s a quiet and quaint place Andreasson knows well seeing as he used to live there. Things become decidedly less quiet when a body is found by Nora (Alexandra Rapaport), who rents a cottage on the island with her family. As the series goes on, her role becomes more important because as it turns out she has something of a history with Andreasson.

This boxset comes with nine 45-minute episodes that comprise three of Sten’s books. The stories are only very loosely connected because the main characters are the same. Written for the screen by The Bridge’s Hans Rosenfeldt, The Sandhamn Murders is more calmly paced compared to The Bridge, which kept you on your seat pretty much the entire time. The fact that some of the plot twists are pretty far-fetched while some other developments are predictable doesn’t exactly help speed things along.

If you are looking for something relatively easy-going, you might want to check out The Sandhamn Murders. Otherwise there are better Scandinavian series to watch. After all, you have plenty of choice.