Happy Friday! This week’s “global TV to watch” includes three crime drama series that have been around for 20+ years.
Shows going back twenty or so years might seem too young to warrant being called “classic,” but when considered from the perspective of “serving as a standard of excellence”* and being “enduring,”* the three series below deserve the “classic” designation.
Beck (Sweden)
I like to tell people, “All the Swedish I know I learned from watching Beck.” (A mostly accurate statement, the exception being the word snälla, or please, which got etched into my brain while watching an episode of Maria Wern.) Beck entered my world back in the early 2010s, after I moved and discovered MHz Worldview, the linear TV precursor to streaming channel MHz Choice. The Nordic noir crime drama series, based on characters in the “Martin Beck” detective novels by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahlöö, has been around since 1997 and has gained an international following.
Peter Haber (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) has starred in all 50 episodes of Beck that have been produced to date, playing the titular character, a weary, low-key Swedish detective. In the first 31 episodes, Mikael Persbrandt (Sex Education) costarred as practically every Beck fan’s favorite character: the nattily-dressed, hotheaded detective Gunvald Larsson, the yang to Martin’s yin. Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones) joined the cast after Persbrandt’s departure, playing Norwegian cop Steinar Hovland.
Nordic noir TV has become a thing, and as its popularity has grown, more shows in the genre have made it to our screens. However, not all of them deliver the goods — the compelling dark stories, the moodiness, the undercurrent of despair, the troubled lead detective — the way Beck does. Its Stockholm-set crime stories are riveting, casting a critical light on social issues in Sweden, from organized crime and violence against women, to pedophilia and immigration (which, yes, are problematic elsewhere, too). What also sets Beck apart from many other Scandi noir titles is the way in which it gives us a chance to catch our breaths from the crime action. Lightening up things are scenes that let us into Martin’s private life, including with his hilarious, neck-braced neighbor (the late Ingvar Hirdwall, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and his very frank and stubborn daughter, Inger (Rebecka Hemse, 30 Degrees in February). It’s brilliant stuff, this.
If you haven’t seen Beck before, check it out. If you have, you might be due for a re-watch.
The first 46 episodes of Beck are are currently available for streaming in the US on MHz Choice and its digital channels, including MHz Choice on Amazon. (Which means four more episodes will be headed our way — yippee!) Two seasons are available on Hoopla, the free streaming service available through select libraries, and episodes from the first six seasons are available for digital purchase on Amazon.
Taggart (UK)
This year, this month, actually, marks 40 year since Scottish detective drama Taggart launched in the UK on ITV. The series ran for a total of 110 episodes over 27 years, making it one of the longest-running dramas in the UK. It also gave us one of the most memorable lines from a TV series: “There’s been a murder.”
I first started watching Taggart when Hulu had the final seasons. Initially, I didn’t know that the series had gone through a number of lead detective characters and that Alex Norton (Good Omens), as DCI Matt Burke, was playing the last of them. Regardless, I was hooked on the show from the off and watched all of those episodes multiple times. When the show’s very first season, starring Mark McManus (Ned Kelly) as the titular detective, showed up on Acorn TV, I was in Scottish crime drama heaven. For me, the show is a keeper. Why? For one, it’s set in Glasgow, and I love Glasgow. Secondly, the crime stories make for some compelling, bingeable viewing. Third, the acting is terrific and the action is gritty.
The show’s premise might be simple, but that’s why Taggart‘s so good. It’s straightforward and uncomplicated. Cops fighting crime in Glasgow. Cops who don’t take any guff from criminals or colleagues. Cops whose personal lives can be as messy as their jobs. And similar to shows like The Bill, an oldie but goodie from 1984, and Midsomer Murders (younger than The Bill by 13 years), there are a number of now-famous actors who appeared in Taggart. Alan Cumming and Ashley Jensen, anyone?
In lieu of a trailer or snippet from the show, here’s a video of the special documentary that was produced to commemorate Taggart’s 25th anniversary (15 years ago!). Check it out. Then watch the series.
All 27 seasons of Taggart are currently available for streaming in the US on BritBox and its digital channels, including BritBox on Amazon.
Unit One (Denmark)
Mads Mikkelsen. I probably don’t need to say/write more, but I will, cuz the entire ensemble cast is terrific and the show, which won the best Drama Series award at the 2002 International Emmy® Awards, rocks. As with Beck, I discovered Unit One soon after I found MHz Worldview, and, also like Beck, I watched it religiously each week that it was on.
The show follows an elite mobile police team that travels throughout Denmark in a tricked-out trailer to help local police forces solve crimes, mostly murders. These are inspired by actual criminal cases in Denmark, so Unit One isn’t set in any one location but in the cities or towns where the real-life crimes occurred.
While the crime story is the focus in each episode, threads get into the personal lives of the team members, giving them a three-dimensionality that makes them more, well, real, while also playing into the weekly drama. For example: bad boy/good cop Fischer’s (Mads Mikkelsen, Hannibal) womanizing ways does his marriage and fatherhood no favors; senior detective I.P.’s (Waage Sandø, Follow the Money) wife’s affair with his boss’s boss strains the two men’s close friendship (the couple are separated, but still); and records keeper Gaby’s (Trine Pallesen, The Killing) relationship with driver Johnny Olson (Lars Bom, The Sommerdahl Murders) gets messy on and off the job.
As with Taggart, well-regarded actors whom you might recognize have appeared in Unit One, including Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Britannia, “Department Q” films) and Mads’s older brother, Lars Mikkelsen (The Witcher, Sherlock). Award-winning actor Nicolas Bro (of Men & Chicken, which costars Mads Mikkelsen) is in the clip below.
All four seasons of Unit One are currently available for streaming in the US on Viaplay.
* Source: Merriam-Webster
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