Paratiisi

After having watched the Finnish/Spanish production "The Paradise" season 1 several years ago (also known as Paratiisi and Kosta), it was a pleasant surprise to see that a second season was available on Acorn. Season 2 is also set in Costa del Sol, which has a robust Finnish retirement community. As such, the series has influences from northern Europe, southern Europe, as well as nearby Africa. This creates an interesting cultural stew, between its varied criminals and the detectives who track them down.

While the focus of season 1 was middle-aged Finnish detective Hilkka Mantymaki, in the second season, she shares the spotlight with a younger detective, Luisa Salinas, who has fled the grind of Madrid for the greener pastures of Costa del Sol. The plot line, which involves the exploitation of African immigrants, was interesting.

I liked season 2, found the characters compelling, and raced through the eight episodes rather quickly. For me, the biggest drawback to the series occurred when the international characters were forced to speak English with one another. When that happened, the Finnish and Spanish accents could become quite dense and mumbling, and sometimes indecipherable. Worse, during English dialogue, all the close captioning would drop out, which was regrettable since at times I found myself straining to understand what was being said! But this was a minor problem; The Paradise, season two, is well worth the watch. While I gave it a 7, it is more like a 7.5.