Stockholm Requiem

''Sthlm Reqviem'' is a Swedish television series based on the characters created by Kristina Ohlsson who is a political scientist, has worked as a Counter-Terrorism Officer at OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and also writes crime fiction novels. This series are based on the Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht book series. I've only read the first one, titled ''Unwanted'' which I found a bit boring and prosaic and this experience prevented me from further reading of this particular series. It should be mentioned though that Ohlsson has also written some great standalone crime novels such as ''Buried Lies'' and ''The Lies We Tell''. I believe that not all of the stories shown in the series are taken from the Bergman/Recht books, but Ohlsson got herself involved in the script writing of all ten episodes along with a number of others, one being Jonas Karlsson who also plays Alex Recht. Each separate story is completed in two episodes, so in a total of ten episodes in the first season, the viewer has the opportunity to follow five different cases with a common thread running through the series as a whole. The story-lines are not equal in quality and some of them are rather trite and tiresome, creating an uneven feeling to the viewer who wants to evaluate the series as a unity. The performances from the three main protagonists (Liv Mjönes, Jonas Karlsson and Alexej Manvelov) are above average but the characters, especially Fredrika, lack the strength of other fictional police officers and detectives. My personal favorite stories were the first and the last one, even if I found the finale a bit unsatisfying. I don't know if there is a second season coming and moreover I am not sure that I would like something like that. Scandinavian crime fiction certainly have offered many better crime tv series and one should check them out first, before indulging in ''Sthlm Reqviem'' (like ''Innan Vi Dor'', ''Alex'', ''Broen'', ''Bedrag'' and others). Finally, I should add that the main advantage of the series is the fact that it is very well-shot and the city of Stockholm is a character on its own merit. It is perhaps the number one reason to watch it.