I've been watching the 12 part series Raid (2000). I just finished it last night and it was very entertaining from start to end. For me, anyway its very reminiscent of American Author's John D. MacDonald's character Travis McGee which I'll explain later.
A police official is assassinated by a sniper through a glass window, this action and its sub sequential investigation introduces us a slew of interesting characters and gets the whole story rolling.
Title character Raid played by Kai Lehtinen is a scruffy, stubble wearing loner he lives in a trailer that's parked in a warehouse with assorted boats and an old Mercedes Benz. The warehouse is owned by his dead ex-girlfriend's father Uki Kukkamaa played by Esko Salminen he has a wooden boat that he's restoring.
Oiva Lohtander is Komisario Jansson a sort of chief of detectives a classic downtrodden everyman who resembles "Daddy Warbucks" from the old Orphan Annie comics, his deadpan expressions are priceless. He his hobby is another old Mercedes which he mostly sits in in his garage to wind down. He is in charge of two Vanhempi konstaapeli ( sort of assistant dectives )Huusko and Susisaari (played by Pekka Huotari & Kirsti Väänänen) . Huusko is a real "horn dog" who has no real home but is having an affair with a criminals wife where he resides on and off. Susisaari is a big cute blond built like a brick hothouse.
These three have to deal with ( I think ) Apulaispoliisimestari Ritva Hakala the battle axe of a boss played by Tuula Nyman, she has a sort of employee's relations/compliance officer as an assistant of sorts who is another blond running around in a tight mini skirt, she is pretty hot looking.
Juha Muje plays another character Pornokauppias Sundman a porn dealer, who drives around in a huge American convertible in the Finnish winter with the top down, playing pop tunes from the top 40 of the 60's-70's.
Hammar is a professional hit-man played by a creepy Tapio Liinoja.
A company named Escon has been given a special status favored by the Finnish government to promote economic development sort of like a USA "Enterprise Zone" where they are taxed at little or very low rate.
Anyway Uki who I think was a small time criminal hired Hammar to scare Raid off his daughter. Hammar shot Raid in the foot during a heist. (now I'm not sure if Raid was caught and sent to jail or not) but Uki's daughter who worked for Escon gets sick unexplainedly and dies.
So Raid on a personal vendetta figures out that Hammar is the hit man working for Escon's cronies, Uki suspects that maybe Escon had something to do with his daughters death, Porn dealer Sundman I think is part of Uki's old gang and these three plus another guy start to track down whats going on from the underworld side while Jansson and the police investigate from the other end.
There are references to OUTITW there is a heavy SW influence, using almost every cliché & there is this Americanophile trucker character who wears bucksins a Yankees Jacket and a cowboy hat.
Raid during the story meets a cute lunchwagon gal, can't remember her name and she becomes his love interest.
The great thing about this miniseries is that there are no "pretty boy -gal" main characters ( the kind that predominate in American films these days) all the actors look like convincing real people, people with flaws, zits, etc., etc., folks you'd meet on the street of anyplace.
Worth checking out if you ever get a chance.
Raid will remind folks of John D. McDonald's character Travis McGee who was a "salvage expert" who lived on a houseboat in the Ft. Lauderdale FL, Bahia Mar Marina, he took jobs salvaging situations for people who couldn't go to the police.
