Wallander: The Final Season

Wallander, The Final Season On MASTERPIECE Mystery! 

Sundays, May 8 - 22, 2016 at 9pm ET on PBS 

Kenneth Branagh returns as Inspector Kurt Wallander based on the novels of Henning Mankell. As age catches up with the peerless Swedish crime-solver, he's getting dangerously careless. Could there be a connection to his father's Alzheimer's? In the final series, Branagh gives a heartbreaking performance of a gritty cop starting to lose his grip.

Grantchester & Wallander Return: Masterpiece Mystery!

Two popular MASTERPIECE Mystery! series are making their way back onto television screens this Spring: Grantchester, Season 2 and Wallander, The Final Season.

Grantchester, Season 2 airs Sundays, March 27 – May 1 at 9 pm ET on PBS. 

James Norton (Happy Valley, War & Peace) and Robson Green (Reckless) return as Reverend Sidney Chambers and Inspector Geordie Keating for another round of mysteries in a new season that focuses on matchmaking as well as murder. Sidney is a sensitive vicar, Geordie a hard-bitten cop. Together they make perfect partners in crime-solving.  I've seen the first two episodes, and the new season is wonderful.

Wallander, The Final Season airs Sundays, May 8 – 22 at 9pm ET on PBS. 

Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn, Shackleton) returns as Inspector Kurt Wallander in the Swedish sleuth’s farewell episodes, bringing the beloved, Emmy®-nominated series to a poignant end. Based on the novels of Henning Mankell, the Wallander series wraps up with 3 episodes this Spring. In the final mysteries, Branagh gives a heartbreaking performance of a gritty cop starting to lose his grip.

And stay tuned for more mysteries coming soon from Inspector Lewis, The Final Seas and Endeavour, Season 3.

Henning Mankell: R.I.P.

Such sad news. Henning Mankell has died at the age of 67.

From the New York Times:

Henning Mankell, the Swedish novelist and playwright best known for police procedurals that were translated into a score of languages and sold by the millions throughout the world, died on Monday in Goteborg, Sweden. He was 67.

The cause was cancer, said his literary agent Anneli Hoier.  Last year, Mr. Mankell disclosed that doctors had found tumors in his neck and left lung.

Mr. Mankell was considered the dean of the so-called Scandinavian noir writers who gained global prominence for novels that blended edge-of-your-seat suspense with flawed, compelling protagonists and strong social themes. The genre includes Arnaldur Indridason of Iceland, Jo Nesbø of Norway and Stieg Larsson of Sweden, among others.

But it was Mr. Mankell who led the way with 10 mystery novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, a gruff but humane detective troubled by self-doubt, overeating, alcoholism and eventually dementia. Most of the action takes place in and around Ystad, a real-life town of 18,350 inhabitants on the Baltic Sea, about 380 miles south of Stockholm and now a magnet for Wallander buffs.

From The Guardian:

The Nordic crime-writing community was quick to pay tribute, with Norwegian Jo Nesbø describing him as “generous, committed, reflective and warm.” He continued: “As I see it, Henning Mankell both carried on and modernized the Scandinavian crime fiction tradition dating back to Sjöwall & Wahlöö, in style as well as content. He was one of the most important pioneers of Scandinavian crime literature, if not the most important of all.”

The bestselling Icelandic crime writer Yrsa Sigurdardottir said that Mankell “was undoubtedly the single most important person involved in bringing Scandinavian crime fiction to the rest of the world.

“His novels were immensely popular and for a reason; his mastery lay in being able to combine compelling characters, intriguing crimes and matters of social injustice into stories that were not only enjoyable but also very well written. So much so that they transcended borders and made the foreign reader forget the odd names and unfamiliar locations,” she said.

Wallander III: Masterpiece Mystery!

Wallander III returns on MASTERPIECE Mystery! PBS
Sundays, September 9-23, 2012, 9 to 10:30pm ET on PBS

Kenneth Branagh returns as Inspector Kurt Wallander, the moody Swedish detective created by mystery author Henning Mankell.

An Event in Autumn — Sunday, September 9, 2012 at 9pm ET
A pregnant woman leaps to her death from the side of a ferry. Or was she pushed? The routine case barely disturbs Wallander's newly blissful life with Vanja (Saskia Reeves, Page Eight), his lover from the end of series 2. But then the happy couple discovers a decade-old corpse of a murdered woman on their property. With Wallander's work now getting too close to home, he follows the leads of two investigations that get increasingly entangled. On top of it, tragedy strikes one of his colleagues, and Wallander blames himself — with good reason.

The Dogs of Riga — Sunday, September 16, 2012 at 9pm ET
A raft adrift in Swedish waters has a grisly cargo: two horribly tortured Latvian corpses. Arriving to investigate from Latvia's capital, Riga, is an enigmatic police major. He reports back to headquarters and then disappears. After hearing reports of his death, Wallander goes to Riga and meets the major's wife, Kristina (Rebekah Staton, Tess of the D'Urbervilles). Together, they get embroiled in a desperate search for files that may document high-level corruption that threatens to make Wallander and Kristina the next victims.

Before the Frost — Sunday, September 23, 2012 at 9pm ET
An escapee from a psychiatric hospital sets fire to a flock of geese and then incinerates a passing hiker. And he's far from finished. While investigating, Wallander is unexpectedly visited by Anna, an old friend of his estranged daughter, Linda (Jeany Spark). Then Anna disappears. As the arson attacks mount, it appears that Anna may be connected. Duty demands that Wallander reconcile with Linda and join forces to find Anna at all costs. But father-daughter concord is hardly helped by Linda's memory that her dad once had an affair with Anna's mother.

Watch Wallander: An Event in Autumn Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Wallander Returns: Series II

Wallander Returns to Masterpiece Mystery! October 3.

Kenneth Branagh returns to his Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated role as the soul-searching Swedish cop created by bestselling novelist Henning Mankell in Wallander II, three gripping new Kurt Wallander cases based on the the Henning Mankell books.

In Faceless Killers (October 3), The Man Who Smiled (October 10) and The Fifth Woman (October 17), the down-at-the-heels sleuth is nearing the end of his emotional rope — at odds with his daughter, his father, his gyrating blood sugar and coming to terms with having killed a man. It's almost more than a self-doubting crime solver can stomach.

I watched Faceless Killers, and this first episode certainly sets the scene for a very strong Series II.  I really liked the first season, but this season is even better. Fewer odd camera angles, more linear plotline. Great photography and acting, as in the first season. This first episode is not for the faint of heart. The first scene shows the brutal murder  of an elderly couple in their rural farmhouse.

Swedish Inspector (Kenneth Branagh) arrives at the horrific scene and holds the old woman as she dies, shouting to her one final, urgent question — "Who did this?" She sounds out something that could be "farmer" or maybe "foreigner." The press takes hold of the foreigner angle, inciting swift and deadly retribution against local migrant workers.

But there is more to the case, and Wallander's inquiry takes him deep into his own damaged psyche, forcing him to examine and question his own motives before he can understand those of a killer. Faceless Killers is based on the novel by Henning Mankell. (One episode; 90 minutes) Sunday night, October 3. Check local PBS station listing.

This episode will be available to watch online October 4-November 15 HERE.

Kenneth Branagh Video Interview

Wallander on Masterpiece Mystery!/Henning Mankell news

Wallander starts this Sunday night on Masterpiece Mystery!. Episodes in the U.S. will air on PBS May 10, May 17 and May 31 at 9 p.m. EDT. This is a stunning production with Kenneth Branagh as the brooding Inspector Wallander. Branagh, a co-producing partner, is a longtime fan of the Henning Mankell novels. The production team also includes director Philip Martin (Prime Suspect: The Final Act) and executive producer Andy Harries (The Queen, Prime Suspect).

I haven't seen the Swedish production of the Henning Mankell books, so I can't compare (comments welcome), but I did find the episodes, adapted from the books very compelling. Shot in southern Sweden, the landscape is as bleak as Wallander's life. It took me a little bit of time to get into the first production, but once there I was hooked. These shows really capture the detective, the collapsing Swedish society, and the conflicted Wallander in the Henning Mankell mysteries. Alan Cumming, the Masterpiece Mystery! host probably says it best when he says Wallander makes Inspector Morse look like Mary Poppins. He's got that right!

I had a bit of a problem at first with all the characters speaking English not Swedish. However, I soon got caught up in the pace, the camera angles, and the Swedish setting. So even though the characters don't speak English, the traffic signs and even words on a computer are in Swedish. O.K, this was probably what threw me at the beginning of the first episode. Branagh is brilliant as the self-loathing but compassionate Wallander. He and the setting and the crimes are bleak.

The Episodes are "Sidetracked" in which Wallander is on a case when someone starts killing people with an ax and scalping them. "Firewall" has Wallandar trying to link the deaths of a taxi drive and systems analyst with a series of blackouts. In "One Step Behind," the assassinations of a group of teens sets off a chain of events that leads back to Wallander.

To watch a preview of the PBS series, go here.
I highly recommend you watch or record these episodes.
For more info on the Kurt Wallander shows, go to this fan site
This series will be released on DVD on June 2.

More on Henning Mankell

On May 4 Henning Mankell revealed that Den orolige mannen will be the Swedish title of the final novel in the Wallander series . A literal translation of the title into English would be "The Worried/Nervous/Anxious/Restless Man"

The novel is completed and will be published in Sweden in August of 2009. The publication schedule for other languages is unknown at this point.