# Wallander (2008)

> A middle-aged Swedish police inspector struggles against rising violence in the quiet backwaters around Ystad.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/6763

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 89 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Henning Mankell
- Network: BBC One, PBS
- Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Richard McCabe, Jeany Spark, Sarah Smart, Sadie Shimmin, Tom Hiddleston, Barnaby Kay, David Warner
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178618/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, bleak, brooding, patient, atmospheric

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, valuing Kenneth Branagh's grounded lead performance and the bleak, measured Swedish police procedure adapted from Henning Mankell's novels.

## Synopsis

Wallander (2008-2016) is a British-Swedish co-produced police procedural series created by Henning Mankell for BBC One and PBS. Kenneth Branagh stars as Inspector Kurt Wallander, a middle-aged everyman detective in the provincial Swedish town of Ystad in Skane, southern Sweden. Alongside him, Richard McCabe plays the forensic technician Nyberg, Sarah Smart plays colleague Anne-Britt Hoglund, and Tom Hiddleston plays Magnus Martinsson. The engine of the show is Wallander's stubborn persistence as he chases murderers through cold leads, personal failings and a police station stretched thin, while violence intrudes on a landscape that looks sleepy from the outside. Each feature-length episode is built around a single investigation, and the four seasons unfold as a connected run of loosely serialized cases that carry his private troubles forward. Adapted from Henning Mankell's international bestselling novels, the series delivers a patient, melancholic and quietly bleak atmosphere, with long landscapes of snow and grey coastline. Fans of The Killing, The Bridge and Broadchurch will find resonance in its Nordic noir sensibility and its moody, character-driven investigations.

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