zigzagtom My wife and I enjoy mystery/crime drama series, particularly those from Europe. This series is one of the best, even though it has been around for quite a while. The plot lines are interesting, sometimes even captivating, the characters are sometimes fascinating (such as Beck's friend in the adjoining apartment), the character interrelationships sophisticated, and the settings well thought-out and realistic. Because I've spent some time in Sweden (particularly Stockholm), I also enjoy the series for personal reasons. I'm particularly enthusiastic about the lead character, Beck, who is not cast as an exceptional, almost super-human individual but, rather, as a thoughtful, sometimes vulnerable, but still very intelligent and caring human. My wife and I give it two thumbs up (to use another rating system). Tom Nelson

laura I have written at length already about my ideas as they relate to international mystery shows. For those of us in the U.S. accustomed to Law and Order and CSI, with maybe a little Masterpiece Mystery thrown in for good measure, it may or may not surprise that many other countries have a robust tradition of detective and cop shows. Italy, France, Finland... The list goes on and on. Many of these shows are wonderful.Some of the very best of these come from Scandinavia. They include the omnipotent Wallander -- the mother of all mystery shows. But there are also less well-known series, like Beck. (I always have to laugh because evidently "Beck" is trademarked... I can't help but wonder how the internationally famous musician feels about that...).At any rate, Martin Beck and his compadres in the Homicide Division have been solving murders on television since the late 90's (there have been about 30 episodes made since then). The shows are "movie" length -- 90 minutes, so you have plenty of time to get thoroughly engaged. The stories are based on books by Mai Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö that I have not read (but admit I should). Thanks to the invaluable MHz International Mystery (and also my local provider, Comcast), I have watched several episodes.Beck (played wonderfully by Peter Haber) has a sidekick (of course he does!), Larsson (played by the smoldering Mikael Persbrandt), and where Beck is a pretty decent, well-intentioned chap (especially compared to some of his maladjusted counterparts in other Scandinavian series), his partner is a sort of Darth Vader to Beck's Luke. Larsson is the ultimate Bad Cop. He is bigoted. He's violent. He's snarky. He's funny and yet he's frightening. He does things cops shouldn't do. The discordance between the two characters is pitch-perfect, and adds to the fascination.The plots are very good indeed. The pacing is perfect -- not too frenetic, and yet not too languid. They are right in the Goldilocks Zone. But be forewarned that the stories can be extremely disturbing. For example, a baby in a bassinet is viciously dropped to her death from a balcony. I can't help but think in most U.S. shows, the threat of such a terrible death would be made, but the action would not occur. But here, we see it happen, and to be honest I'm pretty sure I wish I hadn't. The audience is in no way protected from the brutality.Amazingly, and unlike many of the other series out of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, there is some blessed comic relief provided in the episodes, in the guise of Grannen, Beck's bizarre (to put it mildly) next-door neighbor. I don't want to spoil anything about him for you here. So I'll just say if he doesn't make you laugh out loud at your TV, then you might need to work on your sense of humor.These are really quite good. If you're a mystery fan, they'll be worth your time to watch, and your money if you want to buy the DVDs. And, as always, thanks to MHz International Mystery for all you do!

GilBlas After having exhausted, it seemed, the supply of British mystery/police-procedural series, I turned my attention to foreign (non-English-language) productions. If you are not averse to subtitles, you will find among foreign productions some outstanding series in this genre, and "Beck" is one of them. "Beck" – after "Wallander" and "Van Veeteren" – is the third Swedish-language police- procedural series I have watched, and it may be the best, which is high praise. I should qualify that by saying I have watched only the first 18 episodes of "Beck" (produced from 1997 to 2005), available in the USA as sets 1 through 6. Eight subsequent episodes have been produced and released on DVD, but not yet, as far as I can tell, with Region 1 encoding. "Beck," which aired as a Swedish TV series from 1997 to 2009, is based on the books of Mai Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö in which Inspector Martin Beck, the lead detective of a special homicide team of the Swedish police, was the central character. I gather that the team (in this series) is based in Stockholm, but the crimes they investigate are not limited to that city. Each episode is approximately 90 minutes in length and represents a complete case. I found the stories to be uniformly engrossing, and in several there were twists at the end that I did not see coming. Tying the episodes together is a cadre of well-cast, well-acted characters that appear in all, or nearly all, episodes, and other characters whose tenure spans fewer episodes. Three characters, who appear in all episodes, merit special mention: Beck: level-headed, insightful, possessed of more of an everyman quality than most leading characters (he reminded me of my junior high biology teacher); Gunvald, Beck's right-hand man: brash, swaggering, politically incorrect, tough – the iron fist in Beck's velvet glove; Grannen: Beck's wonderfully eccentric neighbor - he rarely failed to make me laugh. Note: As a result of having read a user review (on another site) that lauded the series but was critical of the quality of the video transfer, especially in light of the fact the reviewer considered the DVD sets to be pricey, I purchased just one set and was attentive to image quality when I watched the first episode. What I found was that the video transfer is not state of the art but neither is it bad. More importantly, it quickly ceased to be an issue as I was pulled into the series. And after I finished the first set, I purchased the remaining five.

SurstrommingKing This series has been around for quite a few years, and it has been airing as of lately on the MHz Network during the international mystery and drama hour each week. I'm quite enjoying it—as aforementioned by other users, the two main actors, Haber and Persbrandt (who play Martin Beck and Gunvald Larsson, respectively) are phenomenal at interpreting the roles they are assigned. The series is well-written, and each character has a great deal of personality—the viewer is able to grow with the characters as they continue their assignments throughout the series. That being said, the other actors deserve applause as well.I would definitely recommend this program to other fans of mystery and suspense... I think this series is a bit under-appreciated where I am (I'm not from Sweden), and it deserves more publicity here, although it isn't as recent as many other shows.