Wallander: Series 2 (2009-10)

basics...
Picking up 3 years after the end of the first series, Krister Henriksson's final 13 cases as Kurt Wallander see the dour Swedish detective and his team in a new police house, with a couple of new cadets, Isabelle (Nina Zanjani) and Pontus (Sverrir Gudnason) and resident police prosecutor Katarina (Lena Endre), and a whole host of new crimes to solve. 

brilliant...
Wallander is back and as good as if not better than ever. Sadly lacking Johanna Sällström's Linda, following the actress' suicide, the show cleverly refuses to explain away Kurt's daughter's absence, but it is implied that she's dead - the real life tragedy gives Henriksson's portrayal as Kurt an added depth. Kurt clearly sees something of Linda in Isabelle, making him over protective of her creating some nice relationships fairly quickly with the new recruits. Of course the main relationship this series is Kurt and Katarina's will-they-won't-they attraction that is never resolved on screen. Endre provides an excellent counterpoint to Kurt and the pair are a joy to watch, whether flirting or arguing - Kurt does a good line in jealousy too. 

The other new guy, Pontus, is a hottie, and he's also got issues that thankfully don't lead him to the extremes of Stefan in the first series, though he does get beaten up and shot a lot. Nyberg (Mats Bergman) provides excellent comic relief, and in one scene, where he hugs a post-explosion Kurt, proves to be an emotional presence. With Linda gone, the focus of this series is more firmly on Kurt, allowing the character to develop further than in the first series, in his relationships with colleagues, with new dog, Jussi, and with his job, which he realises has taken over his life. The cases this season are exciting, grisly and occasionally controversial, with shootings, explosions and gas-emitting flowers adding to the excitement.

but...
There's no more Wallander! The final episode felt like a fitting end to the series, with Kurt provided a truthful and welcome conclusion that sees him finally choose his own happiness with Katarina over the job. If I had to pick an actual fault with the series it would only be that the villains all too often turned out to be foreign, whether German, Polish or Lithuanian. But that's only a minor niggle in what was an astonishingly brilliant series.

briefly...
Superior Swedish drama, with excitement, heart and a few laughs, featuring top rate acting talent. There's going to be a Wallander-shaped hole in my viewing schedule.