Pretty Good

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Someone is seen securing a house from the outside, as the episode begins. This person is up to no good, so when gas is filtered to the interior through the air conditioning vents, we watch, in horror, as a boy, first, then a woman succumb to the lethal gas. Meanwhile, Annika is asked by Schyman, her boss, if she would like to take over for the retiring Spiken, and be in charge of the news division. Annika reaction could not be more explicit: she is a natural reporter, what would she do stuck in an office? Naturally, she would be miserable. The job goes to the odious Patrik Nilsson, a man with no talent. In the first staff meeting Annika, who has picked up the news about a family being asphyxiated in Malaga because they are Swedes. Patrik decides to get rid of his nemesis by sending her to investigate the strange incident. Annika, like anyone unfamiliar with a foreign country, has problems following the trail that will allow her to perform her duties as a criminal journalist. Her luck changes as she goes to see Niklas Linde, a Swedish police liaison, working in Malaga. What Annika is not prepared for the web of crime surrounding the death of the well known Swedish athlete Sebastian Soderstrom, his wife Veronika, and the two children. She will also go through a complicated scheme of how drugs are sent to Sweden via Spain.Annika is told by Linde to hire a local translator. She gets more than what she bargained for in the person of the duplicitous Carita who obviously is well connected in Spain, as well as in Stockholm. Her investigation will take her to Gibraltar and Tangier, where she goes looking for Suzette Soderstrom, a missing piece in the puzzle. Finally, she will get into a confrontation with the kingpin of the drug trade, in which she could lose her life.The final episode of this fine Swedish series came with a bang. Based on the work of Liza Marklund, the episode was adapted for television by Alex Haridi, and directed with fantastic pacing by Peter Flinth. The episode moves fast, leaving the viewer wanting more. In Marin Crepin, the creators of the series struck gold. This young actress is terrific. Her Annika is a complex young woman, balancing a career she loves, with her own personal life, which suffers on account of the hours she spends away from home, and family. The rest of the ensemble players are just as wonderful. One can only hope there will be another season soon.