Kurt Wallander Series on PBS

Catch the reruns!

In May, PBS showed adaptations of three books from Henning Mankell’s series featuring Kurt Wallander: Sidetracked, Firewall, and One Step Behind. (Visit Henning Mankell’s Web site to learn more about his writing.)

I’ve been a Mankell/Wallander fan for a long time. As always, I was concerned that the shows would stay as true as possible to the books and to the character of Wallander. Fortunately, I was pleased with both.

Kenneth Branagh stars as the dedicated, chronically tired, overweight, sloppily dressed Swedish policeman. Given that each adaptation is only around 90 minutes long, the stories cut to the meat of the crime story with little time spent on extraneous relationships, except that of Kurt and his daughter Linda.

I hope there will be more to come. If you’re a mystery buff, catch them if you can.

By Nancy Jelinek
Broadening Horizons Blog