Wallander (TV Series) Tjuven (2009) User Reviews

The thief

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 27 April 2011]

A suburban area of Ystad has been plagued with burglaries. At the same time, young vandals are breaking windows in stores to steal the mannequins used clothes. Three neighbors whose homes have been robbed, decide to begin their own patrolling at night. These citizens do not trust the police to apprehend the criminals that seem to have a free reign of their neighborhood. All break-ins seem to be done by one man, acting alone. The thief finds something unusual in one of the houses, the body of a woman, in a basement wrapped in plastic. He decides to take a picture of what he saw.

Three of the robbery victims, Olle, Ralf and Peter begin to patrol their area one night. They get lucky when they see one man coming out of a house with a bag full of what they perceive as stolen goods. The three friends run after the man, getting him in a desolate rural area. There, they decide to give him a lesson. Olle is the one that shows a cruelty that does not match that of his two neighbors. The battered man is left in the field, while they decide to go back home.

Maja, a Polish woman, calls the station to report the disappearance of her husband, Jarek. Svartman is dispatched to take the information. The woman is clearly living in Sweden illegally. She is distraught, to the point she is incapable to make something to eat for her two children. Svartman, feels badly about what he found and gives Maja a hand. It is most unusual situation. Jarek's cell phone is found at home. The phone will be key in solving the mystery of his disappearance.

Nyberg gets lucky when he downloads the pictures in Jarek's camera. One frame in particular will be the one that will help solve the mystery. One of the three volunteer vigilantes has a lot to explain, as to the disappearance of his own wife, and the whereabouts of the thief. Kurt Wallander becomes friendly with Elias, Katarina's son. He even tries to become interested in soccer, a passion of the young man. It is clear the attraction to the District Attorney is there. What's more, she shows signs of enjoying his company, that is, until her estranged husband returns for a visit.

Stephan Apelgren, a man that has contributed a lot to the series, directed. Lars Lundstrom adapted the Henning Mankell material. Parts of it were vaguely familiar to us, but in trying to find out the original source, none is given in the IMDb page, so we are not sure if it was based on a short story, or parts taken from a book we have not read.

Krister Henriksson is the reason for watching the series. Not having seen the Kenneth Brannagh version, we cannot compare, but for our taste, Mr. Henriksson is the definite Kurt Wallander. Lena Endre is a welcome addition. Jacob Eriksson has some good moments as Olle.l

Convergence of the Twain

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 1 December 2015]

Two events become inter-connected. A group of householders become angry with the lack of help from the police when a series of burglaries take place. They decide to take matters into their own hands and form a vigilante group, roaming the neighborhood in hoodies and dark clothes, watching for anything suspicious. Meanwhile, a Polish immigrant with a family heads to the house of a friend to get some tools. He is accosted by these guys and in their anger and overzealousness, they kill him. One man in particular gets carried away. The second thing is a phone picture, from a cell phone belonging to the Polish man, of a woman, obviously dead and wrapped in plastic. The problem is there is no way of finding where it was taken or where she is. Kurt gets caught up in this neighborhood because his girlfriend's son has him for a soccer coach. This makes it hard to be heavy handed. This episode works pretty well and as is often the case, the end is harsher than more conventional dramas.

Vigilantes in Ystad

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 18 April 2010]

After a series of burglaries in Ystad three local men decide to start their own patrols as they aren't satisfied with the police response. They catch a Polish man who appears to be robbing a house and severely beat him before leaving him in the woods. The next day the man's wife reports him missing; it turns out he wasn't robbing the house, he was just collecting some tools needed for work. The plot thickens when the missing man's wife gives his phone to the police and they find a photograph of what appears to be a dead woman wrapped in plastic sheeting. The police now have a problem, it appears that there may have been two murders and they don't have a body for either possible victim. When he isn't investigating the murders Wallander is getting closer to colleague and neighbour Katarina by taking her son to football, he even gets roped in to a parents versus children match where he does not do too well.

I thought this was another good episode which kept me guessing as to who was guilty of what and what their real motives were. When the culprit was exposed it all made sense though. A slight weakness was Wallander's threat to quit when the prosecutor orders him to release the prime suspect due to lack of evidence; having police officers solve a case while suspended or resigned is rather cliché.