There's a fairly good premise for this show, which I only feel is effectively utilised in Series 2, but more on that later.
Reviewing Series 1 individually, it's shockingly bad. The chemistry between Peter Stormare and Johan Glans is a bit hit or miss, and for a show based entirely off their partnership, it needed to be stronger. The usually reliable Stormare also has a lot of questionable line delivery here, and I actually ended up thinking Glans came across as a stronger actor.
My main issue with Series 1 comes from the stories in the individual episodes and the overarching plot involving Ingmar's investigation into the death of his former stuntman partner, Tex Johnson. The individual cases that Ingmar and Axel have to set out to solve are often quite inane, with their being no ingenuity or wit in the writing which meant there was very little to be invested in. The comedy side of things also falls flat, as whilst the set up for jokes is there the timing for their delivery was often off.
The overarching plot about Tex does initially provide some intrigue, but it leads to an incredibly obvious twist that he's still alive. You could have picked up on this at the end of the very first episode, when it shows Ingmar being held at gunpoint by Tex, who you can still see clearly in the background! It's presented through Ingmar in voiceover basically saying 'If you wondered how I ended up in this situation, than that's a story for another time'. It genuinely baffles me as to why this was included.
One of the more grating aspects of Series 1 was Ingmar's voiceover. It very obviously states his thoughts and feelings or the theme of the episode, which then for some reason tends to be repeated anyway in the very next scene. There's no subtlety at all to it, which extends to all the dialogue anyway.
The actual production also doesn't do much to avoid feeling cheap. The sets tend to feel rather empty and basic, and in a couple of cases sunlight completely blocks out a shot, yet they still decided to leave it in.
It all builds up to an unearned conclusion, which had made me felt like I had wasted my time watching it.
Series 2 did demonstrate some area of improvement though. There's a much stronger grasp on the character writing, competent dialogue that isn't inane, and the overarching plot for this series. That involves an issue with Axel finding out he's actually staying in the USA illegally. It isn't anything complex, but it's actually incorporated somewhat effectively throughout the episodes, which is more than can be said for the Tex storyline in Series 1.
What I'm most thankful for is the removal of Ingmar's voiceover. It does give a bit more nuance to the character when he's not just blankly stating his exact thoughts, so I'm thankful that the creative team saw it as a mistake.
Jokes also tend to land far more often, and in a couple of episodes the way the pair solve some of their cases is actually done in a fairly clever way. Unfortunately, the majority of episodes still conclude the investigations in a ridiculous fashion, but again it's something of a step in the right direction.
If a Series 3 is made then hopefully the could shore up the writing even further, but a lot of work would still need to be done.
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