El rastro

I'm a big fan of Scandinavian crime dramas. They do crime as well as any...just top notch! This is a serious and relatable human drama. The actors / actresses are top-notch, especially the lead character. Very compelling plot and some lovely cinematography.

Apparently based on a true story. I wasn't familiar with the story but truly sad for the families of the victims.

I also loved the soundtrack for the series. Melancholy, emotive but fitting for the series and characters. As I said, the actors are excellent and draw you into their pain of loss. Sorry to repeat but oddly there is a minimum word count required for a review.

It's subtle, emotional and atmospheric.

Actors did a good job.

Simple and yet impactful storytelling.

In 4 episodes that they did quite well. No unwanted plot twists.

A miniseries which I enjoyed after quite sometime.

Went into it without any seeing any review and end up writing one.

Touches upon the pain of loosing and many other topics without being over melodramatic.

I will recommend this miniseries for you all the watch. It's a good watch for cold winter day.

One of the best swedish drama to come out way.

Go watch and let me know how did you like it.

Enjoy your day and have a good year.

For a drama that was dubbed (and I think the same people dubbed several characters in this one) The Breakthrough was surprisingly watchable, and it seemed well acted.

So many of these sort of crime dramas are padded out, but this was just about the right duration.

It was based on a true story, so we knew the ending wouldn't be contrived, even if it was somewhat tame.

There was a eureka moment of course, but it was really all about the process, and the strain on those involved trying to solve this crime, and those hoping to see it solved.

In most crimes that take many years and DNA advancements to solve, there are the 'if onlys'. If only the police had pursued certain lines of inquiry, or investigated potential suspects, more thoroughly at the time. This was one of those.

As a fan of Scandinavian TV and films, I thought this show was really well-made. I am not Swedish so I wasn't familiar with this story (I was too young when it happened to have seen it on the news) so it was surprising to hear that this is Sweden's 2nd largest case in history.

It is atypical for a Nordic show in that there is very little action and few characters outside of the main cast of about 4 actors. There are no big name stars or pointless, dragged out filler scenes or dialogue. There's a lot of detail that shows how the case developed and the writers were wise not to make us wait 10 episodes before getting to the arc of the plot. The show is more about the story and less about the actual characters beyond short bursts of their personal lives.

The acting is better from the families, whose lives we don't get to see too much of. This was fine since I think subplots can take away from the main points of the show. It was slower than many Hollywood productions but I appreciate how this was actually a mini series with 4 episodes and not anything longer!

As an intermediate genealogist I watched this film because that is my area of interest. I thought the acting was well done and the actors were chosen well for their parts. The version I watched was dubbed but was the best dubbing I've ever seen. It was easy to forget it was dubbed.

I don't however think the script was written well. I think the most interesting part of the story is that these crimes were solved through DNA and genealogy. It should have made that the main focus of the film. If I knew nothing about forensic genealogy I would have come away from this film learning nothing more. I found the description of forensic genealogy in the film very spotty, confusing for the average person, and a missed opportunity to really highlight the genius and practical application of it. One would think from watching the film that a genealogist sticks pieces of paper on a whiteboard and looks at confusing data on a screen. There is far more involved. They should have hired a genealogist to bring a true representation of genealogy to the screen showing (and explaining) the magic of building a tree through the present to the past and back to the present down through all the family lines from a distant ancestor and how exactly that is done using public archival records and DNA. There was simply no magic in this film and no understanding of the process.