Man in Room 301

Usually, the Nordic nations are masters of thrill and suspense, with static meaning not boring, but here, in spite of a promising starting point, it becomes protracted soon, with too heavy dominance of burden and oppression. Perhaps the number of episodes could have been less (4, for instance), some confusing twists added, and the round-up less sophisticated. The characters and performances not too elaborate either...

Finland has produced several interesting crimes series, e.g. Sorjonen or Karppi. Alas, Huone 301 is long behind of them.

I have to admit I nearly gave up after the first episode. The constant toing and froing between now and back then was wearying and confusing. I stuck with it and by the end of episode two, things had started coming together.

I think this production suffers when compared to some of the other excellent stuff that has recently come out of Finland. It's nowhere near on the level of Sorjonen or All The Sins. Nonetheless, it's a competent, if predictable drama that entertains in a series of six manageable-length segments.

The plot twists and revelations are obvious a mile off. We know that the original accident cannot be as was alleged because we are not shown it in its entirety. It's also pretty obvious that the least likely person is going to be the baddie. And that the original plotters are going to get their just desserts.

There are gigantic plot holes, unfortunately. It's unlikely to the point of impossibility that any Finn (or even any Western European) would waltz off with someone else's kid, on one occasion taking him to another island, without parental consent which was not even sought. There were also dichotomies in some of the characters' personalities that made them act in ways that were not consistent with their previous motivations. I can't believe how superficial the police investigation was either nor how forensics, which were mentioned, didn't manage to drill down further to the truth.

I didn't binge watch. I took it at a pace of two episodes a day and that was quite enough. I was perfectly happy to have watched this for what it was which is an easy bit of confectionary to while away some empty afternoons (we are still locked down here).

This Finnish drama is set in two time periods; 2007 and 2019; the events in the former coming back to effect those in the later. In 2007 the Kurtii family have assembled to celebrate midsummer in a woodland area. Tommi, a young boy wanders off into the woods. Here troubled teen Elias Leppo is shooting a rifle. The next thing we know Tommi is dead; while it is strongly implied that certain things happened nothing is initially shown. In 2019 the family is planning to meet up again, this time in Greece. Shortly before they go Tommi's father and grandfather, who know what happened in 2007, receive letters implying a threat to Tommi's sisters and his twelve year old cousin, Kalle. The grandfather becomes convinced that 'Leo', the man staying in Room 301, is in fact Elias; a fear that is compounded when the man takes an interest in Kalle. As each timeline is shown we gradually learn the truth about what happened in 2007 and what is about to happen in 2019.

I rather enjoyed this short drama series. It was clear from early on that there would be many twists and turns and that certain things we assumed didn't happen quite as we thought... I deliberately wrote my precis after only four episodes to avoid accidental spoilers! The story moves at a good pace and there are plenty of tense moments including the heart-wrenching scenes where we finally see what happened to Tommi in 2007. The cast does a solid job and the locations, in Finland and Greece contrast nicely. Overall I'd recommend this to those who enjoy plenty of twists in their drama; just don't expect 'Scandi-Noir'.

These comments are based on watching the series in Finnish with English subtitles.

Unfortunately for me this show delivered characters that seemed to have very little emotion or energy. After watching all the episodes I actually read somewhere, that the script was British and that it was modified to better suit "the Finnish way of communication and self expression" which was considered to be more low-key. I cannot see why this would have been necessary, and cannot be happy with the result. They could have left a pulse at least...

There are some great supporting roles and actors such as Elias Gould and Elias Salonen, who bring the show to life. I was more interested in them, than in the "main family". The story itself is great, I liked the game with timelines and it did kind of pick up towards the end.

Wasted potential. Starts off strong and I was intrigued by the family secrets. But...This show was so frustrating to watch and the ending made no sense. Multiple creepy young men creep around, but no one ever seems to be creeped out until it's too late. I yelled "ASK WHY?!?!" at the screen many times. No one seems to want to know why anyone does inexplicable creepy things.