Man in Room 301

We've now got used to these thrillers dramas etc . I looked forward to this one , my biggest problem is the way they've put it together , jumping to different years so if you look away for a second suddenly you find it's leapt back or forward to a random year it seems !! Otherwise it's pretty enjoyable but it does need your full concentration

Even the title is a red herring.but forgivable as this is a well constructed thriller .perhaps it takes you down to many misleading avenues .but it is never less than absorbing.

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).

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.

The casting was all wrong. The audience were drawn into a "who is it" rather than a "who dunnit" plot and the production cheated. Leo (confusingly played by Elias Gould) - was an obvious choice to play the older Elias Leppo. He would have been very believable and had the right colour hair. In the end it proved that Elias Leppo was played by somebody who looked nothing like the younger version of himself and even had the wrong hair colouring. Ginger hair does not turn into black!!! Add in the holes in the plot and the end was all rather disappointing after a promising start. Even the title was misleading.