User reviews

A bleak portrayal of Helsinki. The series evolve around the crimes of Finlands capitol and the empathetic homicide detective Timo Harjunpää who tries very hard not to take the darkness he encounters while at work, back home to his family. The series come off to a slow start but the characters slowly get under your skin. Although I can understand that some might find the stories of the Helsinki crimes boring and unimaginative, in my belief they are realistic and a well-made portrayal of the sometimes tedious and strenuous day-to-day work of a homicide squad under pressure. Yes, it lacks sensational plot twists and bombastic action, but it gains in depth over time. Just like in the real world, you got to give it time to get to know someone. I give the first half of season 1 a solid 6, the second half a well deserved 7.

I'm intrigued by two issues that keep repeating in this series. Almost as if the writers had a purpose in making this other than the just making a tv show show.

The first is that the police in Finland are grossly underpaid. There are constant references to senior police almost living in poverty, unable to look after their families.

There is also an obsession with the claim that junior offenders don't get punished there. In many scenes the offenders are arrested and lean back unaffected and say "it's ok I'm underage - I'll just get off with community service"

I felt like screaming at the tv "just record the conversation and play it to the judge!"

Many of the issues concerning the privates lives of the police are just bland and uninteresting as if they just felt the need to throws that in.

The family matters and stuff outside the actual cases are pretty ordinary Finnish stuff; nothing too fancy or shiny but exactly as you'd imagine things to be. The cases themselves aren't too special either, maybe slightly over the top when it comes to local crime culture. Not saying these things don't happen here but let's say these aren't that common in regular police work in Finland.

Overall looks and feels like a Finnish police show; a bit of a low-key ordinary police work, but clearly not aimed for worldwide audience. That must have been an afterthought. Subtitles lose a lot in translation but they're still passable.

The original TV show based on the books was filed in the eighties and it also was a depiction of that day's policework.

Disturbing police procedural portraying the dark and gritty underbelly of society. Very reminiscent of Silent Witness stories if you put aside the pathology aspect, the series has a focus on the motivations of the perpetrators and what drives them to commit their crimes. The novels the series is based on were mostly written in the 80's by a serving sergeant in the Helsinki violent crime unit providing fictionalised accounts of the cases he worked on.

Don't expect inspired deductive work from the detectives though, these are by the numbers police officers who spend most of their time grumbling about their working hours and failing to respond with urgency when given leads that could prevent further crimes.

Very depressing series with depresses characters. Helsinki need a PR team to counter balance this show. Each two part crime is seedy with unlikeable characters and a team of police who generally stumble upon DNA or an eyewitness to solve the crime. So many other cop shows do it better.such as Thin Blue Line from Sweden.

This Finnish crime series is set in the city of Helsinki, as its English name suggests, and is centred on two cops; Timo Harjunpää and Onerva Nykänen. Each story takes place over the course of two episodes. This is not really a murder mystery series; in most stories the identity of the criminals is made clear to the viewer from the start and a fair amount of each story is spent following the criminals activities. The cases are varied; in one an incel killer is targeting women, in the second two teenage boys attack a drunk man and in the third a couple launch a campaign of computer based misery against a millionaire. Away from their work we see how their careers impact on their family lives.

I thought this was a solid series. I was expecting a murder-mystery but wasn't disappointed by this series' different approach. Knowing the identity of the criminals means we can understand their motives even when they are clearly unreasonable. Timo and Onerva are good protagonists; they come across as ordinary people doing a difficult job rather than the typical 'characters' on finds in crime dramas. The cast does a solid job; most obviously Olli Rahkonen and Olga Temonen as our two leads. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of crime drama who don't mind the lack of mystery; I hope we get the second season here soon.

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

Timo is the type of officer that the world needs more of not less. He's quiet, unassuming, and doesn't grandstand like so many "cops." Timo has a lovely family and a wife who understands her husband's role as a police officer. Too many series cast cop-wives as demanding and lacking understanding, jealous, and simply tedious. Timo's team is low-key as well. His female partner is unassuming and doesn't try to compete with other members of her team. The best part is Timo doesn't sleep with his partner like almost cops in every crime series. The pace is slow. No special effects. The episodes range from typical crimes to a couple bizarre ones. No flexing muscles. No macho nonsense. I look forward to Season 2.

Generic characters. Generic glass cop station offices. Generic good guy detective. Generic cool tough female partner (still sufficiently eye candy). Generic concerned boss (he's working too hard). Generic (ie utterly shallow) bad guy incel computer gamer who's also, obviously, a generic rapist (attacking generic lone women on generic parkway paths after dark). Generic forensics team. Generic cityscape night shots. Generic dumb uniformed cops. Generic beautiful spouse and kids. Generic soundtrack. Generic dialogue (ok, make that sub-generic). If you like your hot food gone cold and your cool drinks tepid and flat, you'll love this.

It's not a format I like, that we see the murderers at the beginning of the episodes and then watch the supposed detective work to catch them. As this TV series is based on a series of crime novels, I assume that this is the system used in the books. In either medium, this would be a deficiency to me.

I can guess at why it was done this way. Both of the stories I watched (it's one story per two episodes) involved or less random crimes. It would be really hard for a viewer to guess at whodunnit. Agatha Christie this is not, it's more like Columbo which I also never took to.

I loved seeing parts of Helsinki that I know or have been to which is why I gave a three. But I just knew that I have better things lined up to watch which is why I deleted the lot.

Weird camera work, like handheld and randomly out of focus. Maybe it's a art-thing but I doubt it. It's like watching a commercial of dishwasher tablets.

There is no way of knowing if acting is any good, because show cuts every 3-5 seconds. Writing is not anything to write about.

Finland has limited supply of actors, all of them had been doing something else while this show was casted.

For some reason they had a car chase between an electric Wolksvagen and a scooter. That was the best part and it looked like some ones high school project.

Olga Temomen does a great job acting like this was a christian after school special.

Maybe the books are better?

It's been done better and in a more interesting way, this hackneyed plot that has painting by numbers characters, one dimensional and incredibly dull.

You don't have to be Hercule Poirot to see the next telegraphed cliché coming as the plot clunks along like a broken toy car, have we had so much good scandi stuff now we are getting the Poundland stuff, ch 4 has had some real clunkers recently I'm wondering if Walter needs a rest from TV and a Netflix subscription? I couldn't get through episode one I was too bored by the standard of the script, we need something light hearted in this current world.

There is so much lacking that I'm not sure where to start.

There is hardly any in-depth character development - at all.

Which seems to be both due to script as well as storyline as well as a lack of ability of the actors.

There is no real suspense buildup of any kind and you're kinda left scratching your head at what's "happening" - or not.

I honestly gave it a fair shot but was mostly left with a lot of question marks throughout every episode & generally underwhelmed.

I would call it amateuristic but an amateur series can still be good. This serie just shows a lack of talent imho and I wonder how no one was honest enough to tell the maker(s) during the proces.