The White Lioness

Compared to Wallander Seasons 1 to 3 the first episode of Season 4 was a major disappointment. There was very little continuity with the other Wallender episodes or any of the other Wallander series cast. If this was the only episode of Wallender I had seen of this series I would definitely have stopped watching. Very Slow and Boring.

After waiting a few years for the final season, I was hoping for a well thought out and performed episode. There is the possibility that the other Episodes of the final Wallander series 4 will be better, but I am not very optimistic. It is not clear if the Story was weak or just the acting or performance. Instead of having a Swedish policemen in South Africa it might have been a better idea for Wallender to remain in Sweden.

...that's been don e numerous times and the 'revelation' falls flat. I also found it strange that when Branham first meets the Swedish spouse of the missing wife he doesn't even use a smidgen of Swedish

The late novelist Henning Mankell was interested in the plight of immigrants. We see this over the course of the Wallander stories. Various immigrants of whatever nationalities being exploited. In one of the adventures the villain regularly goes over to Africa to exploit vulnerable people over there. Mankell was a humanist and frustrated and angry with the inequalities and exploitation prevalent in Africa. He himself had spent a lot of time in Mozambique.

This is the final series of the English language version Of Wallander. In this episode we see him jogging in Cape Town. Keeping fit is not something we have seen him do before. He is in South Africa attending a conference but son becomes involved in a disappearance of a Swedish lady. Her husband is agitated and blames the local police of dragging their feet.

Wallander finds out that she got lost due to an incorrect map and ended somewhere in the wrong time and the wrong place. This place being used for target practice for the possible assassination of a rising ANC politician who plans to halt lucrative tourist development schemes.

Kenneth Branagh as usual plays Wallander as subdued, even pained. He is now a grandfather but still has little reason to be cheerful. The series has always been slow burn like many of the Scandi crime dramas. There are some nice set pieces. A more intimate one was the party scene in a cop's house. It was very much like a small party I have been to, I felt Wallander's behaviour very relaistic just look at the way he washes his hands and drys them on a paper towel. I was alo impressed with the big crowd scene gathered for the political rally at the end of the episode, it is a kind of epicness usually found in cinema films. It also allows Mankell's thoughts to weave through the episode where even those politicians who fought against oppression can get corrupted.

What a great first episode to begin UK Wallander's fourth season (The White Lioness). It was so nice to see that Kurt had actually shaved and had his hair cut. But seriously, the passion, compassion and sensitivity, not to mention courage, that Wallander showed in assisting the investigation in South Africa was, in whole cloth, awesome. Not only was it a good story in itself, but the episode also gave us a brief glimpse of the negative impact that greed can have, even on former do-gooders who start out with, probably, the best of intentions. And I know it's not a popular theme or idea these days, but the episode also gave us a brief glimpse of how far South Africa has come since the abolition of the racist and brutal system of apartheid, and, more importantly, how far there is yet to go.

Kudos to Kenneth Branagh (did you see his performance in the 1991 TV movie "Conspiracy?" If not, treat yourself and watch it), to the late novelist Henning Mankell, to screen writer James Dormer, and to director Benjamin Caron.

The book is about Wallander stumbling over a murder and various odd bits of evidence and sending a telex. He never leaves Sweden. There is no South African woman detective. In fact the book is extremely boring. A good seven chapters in the Africa section could be pulled and never missed.

What we have in this episode, however, is good entertainment. It is far better than the book. Far better.