Moscow Noir

After watching Young Wallander on Netflix, I was in the mood for more Scandi TV and found this on All 4. Yet again, Adam Palsson plays the protagonist and he's easy on the eye and better in this than YW. A strong supporting cast and excellent production values lift this twisty thriller set in the world of high finance, above the usual potboiler and it's quite gripping in parts. It does get a little convoluted as it goes along but it's still entertaining enough. I can see comparisons being made with "McMafia" but this is not in the same league. The theme music and titles are awesome!

The setting (Moscow) and the hook (large-scale financial shenanigans) are intriguing, but the plot is flimsy and contrived and the characters are so unreal that anyone might say or do anything anytime anywhere. The killings that drive the plot make no sense if you pause to think about it, and the reveal at the end is just a bore. (Also completely unbelievable is the main character's "mysterious" back-story.) This is sort of like those "airport thrillers" that bored travelers used to read to pass the time on long flights; it doesn't matter if you finish the book, you just toss it in the trash can when you reach your destination and never think about it again.

In spite of hopes and wishes from the 1990ies, Russia has not "westernised", but has somewhat imported its approaches and modus operandi into relations and dealings with the West. In Moscow Noir, most events take place in Russia, with most performers of non-Russian origin, enabling to develop events and scenes with additional thrill and appropriate mood.

Adam Pålsson is good as usual (perhaps his character is somewhat less interesting than in Innan vi dör), and he has many pleasant co-actors to side with him, enabling to wend his way through cruelty, greed and betrayal. True, this Series includes again some talks in horrible Russian and I figured the main wrongdoer out a bit too early, but as for entirety, the 8 episodes were pleasant to follow and are recommended to those not against of political elements in a thriller.

Partly to be juxtaposed with the BBC´s McMafia.

This Swedish series is set in Moscow at the turn of the Twenty First Century. Swede Tom Blixen works as an investment banker for an international company. When his friend's wife, Olga Ukolova, tells him they are having financial problems he agrees to look through their investments and see if there are any of any value. Most of their shares are worthless but there is a possibility; Tom thinks some apparently worthless oil shares might have some value. He tries to acquire the other shares he can find hoping to arrange a merger with another oil company... soon shareholders are starting to be murdered. As the story continues we are taken deeper into a world of dangerous oligarchs, corrupt politicians and learn more about why Tom came to Russia in the first place.

I really enjoyed this tense thriller. It might not be the first to explore the murky world of Russian business; 'McMafia' explored similar territory as did the film 'Gorky Park', which was set in the Soviet era; but it still had plenty of original ideas. Once the action started, in the first episode, there was constant tension which managed to increase as the story approached its conclusion. The cast did a fine job; most notably Adam Pålsson, who played Tom; Karolina Gruszka, who played Olga; and Georg Nikoloff, who played Prosecutor Dmitri Skurov. As the conclusion approaches there are some twists and nice misdirection. Overall I'd recommend this series to fans of the genre.

It was ok overall but I wouldn't watch it again. Plot is over complicated and acting very hammy in places. Oh- and the soundtrack is just awful and overplayed. Very annoying.