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Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall were the originators of Martin Beck and the tales from the Stockholm Police Department, one of which was used to make this movie. And the movie gets everything wrong, not just the novel upon which this film is based.

Wahloo and Sjowall, who were married, were well known in Sweden. Their reputations survived this movie. One movie, at least, Man on a Roof, was made in Sweden, and was released in the original language in the U. S. It may be available (used, no doubt) in the version with English subtitles. It is worth seeing.

This movie isn't. Read the books instead.

I've written about this hitherto literary device that people seem to fall for in droves. Namely, the arch-villain who repeatedly targets a cop and the cop's friends for a vague motive of revenge. I'll say it once more: This doesn't happen at all in real life. Let me repeat it louder: THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN IN POLICE WORK AT ALL.

Now, you can write a show to portray how crime and cops work in real life, or you can write nonsense like this. Hollywood loves the nonsense, because the writers have been schooled in idiocy for ages. The good cop shows, NYPD Blue, Chicago P. D., etc. Play things very straight. As a result, their story lines usually track reality. Then there are shows like this, which usually play things straight but still can't resist the melodramatic thrill of the arch villain, the "White Whale". It was silly in Melville's time, and it continues to be a cheap writing cop out.

Criminals almost always have simple, specific aims: Money, sex, sometimes revenge. That's it. They do not do their criming out of an obsession with a particular police officer or detective. Rizzoli & Isles, which is often a very good show with decent acting, falls for this cheap trick much too often.

And we get dross like this episode for a result. A test pattern has more drama than this. So does deep sleep, which you are better off seeking than this idiocy. What almost saves it is the acting. The writers, though, should be shot.