Last summer, PBS brought us the latest Lynley series and the 'new' Lewis series, Lewis being the second banana to Morse. Both were bombs. This summer's bomb is Walander.
I've read most of the Walander novels and really liked them. It's possible that since I haven't read one for a couple of years that my liking them was a youthful aberration. But, since I can vividly recall WWII, I doubt that I've been young fairly recently. The novels by Henning Mankell are top-notch and make for very good mystery reading. Combine a wonderful series of novels with Kenneth Branagh, who was considered the young Olivier, and one would expect a gripping tv series, or, in PBS-speak, a masterpeice. Notice that I used a lower-case 'm', as this series is terrible.
I can't recall Walander driving a car as much in the stories (which eats up 5 - 10% of the time), nor can I recall him entering a place with his gun drawn as often, nor was he as stupid as the tv character is. And thank God there are no sound effects with the books; the music in the tv series is terrible. Branagh may be a great actor, but all he does here is stare into space (which takes up another 25% of the time).
1 comment:
I, too, was really looking forward to the series, having been turned on to the books by a favorite uncle. Though I want to love it, I find myself completely deflated as the program drags on. The other detectives are TERRIBLE, ditto on the driving, and didn't Wallander sleep anywhere else than in his ugly brown chair? Good thing I read the books already, because this series won't sell any for Mankell. Not that he cares ....
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