Annika

The punch line is that I enjoyed the show and would recommend you give it a try, a few episodes to better appreciate it.

I saw a lot of one-star reviews on this show. Usually that signals unhappiness due to racism or anger at having diversity in characters after 70 years of all straight white men all the time, but that doesnt seem to be the case here. So I will address a few of the complaints.

Tired of detectives with messy personal lives and especially stroppy teenagers. Okay, I will admit I was pleased with the Rowan Atkinson version of Maigret because Finally a detective had a good marriage. But as for this show, I wonder how many of the reviewers who pointed that out were a bit stroppy themselves as teenagers? Plus if they had w...

Annika is a touch above the usual conveyor belt, crime drama's we have come to expect from the UK.

The key to its success, is its not afraid to be intelligent and witty. The key character often launches into what the world of drama call, asides. A dramatic technique, often associated with Shakespearean productions, where a character steps outside of the play and addresses the audience, directly. Its interesting to see this technique utilised in this context and oddly, it works. That's because Annika typically has something engaging, to say.

By contrast, the crimes Annika and her team solve, are fairly pedestrian. Its a shame they could not have come up with intelligent tales to match the well crafted, characterisations. While we are ...