When the double murder in Linköping, Sweden, back in 2004 was finally solved after 16 years, it was a genealogist who made the breakthrough. For the first time in Europe, a murder could be solved through genealogical research.
Score: 7/10
tl,dr: A Swedish Olympic power walker attempts to solve a double murder using Ancestry.com
Based on a true story, this is a great little 4-episode limited series with < 1 hr long episodes that can easily be binged in a particularly lazy afternoon and keep you entertained. First and foremost, the show is in Swedish – you’ll need to be paying attention to read all the subtitles. If you choose to watch it dubbed in English (and have done so for other shows such as Squid Game or Dark) you’re literally a child. Stop doing that.
The story follows a former Olympic power walker, John Sundin, who moonlights as a police detective in the town of Linkoping, Sweden. It’s a very serious “Nordic noir”, but every time they show this guy power walking I laughed. You might be wondering – what exactly defines racewalking vs just jogging? Worry not – I’ll tell you so you’re fully prepared for the Olympics in 2028.
Competitors are considered “walking” and not “running” if they:
- Maintain contact with the ground at all times (i.e. one foot is always down)
- The forward leg doesn’t bend
How fast are these fuckers going? The 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist(s) for the marathon finished in under 3 hours, meaning, yes they can beat you (running) in a foot race walking. I digress…
The first scene of this show is fucked and really sets the mood for the balance of the series. The double-murder in question involves an 8-year old and a 56-year old Good Samaritan who heard what was going on and tried to help. Detective John is called to the grisly scene, hopeful the case will be closed relatively quickly due there being an eye-witness, even telling his extremely pregnant wife “det här borde gå snabbt”. Clearly, based on every description of the show, days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and suddenly we’re still following along 15+ years later with no arrests made.
Eventually, the police turn to a new method of finding the killer – using ancestral data & DNA to locate probably relatives to narrow down the list of suspects. Enter: Per, an overweight Swedish genealogist whose current job is trying to explain to geriatrics how cool his new version of ancestry.com is. They don’t care, but Powerwalking John does and enlists him to help. After a classic “if we do this, we need to do it my way” the fellas eventually succeed (spoiler alert) in catching the predator.
Spoilers / Reaction
- The soccer team / Ante suspect / red herring storyline seemed unnecessary to me. Unless of course that was a real suspect in the real story – I suppose I could have looked that up but I didn’t. Imagine just hanging out in your decrepit trailer home and a group of armed police officers storm in for no good reason about a crime 15 years ago.
- How about that poetic justice for the stupid blonde reporter lady? Crushes our boy John for no reason based on an “off the record” conversation and then comes back years later to try to fuck it all up again? GTFO. I cheered when John drops the “your DNA solved this case” aka “one of your family members is a deranged murderer, you bitch”. The final scene of the show being her redemption arc asking Per about a book deal – again, fuck off. Unnecessary, let us the audience hate her that served no purpose.