PBS Masterpiece Mystery 2012

[MaryPage]

 

Masterpiece Mystery 2012 presents the best British mysteries. See the complete 2012 MASTERPIECE MYSTERY schedule.    

NOW DISCUSSING


Wallander: Season 3
Three 90-minute mysteries — Sundays, Sept. 9, 16 & 23, 2012
The brooding Swedish cop Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) returns with a new home and relationship, a new sense of possibility, and three chilling new cases with devastating effects.


Wallander: Before the Frost
September 23, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
A hiker meets a grisly end, and the childhood friend of Wallander's daughter, Linda, appears out of nowhere, then disappears. Don't miss the riveting Wallander season finale.

ALREADY DISCUSSED


Wallander: Dogs of Riga
September 16, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
The gruesome appearance in the Baltic Sea of two corpses floating in a raft prompts Wallander to pursue justice in an eerie post-Soviet Latvia rife with corruption. Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Prime Suspect 6) guest stars.


Wallander: An Event in Autumn
September 9, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Wallander's peaceful new start is disrupted when investigations of two murdered, anonymous girls take him far from home... and to the very heart of it.


Inspector Lewis: Indelible Stain
July 29, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
A controversial American academic is found strangled after a guest lecture at Oxford, leading Lewis and Hathaway to narrow down a list of motives that includes politics, ambition and vengeance, in order to find their culprit.


Inspector Lewis: Fearful Symmetry
July 22, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Lewis and Hathaway are drawn into a darker side of Oxford while investigating the murder of a suburban babysitter. Will the babysitter's secret life help the detectives unravel a tangled web of lies and deceit to find their killer?


Inspector Lewis: Generation of Vipers
July 15, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Suspicions abound as Lewis and Hathaway investigate the death of a lovelorn Oxford professor. Was her death caused by an embarrassing Internet leak, or something much more sinister? Toby Stephens (Jane Eyre) guest stars.


Inspector Lewis: The Soul of Genius
July 8, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Botany, rivalry and secrecy collide when Lewis and Hathaway attempt to find the killer of an obsessed professor. Kick off the new season of Inspector Lewis with The Soul of Genius. Celia Imrie (Cranford) co-stars.


Endeavour
July 1, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Before his signature red Jaguar, before Inspector Morse, there was the rookie Constable Morse, deductive powers already running in high gear. Shaun Evans (The Take, The Virgin Queen) portrays Endeavour Morse, the low man on the force returning to Oxford with no track record and his future on the line.


ZEN: Encore Episodes (from 2011)
Three 90-minute mysteries — Sundays, June 10, 17 & 24, 2012
 What does an honest cop do when corruption rules on both sides of the law? Detective Aurelio Zen (Rufus Sewell, Middlemarch), based on the novels by British crime writer Michael Dibdin, brings justice to modern-day Italy, whether the authorities want it or not. Check your local listings to see if the programs are broadcast on your PBS station.


Sherlock Holmes: The Reichenbach Fall
May 20, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
The crime of the century is just a prelude for the unhinged criminal mastermind, Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott, Lennon Naked), when he poses the diabolical and inescapable "final problem" to Sherlock.
 


Sherlock Holmes: The Hounds of Baskerville
May 13, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Sherlock and Watson track a gigantic hound to Baskerville, where the military is conducting top-secret experiments. But whether demonic or dubious, something is stalking the moors.


Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Belgravia
May 6, 2012 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Picking up from Season 1's gripping cliffhanger, the whip-smart Irene Adler (Lara Pulver, True Blood) takes on Sherlock in a game he is ill-prepared to fight...love. Watch online through 6/5/12

Discussion Leader:marcie

OK, I will not talk about the plot of this latest Wallander, which is set in Riga, Latvia.

But I really did not much like it.

[jeriron]

I didn't either. I'm really not that crazy about any of them.  Question... who was the woman in the hospital in a coma. I thought his wife was dead???

[Frybabe]

Not near as good as the book. Is it my imagination or is Brannagh playing Wallander a bit "softer" than before?  Naturally, things were missing from the production that were in the book and one thing added that I don't remember reading in the book. Won't say more for now.

The woman in the hospital was his colleague, Ann Britt. I suppose they had to do a tie in with the last episode where she was bashed with a shovel. Actually, when this book was written, I don't think Ann Britt was part of the team yet. Last week's episode, An Event in Autumn (published as The Grave), was written much later than The Dogs of Riga.

[Babi]

 FRYBABE,  I admire your perseverance in attempting to sit through four nights of
Wagner! I would have had to REALLY enjoy the singing to even try it.
 
 Oh, good, ROSEMARY.  MARCIE, do we know when Downton Abbey will be returning to
Masterpiece here?

[jeriron]

Frybabe

Thanks... I had forgotten all about her. Just shows how closely I'm watching them.

[marcie]

I missed Wallander last evening but will watch it when it's available on my cable "on demand."

Babi, the new Downton Abbey, Season Three, will be broadcast in the U.S. in January 2013. Here's a clip: http://video.pbs.org/video/2274892886/
 Rosemary, I'm glad to hear you think it's good.

Masterpiece will be showing rebroadcasts of the Second Series of Upstairs Downstairs starting in October and into November and the Second Series of Downton Abbey in November and December. See the schedule at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/schedule/

[BarbStAubrey]

Last night's Wallander I found very unsettling and horrifying - I could not help realize how often I had thought based on the look of a person that they would be a safe with similar morals and values and it turned out the one that looked very different with a sharp and stern look was actually the safe one - I thought that the story taking place in Latvia could be any number of places in the world just now.

Thanks for the reminder that the girl in the coma was his co-worker - his new family relationship did not last long did it - his sleeping around is not adding to his character in my opinion - seems like they are trying to create an edgier Wallander instead of a comfortable driven man who takes things to heart so that he cannot sleep without a bottle - I think his being thinner is showing he is using drink in moderation and so now to sleep is it to be a women...? I guess with this change they hope to bring in another audience.

[Frybabe]

Vanya (his girlfriend in An Event in Autumn) showed up in The Fifth Woman which would have come after The Dogs of Riga. That explains why she wasn't in the latter. We should see her again next week, as IMDB lists Saskia Reeves as a character in Before the Frost.

In the earlier books (including Dogs) Wallander actually lived in an apartment in town. Wallander's daughter has been popping up in the books all along, always with a different job and/or boyfriend. I believe in Before the Frost we will see that she has finally settled on following in her Dad's footsteps. I have not read this book.

[BarbStAubrey]

aha - ah so... I still did not enjoy last night's show - the whole thing was too unsettling - I felt like going up the steep hill of a roller coaster expecting the worst while he was in Latvia.

[FlaJean]

I watched all of the show but would have turned it off about half way, but my dh enjoyed it.  I wish they would produce the shows in book order.

[Art Hippy]

I too was surprised by which of the Latvian policemen was the trustworthy one...a good lesson not to prejudge by appearances!

Also, the multiple trips back and forth between Sweden and Latvia struck me as a basis for broadening future episodes, especially since his new "squeeze" is Latvian...we'll see!

Also, if Latvia was in season of constant light, why did Sweden have night scenes in last episode?...They are same latitude and very little time had passed.

My trip to Gottenberg in 1998 was during daylight season...took outdoor pictures at 2am without flash going off!  It was hard to retire without the darkness...bizarre!

[jeriron]

I noticed the original Wallender is on Netfix streaming. I think I will try watching that.

[marcie]

I thought that the episode was well done. I found Wallander to be sympathetic-- in his interactions with the Latvian policeman, Karlis Liepa, and his widow. He also took responsibility for finding out what happened to Karlis, despite the danger.

[FlaJean]

Jeriron, I also noticed the Wallender series on Netflix streaming, I'm going to put it in my instant queue.

[MaryPage]

I agree, I thought the good guy was the bad guy and the bad guy was the good guy.  And sometimes I thought they were both bad guys.

There is just too much falling between the cracks for me to get a good hold on how the plot really fits.  For instance, when the 2 fishermen came upon the raft with the 2 dead men in it and the one properly fired a rocket to alert authorities as to the location and then that same one wanted to bring the raft on board, WHY did the other fisherman get so upset and refuse?  And then later, was it not this SAME fisherman who did not want to get involved who met Wallander secretly?  Or am I wrong and was it the other?

I reckon maybe the point was they could tell right off from the obvious torture of the bodies that this was something to do with BIG CRIME on the waters and were scared of making themselves targets.

You think?

[BarbStAubrey]

what ever it was all about it was a thread that did not go anywhere - I thought it was included to raise the threshold of anxiety for those of us watching the story. Sort of a shadow to the remarks made by Karlis Liepa in Wallander's cottage about not trusting the police. 

[Art Hippy]

Yes, the fisherman ordeal confused me too.  Especially when the one met with Wallander, then fired at him (purposely missing him?), then escaped.  Why....?

[JoanP]

Did he fire bullets at Wallender - or a flare?  Rather than watch the whole thing again, I think it would be helpful to read Mankell's story on which this was based...

I agree - it was like a roller coaster ride, as Barbara describes it...except most of the time the roller coaster was chugging uphill.  There wasn't much time to catch your breath. Bruce liked it better than I did.  Maybe it was a man-flick.
 
I kept telling Bruce that I never ever wanted to visit Riga.  I also told him in the very beginning which of the two was the good cop, and which was the bad.  Don't know how I deduced that from the start - but once I did, it was reinforced for the rest of the film. 

[Frybabe]

I actually thought that the story was a little "choppy" like what happened with Sidetracked, only not quite as bad.  The two dead guys were indeed killed by the organized drug gang in Latvia. One of them was an informant working with Karlis Liepa. I thought the scene with the fishermen was a little confusing, too. I believe one didn't want to get involved and the other wanted to do what was right. The "escape" to the country was not well defined in the show either.

I would have to go back and see one of the early Wallander programs, but I could swear Brannagh isn't playing him with as strong a dark, brooding emotion as the earlier ones. He seemed more, well, bland.

Yes, JoanP, the book is likely to be more helpful. No, I don't recall whether he fired a flare or a pistol at Wallander, either.

[marcie]

There's an interesting article here, about DOGS of RIGA: http://publicsphere.typepad.com/toberead/2012/05/the-dogs-of-riga-weakest-wallander.html

It says that the two fishermen are smugglers who didn't want "awkward" questions asked by the police.

I believe that the gun that one of them fired close to Wallander near the end was a flare gun.

[MaryPage]

My memory, which does not get a passing grade these days, tells me that it was a FLARE GUN that was fired from the fishermen's BOAT when they discovered the raft with the bodies in it.  To alert the authorities to go there and find it.  Then they hightailed it out of the area.

It was a handgun that was fired later, when Wallander met with the one fisherman because of the call or note he got,  and it seemed clumsey and I could not understand it except to think that (1) the guy was mental or (2) he was just trying to warn off Wallander from trying to trace him and ask him any further questions.

[Art Hippy]

It just seemed so odd that the fisherman, first seeks Wallander out, then chases him off with force...of course, other officials had arrived, so possibly this threat put an end to their communication.

[Frybabe]

I had forgotten that the "fishermen" themselves were of a criminal element. That is one more thing not stated clearly in the TV program. It really does a disservice to those who haven't read the books to skip such tiny but important information. Otherwise, the program looks disjointed and choppy.

[MaryPage]

Otherwise, the program looks disjointed and choppy.   by Frybabe

EXACTLY!

[jeriron]

What may make" Wallander " disjointed  is because PBS usually cuts 8 to 10 minutes from the shows when they"re shown  here. That's why sometimes when you buy the DVD it will say original BBC series, which means each one is slightly longer then the one on PBS.
 

[Frybabe]

Jeriron, I noticed that this season the show were running about 10 minutes short. I don't remember them doing that in the other seasons. It kind of makes me think they truncated it for commercial TV or, perhaps, the stations that want to show it during begging weeks.

[jeriron]

They've done that on Inspector Lewis and I've also read on Downton Abbey'
It's to fit in their time slot of 90 minutes but they usually end before that so it must be about coming attractions or whatever they want fit into 90 minutes.

[MaryPage]

I knew that about Downton Abbey;  read it somewhere ages ago.  That is precisely why I insist on purchasing the DVD sets.  You get the whole thing and more.

I did not know the same applied to other British shows.  Bummer!

[MaryPage]

Well, this will be my third try since tonight's episode ended and I posted in here.  The first two posts disappeared into thin air!

I said, basically, that I liked tonight's story better than last week's.  I believe this was because Wallander and his daughter seemed to be bonding over the coming baby.

I was angry that Wallander simply cannot talk about things.  Being all of my life the type of person who wants to put everything right up on the table in plain sight and attempt to sort it all out and arrive at at consensus, people like Wallander, who have every right to be the way they are, drive me up the wall.  SPEAK UP, MAN!  I want to shout at him.

It bothered me that the gal who was a cop seemed to be sending him away for good because she was afraid he only came to see her out of guilt.  And he needed to tell her this was not the case, but he came faithfully because he CARES about what happens to her and because he wants to be a part of her life forever.

Scheesch!

[Frybabe]

I agree, MaryPage, that this show was better than the last; but then I haven't read the book, so I can't compare it.

I was surprised about the pregnancy because I thought this was the book in which Linda would become a police officer. I looked this up this morning and discovered that he changed his mind about writing three Linda Wallander novels after the person who played her on Swedish TV committed suicide. Sad story, that. She and her three year old survived the Thailand tsunami. Apparently the experience devastated her emotionally. At least that is the theory; she didn't leave a suicide note.

Although barely mentioned in the show, Ann Britt had a husband and child. In the books, the husband was absent much of the time because he was a seaman. Ann Britt to juggle her job with it's sometimes odd or long hours and being what amounted to being a single Mom for at least six months out of the year. She did leave the force, but I just don't remember how that came about in the books. Will have to check.

[MaryPage]

I do not suggest she have a Romance with Wallander, and I knew about her family.  I only think it all wrong that she suggest, obviously in order to spare HIM, that they have no further contact;  that he no longer follow her progress.  As the 2 cops who were out there in the gunfire that day, they should be bonded as BUDDIES forever more!

Were I in his shoes, I would keep in touch with her for the rest of my life.  And were I in hers, I would want him to.

[BarbStAubrey]

I am trying to sort this out but I picked up from this show that Linda was the child of Wallander and Ann since early when Linda shows up at the police stations she says she is staying the night at her mother's - then we learn at the end that at age 15 Ann had an abortion of the child impregnated by her father and this is the first that Wallander learns of the extent of her damaged life so that stunned he can only sit on a garden bench after she is safe.

Now what police officer are you suggesting should be his life long 'buddy' - there were several times guns were used and I cannot remember when there was a women involved other than the one helping him after he had his foot removed from the animal trap.

[Frybabe]

Anna is a friend of Linda's. Linda's mother, Mona, is remarried and lives in Stockholm, where also Linda lives. Wallander was accused of having an affair with Anna's mother which led to Mona divorcing him.

I didn't think you were inferring that there was a romantic interest, MaryPage, but I get your point about bonding because of a traumatic experience. Many people do, others don't want any kind of reminder of a bad experience. Perhaps, since she is leaving the force, she doesn't want to be reminded that they entered the property without a warrant. She did point that out to Wallander and then followed him in when he went in anyway. Perhaps she partly blames him and partly blames herself for the outcome.

[BarbStAubrey]

OK so the blond women who was playing the 'crying' symphony when Wallander first visits was Anna's mother - I thought she was a friend to Anna - OK now it is being pieced together. And from your response to MaryPage the police women 'buddy' is the gal who was in the hospital and he faithfully visits after they were involved with the attack dog and the guy came out and hit her over the head with the sledge hammer.

That episode ended without my knowing if he went to jail at all - for the original crime no but does he go Scott free after hitting her over the head causing so much bodily injury? I realize they were trespassing and they end up killing the dogs that I would assume would be considered self defense but does that give him the freedom to so brutally attack the trespassers?

[Art Hippy]

I thought last night's episode was good, reuniting father and daughter with a few very touching moments.
Wallander's hurt feelings (over not being invited to his daughter's wedding) were finally blurted out, and proved to be NOT a personal thing since the groom's family wasn't invited either.

It would be interesting to see if earlier episodes address Wallander's dysfunctional practice of burying his hurt feelings.
I found on Netflix the full series in Swedish with subtitles...think I'll view, at least the early ones, and see if they address some of his personality issues!

[MaryPage]

BARBARA. I am sorry, but you have it all wrong.  You see, this was the 6th or 9th Wallander film, and in the first episode of this last batch of THREE (3) films, of which last night's was the FINAL AND LAST film, in that one back 3 weeks ago, the female cop he was working a case with got seriously shot when he was right there with her and she was in a coma and not expected to live at the end of that episode.  Then, in the episode previous to last night's, she was still in a coma.  Last night, to my intense relief, she was improving, but apparently would never be well enough to do more than hold a desk job in future.  And he has been going to see her faithfully from the beginning and she told him not to come any more.  And it is my opinion she was just trying to spare him the effort and it is also my opinion that he should not have agreed to not come any more.

And Monica's daughter DID have a father and he was the crazy religious nut who had been in America and then declared dead and the girl, Linda, was grieving for him and near mad with her grief and then she discovered he was alive and went along with his crazy die for Jesus ideas right up to the very last moment when her mother and Wallander talked her down from it.  And the cops moved in and got her father out of there and off to the looney bin lock up and Linda was taken out, too, all before the place caught on fire.  Linda was NOT Wallander's daughter.

[MaryPage]

Oh, and Barbara, the man in the beginning of this episode did hit a grandmother over the head and then burn her to death.  But he killed himself by burning up in a church he burned down.

Only Linda's father was left to lock up in the end, not the man at the beginning who burned the swans and then the woman.

[BarbStAubrey]

Ok I probably have all the names incorrect - I thought the tall blond girl that was Wallander's daughter was named Linda - and the shorter girl with dark short hair at the table in the end was Anna and the blond middle age women also at the table that played the music of crying people and brought in wood in a basket was a friend of both Wallander and Anna - I learned from an earlier post that Anna was not Wallander's divorced wife, although I never thought she was the mother of the blond girl now pregnant who I thought her name was Linda. I thought Linda, Wallander's daughter, had a mother who remarried and lived in Stockholm and Anna was Wallander's more recent wife but I guess not - he seems more attached to finding Anna if he is not related and she is only a friend of his daughter's.

Recap to be sure I have the names correct for these various characters -

1.Tall blond pregnant stays at first her mother's apartment and then stays with her father where he lets her know how hurt he was not being able to walk her down the aisle although her mother was at the wedding. Is she called Linda - if not what is her name

2. Anna was missing and at the end sits at the table while her father holds his hands over her folded hands when he goes on a rampage spilling the beans that the child was his and his grandchild - is she only a friend to Wallander and his daughter - she would have to be an awfully close friend to (Linda) the daughter because she came up from Stockholm because Anna was missing and when Wallander called his daughter to ask about her Linda says, he did not sound convincing that all would be well.

3. Was I to understand the blond lady living alone who was playing the crying symphony and later carried wood into her house in a basket when Wallander drove up and is the one who there was rumor he had an affair with and she looks for all  the world like Glen Close - she was not a friend but actually the mother of Anna who urged her to get the abortion.

4. And who was the older women hiking that was beamed on the head in this program at the beginning by the guy who sets the birds on fire and why did he set the birds on fire - what was that supposed to tell us - and who was she - was she the skeleton in the first grave with the cross in the woods that Wallander finds.

5/6    And I do not remember the detective/police women who was in a coma from being shot I remember in one of the first shows this fall the police women that was hit on the side of the head by the crazy guy with the two dogs who, after the dogs were shot, after they attacked Wallander and this police women, the crazy guy flies out of either the mobile home or a metal shed next to one of two mobile homes - in his hands he has a long handled sledge hammer and hits her hard on the side of the head with all his fury. Later in jail they had to release him and we never learn if he was put on trail for putting the police women in a coma.

Yep, I am still confused - thank goodness some of you know these stories from the books - I did not know they were books till last week when someone said as much.

As to Wallander's lack of communicating - that is one of the problems included on the list of behavior defects of an alcoholic and also on the list for Adult Children of Alcoholic explained that they observe and adapt this behavior while growing up as learned behavior - we know Wallander has a drinking problem - he drinks to sleep and he is drinking at night alone - this recent group of programs showed him having one slip although he has not cut all drinking out of his life his drinking alone to sleep happened so far only once and so I associate his poor communication skills to the typical problem of an alcoholics. That explanation is they turn inward and believe they must handle everything with no help from others to the point most are more comfortable alone in their thoughts and problems.

[Frybabe]

Barb,

1, 2, & 3 are essentially correct, except in #2 Linda stayed overnight at Anna's apartment in case she turned up. Linda's mother lives in Stockholm as does Linda.

4. I think she just happened to be in the area and saw the initial fire where Weston lit up the swans (or geese). Does anyone remember if she had any other connection? Apparently thee was some scriptural meaning to burning the birds, something symbolic, but I don't recall that they gave an actual passage number.

5/6 also correct.

I like your thoughts about Wallander being uncommunicative. The books are a little more detailed about the drinking problem than is shown in the programs. His several girlfriends' (the exception being Baiba Liepa because that was pretty much a long distance relationship) major complaint over the years is that he neglects to call and let them know if he is unable to get home or to a date on time.

[BarbStAubrey]

Whewwww