Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter, Episodes 1-3

This sleek and stylish Swedish TV series, based on the bestselling novels by Liza Marklund and set in the beautiful canal city of Stockholm, isn't exactly a traditional gritty urban crime drama. Newspaper reporter Annika Bengtzon's (Malin Crépin) good looks and icy stares make for effortless sex appeal, and the tabloid rag she scribbles for seems to assign her to investigate all of the city's messiest criminal mysteries. Over the course of the three feature-length 2012 episodes compiled here, Annika witnesses a murder at the Nobel Prize banquet and soon finds herself the target of a lethal CIA assassin; pries into the death of a local TV personality; and goes undercover working as a roulette girl in a local strip club to investigate the rape and killing of an exotic dancer. If that isn't enough to deal with, Annika also has husband Thomas (Richard Ulfsäter) and the kids at home. When she's not engaged in some petty spat with her bland spouse, Annika is usually being hounded or reprimanded in some way by her old-school male bosses, or chastised by the local police chief, who sees little difference between reporters and criminals. The layered plots here are imaginative, as we watch Annika constantly risk life and limb to save her thankless career and shaky professional reputation. Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter, Episodes 4-6 is also newly available. Recommended. (M. Sandlin)