Another solid international police procedural with character-driven mysteries, The Inspector and the Sea is based on a series of popular books by Swedish author Mari Jungstedt. Her Anders Knutas novels center on a German police inspector who relocates to a village on the Swedish resort island of Gotland, his wife's homeland. Each of the six episodes from 2007 is a self-contained feature-length film carrying an evocative European aesthetic and boasting a strong ensemble of (mostly Swedish) actors. The hook has Anders (Walter Sittler) as an aquaphobic fish-out-of-water foreigner solving heinous mysteries in a lush, scenic location. While there does seem to be a disproportionately large number of major crimes for such a small town—murder, kidnapping, extortion, and so on—Anders is equal to the challenge, coming across as a laidback guy with a cozy, seemingly dysfunction-free home life. The locals naturally bristle at this outsider, especially when he butts his nose into the dark secrets hiding behind the colorful sun-swept seascapes, where the townsfolk and tourists indulge in base criminal instincts at their beach cottages and art galleries. [Note: The Inspector and the Sea: Season 2 is also newly available.] Recommended. (T. Fry)
The Inspector and the Sea: Season 1
MHz, 3 discs, 536 min., in German w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $39.95 Volume 30, Issue 2
The Inspector and the Sea: Season 1
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