s3276169 Beck offers up understated excellence in the form of a Swedish crime drama. There are several seasons of Beck. I have been fortunate enough to watch two and four, with English subtitles. Unlike many US shows, the Swedish approach to crime drama is modest and down to earth. For me, this approach makes the characters and story, far more accessible and believable. The crime stories Beck and his team investigate are in many ways familiar. This obstacle is overcome by quality narrative and fleshed out characterizations, that really lift this series above the ordinary. A good cast of well known Swedish actors, does this series no harm either. In short Beck is a a worthwhile watch, I can happily recommend. Nine out of ten from me.

pensman Beck is a solid series and Beck is a good detective with a terrible blind spot when it comes to his daughter who is a selfish pain in the arse. She is a great taker and she knows how to play her father. She constantly hits him up for money as she perpetually makes bad choices. And her actions have indirectly been responsible for deaths, but Martin never seems to catch on that he has fathered a completely selfish adult. While no one is a better detective or friend then Beck, when it comes to his life he is in denial about his personal choices. His relationship with co-worker Lena Klingstrom frustrates them both because of his indecision.  And when Beck has to make a decision about going forward with anyone, he generally wusses out Beck has an able assistant in Gunvald Larsson, but Gunvald can be hot-tempered and has a problem with authority, especially with women in authority; and he is a bit of an instigator who likes to create fiction among colleagues he doesn't like. Yet, he is a solid cop who always has Beck's back. As we move along from series to series, we get exposure to more of Gunvald's background and understand his complex characterization. Best scene with essence of character is Gunvald heading into a biker bar and pulling his out his gun and checking it's loaded and cocked. When his younger associate, Oskar, asks if he thinks that will be necessary, Gunvald says he hopes so.Lena Klingstrom is brought into the team initially for her IT skills but those seem to fade away as the series goes forward. At one point, she just disappears and it isn't until a later season we find she had transferred to another district. She returns eventually but her relationship with Beck has now completely changed.Oskar Bergman is the tyro of the team who Gunvald treats with complete disdain much to the displeasure of his co-workers but no one really steps in to halt it. But as we near the end of the series, Oskar has his heroic moment when he saves his boss.Beck also has the neighbor from Hell in Grannen who provides humor in what can otherwise be a dark depressive series. Some of the murders in this series include cutting bodies into parts while victims are alive, skinning them while alive, burying them alive, killing just for the joy of killing, dealing with corporate misadventures, and a variety of bosses from bikers to board rooms. The mysteries can be excellent whodunits with lots of twists you don't see coming. Other times we know who is guilty but have to wait and see how Beck finally puts the clues together. When things get too depressive, Grannen's character becomes even more bizarre and laughable. He constantly wears a neck collar which we assume is his key to obtain medical benefits because we never see him at work just frequently drinking telling Beck outrageous stories of his misspent life. And without a doubt, you will roar at some of his antics.The series spans about twenty years from 1997 to 2016, and Beck goes through several partners and bosses which keeps the series fresh and topical. While Beck gets close to women, there is always something that steps in and ends what might be a promising relationship.The biggest purely physical change takes place between series one and two. The station house Beck works in goes from 20th to 21st Century in a huge leap. In series one everything is old and crappy; and in series two everything has become ultra-modern, even the doors to the various offices now slide open as the detectives have hand held remotes just for that purpose. However, those remotes disappear pretty quickly as the writers must have seen how ridiculous they were.Beck also undergoes some changes from maverick detective to more organization man. If you can, try to watch the episodes in order to better understand who the players are and why they disappear and reappear. You will also notice as the series became more popular, the producers found more money which shows up in the opening sequences which become more sophisticated, to Beck finally getting his own theme song.Beck is a solid series and well worth the time but don't get attached to any of the characters as you can't be sure of a return.

kurtolson_5 the beck series are one of the earlier Swedish-cop-genre movies (yes these are technically movies) i watched each film so far and while some of the earlier movies did have some great stuff, such as dark and gritty atmosphere, suspenseful soundtrack and interesting story lines the second season had lost everything completely, the first season became a big hit and entered mainstream, so when they made the second season it became basically pg-13 family movies, the dark atmosphere was replaced with soap opera sets, the suspense soundtrack was replaced with generic and completely useless piano garbage, the story lines became dull and boring and its obvious they try to shove moral messages down our throats, having a moral message in a movie isn't wrong by any means, but when you force it, it breaks the illusion which is what happened here, but these movies makes money cause some people love bad movies, and Swedish film companies along with Germans finance about 100 000 movies of this kind in Sweden every month, it has gotten so far that no other movie genres exist in Swedish cinema anymore simply cause producers wanna make the same movie over and over again rather than trying something new and fresh, thus these movies have no more artistic value than a toilet roll (except maybe the first 2 or 3) so while i despise these movies i despise Swedish cinema even more, nowadays i only watch independent films from Sweden, i can recommend these movies to people who hate art in general, i recommend anyone who respects art to not support these movies, remember that supporting these movies kills Swedish cinema more and more. if you like these beck movies i highly recommend the works of directors Michael bay, ulli lommel and tommy wiseau, they are better artists than the beck writers/directors could ever dream of becoming

summer_of_joy To be honest I haven't seen all the Beck movies in the series, which are 21 and counting, but the ones I've seen are well worth watching! I'm from Sweden myself and have a lot of thoughts, most of them negative, regarding Swedish movies. But Beck I like and that's quite an achievement from their part. The Beck series revolves around Martin Beck, Gunvald Larsson and their colleagues at the police force in Stockholm, Sweden. Beck is a divorced, middle-aged man while Larsson is young, forward and a quite violent man (against suspects that is). Together they make a perfect team, investigating crimes committed in Sweden, around Stockholm. The movies have a well written storyline, with diverse crimes, with no fear of showing brutal murders, horrible cases, or to go outside the Swedish border, making this series of movies great! Plot twists are only to be expected at the ending, making sure that everyone is kept in the dark of the outcome until the very end, which isn't always that easy to accomplish. The series of movies are well-known here for a couple of things; Gunvald Larsson's short temper, and his great sarcastic lines! The neighbor of Beck, who always seem to be on sick-leave - wearing a lovely neck-collar, and who always is willing to give Beck some alcohol. And last but not least; the great actors! Peter Haber and Mikael Persbrandt are brilliant in their interpretations of Beck and Larsson.Beck comes well recommended from my part!