Beck (TV Series) Den svaga länken (2007) User Reviews

Up to date drama-thriller

[fricadell · 6/10 · 30 January 2008]

A young girl is killed on her way back to her parents home after leaving a party. Martin Beck and his crew quickly starts the hunt for evidence before the trail goes cold. There are several suspicious people to investigate but do they really know how everyone is connected to one and other?

I've seen pretty much all the Beck-movies and the newer ones are still very watchable. A good ensemble of well-known Swedish actors help make this a very good crime-drama-thriller. Very up to date with the Swedish crime debate too.

See it.

Disturbing Analysis of the Effect of Rape on a Community

[l_rawjalaurence · 7/10 · 26 July 2016]

Sometimes long-running detective series like BECK can become too entrenched in their ways. With guaranteed audiences and repeated commissions from the television companies, there might be no need to do anything other than plod through yet another murder-plot while emphasizing the sparky interplay between the main characters.

Thankfully "The Weak Link" avoids such pitfalls. Harald Hamrell's production begins with the savage - and apparently motiveless - rape and murder of a teenage girl (Nadine Kirschon) close to her home. This is the latest in a series of assaults taking place near Stockholm's Blue Line on the subway. Beck (Peter Haber) and Gunvald (Mikael Persbrandt) are deputed to solve the case, but Beck is haunted throughout by concern for his daughter Inger's (Rebecka Hemse), even though she is nearly thirty years old with a son to look after.

The plot ends up dealing with sensitive race-issues - despite its reputation for tolerance, we discover that Stockholm is not always kindly disposed towards immigrants, especially if they are members of the so-called "black" economy. Unlicensed cab-driver Juri Govalenko (Jamil Drissi) is automatically classed as a suspect in the murder on account of his being a Russian émigré. Even the so- called hero Gunvald is not above hurling a few racist insults.

Eventually the murderers are caught, but we are left with the impression that such serial rapes are commonplace in a city full of dark, lonely spaces, whose people are more likely to turn their backs rather than become involved in something unsavory.

Beck – The Weak Link

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 23 July 2016]

This story opens with a teenaged girl leaving a party; she chats to an elderly lady on the train home; declines a lift from an unlicensed taxi driver, saying she is happy to walk. As she enters a park she gets a phone call from her parents saying they will come and meet her… the next moment she is attacked. When her parents get to the park they hear a scream but by the time they get to her it is too late. Beck and the team are soon on the scene and it isn't long before a list of suspects starts to emerge; notably a man who got to the scene just after the parents, the taxi driver and a boy at the party who had reportedly been rejected by the girl. There are other possibilities though; a search through similar cases suggests that a serial rapist may be targeting women along the local railway line. While the investigation is going on we see how the parents are affected by their loss and Beck learns that his daughter has been going out with Gunvald.

This was an impressive if somewhat disturbing instalment in the series… especially when we learn the truth about what happened to the murdered girl and other victims and why. It is interesting that the story also spends time showing the effects of the crime on the parents of the victim. As they story approached its end it looked as if we might get the cliché of an act of revenge being allowed to go unpunished by sympathetic police but thankfully this was avoided. As usual the regular cast impresses as to the guest stars; most notably Anki Larsson and Claes Hartelius who play the parents. Overall a good but somewhat depressing episode.

These comments are based on watching the story in Swedish with English subtitles.