Maria Wern (2008– ) User Reviews

Terrific Swedish crime series starring the beautiful Eva Rose

[Rupert17 · 8/10 · 2 May 2012]

Maria Wern is a widowed Swedish police inspector who takes her two young children from Stockholm to the east coast island of Gotland to start a new life.

Gotland is a beautiful island, but any hopes Maria may have had of pursuing the perpetrators of minor traffic breaches is soon dashed as a number of gruesome murders take place in this Scandanavian paradise and Maria at times needs to ensure the security of her kids. I think Norse mythology and the occult permeate the Scandanavian culture and identity and if you watch Swedish crime as often as I do then you'll expect the occasional plot line to have its genesis in some bizarre ritualistic obsession. Having said that, the stories in the Maria Wern series are fascinating and well scripted and the supporting actors are all first class. But Eva Rose is a genuinely accomplished actress and her screen presence throughout the series makes viewing each episode an enjoyable experience. And although an old flame of Maria's appears in a couple of episodes, the producers have opted for a series without distracting romantic entanglements.

As far as I am aware the seven movie-length episodes contained in the Maria Wern DVD complete the series. I hope for a second set to be produced but that seems unlikely. If you like this series you'll enjoy the comparable Irene Huss series, which is located in Gotenburg on the west coast of Sweden and offers a similarly talented actress in Angela Kovacs. 8/10

I like this show...spoilers

[cluciano63 · 7/10 · 30 May 2014]

Even though it is not as "dark" as other Scandinavian dramas, it is well-made and acted and the stories, while probably not likely, are much like "Midsomer Murders" in that there as multiple murders and you do wonder how a small area can be so chock full of killers. But I am on episode three and already, her young child has seen a murder victim twice, as Maria happened to be on the spot, off-duty, at discovery of two bodies, which is kind of unreal.

Still, I am absorbed in dramas from this region, both in books and on film and appreciate any subtitled series or films. Whatever they produce is almost always better than American TV, so I am not complaining. Also, I love the settings and even more, the homes and apartments...makes me want to de-clutter desperately every time I see those sleek, junk- free interiors...

Am hoping there is not much focus on romance...I don't need that in my murder mysteries. I do like the cop who tried online dating though.

It's getting better!

[ollemllindelof · 7/10 · 18 August 2022]

Maria Wern is a policewoman who deals with the unusual high amount of murders on the Swedish Island of Gotland.

The early seasons does not work well as a series and more as self-standing movies with huge plot holes and inconsistent writing. Things that has happened in earlier episodes seems to not matter in the next.* But the last season's has gotten better with Warner Bros. Taking an interest and making the story better. But still, this is not a masterpiece and you need to have a little suspension of disbelief when watching these kind of shows. But overall, it really has improved and I hope that season 9 will be much better.

*Especially in season 3 where lots of murders take place and has almost no impact on the characters.

I'm confused

[zorro6204 · 6/10 · 22 November 2013]

Well, first, how there could be that many murders in Gotland, but never mind. What confuses me is what exactly was made. According to IMDb, we got a four part series in 2008, and four separate episodes in 2010 (plus the feature movie in 2012). I have four English subtitle files for the 2008 series, but not the vids, and I've watched six episodes from 2010, not four (five of the English sub files needed to be re-synched). I have the movie vid, but there are no English subs (yet).

As far as the show goes, well, nothing special. The Maria Wern character is a pretty ordinary cop, she seems to have no special gifts, no unusual personality quirks. Aside from the actress being pleasant to watch, I don't really get why this needed to be made. I enjoyed it well enough, but am I jonesing over the 2008 and 2012 material I haven't seen? Not really.

It is getting better and better!

[tord-1 · 9/10 · 17 March 2022]

This series has been going on for ages, and originally it was not much to brag about, even the dialogue felt very stilted and the whole thing wasn't that good, so not surprising it went directly to DVD for two seasons.

But then Warner Bros. And a few other more foreign companies took notice, and from say series 6 it is damned good.

As good as many British crime series, and that is a surprise! The actors are surprisingly good, even the young ones, and the dialogue and story is now very good.

I rarely like Swedish series, but this is top notch!

Have not seen yet - now downloading

[ulfkdn · 10/10 · 27 February 2015]

Now in process of downloading episodes and translating for English subtitles. It's natural for the Swedes to "go dark" in movies, theater, books or other art media; it's in their genes, dating back ... long in history. There is also the fact that a Swedish life can be very boring and stale and thus the Swedes tend to exaggerate toward the "imaginative depth of mind". Just look at most Swedish movie directors, they all have that little bit of Bergman in them, some more than others. I know, was born and raised on the Island of Gotland, an island where nearly everyone used to know each other, with long family ties and history. Of course it's a great place to make a movie or TV-series since Gotland is a "summer heaven" with great weather, good people, great beaches and plenty of places for good food.

Beautiful scenery, really bad screenplay

[qui_j · 3/10 · 25 May 2023]

This Scandinavian series is set in Gotland, which is the only saving grace for it. The writing is terrible, the editing much, much worse. The stories make no sense and the ridiculous manner in which they are edited offers little in the way of a continuous narrative. The scenes are often randomly sequenced without any regard for logic. It's as if the story is made up on the fly without using a story board to tell it. The actors are drawn from the usual small, recycled pool of Swedish actors, many of whom have been seen in other Swedish productions year after year. Many of the scenes have tremendous bloopers, which make them quite laughable. It's really a very poor level of production.

If all the Scandinavian mystery dramas this bad, then.....

[MovieIQTest · 12 July 2014]

they won't have the chance to become so popular. First of all, terrible screenplays from the first to the last. Secondly, don't know why we have to focus on the single parent with regular I.Q., without any detecting gene woman, Maria Wern, to be the major role. Thirdly, all the supporting roles in this serious are also not too good or too bright to be taken seriously as detectives, just a bunch of low I.Q. people who even being in uniforms would not be quite qualified albeit being detectives. Maria Mern? There's nothing special or worth specifying her as the leading role in this non-talented, brainless, no imagination, no initiation, no nothing character to waste our viewers' time. But the major problem is still on the bad screenplays, not just absurd, predictable, pretentious, but absolutely unnecessary.

This is one of the worst Scandinavian dramas, definitely not qualified to be included in "mystery drama" genre.

Oh, by the way, strongly suggest MHz Int'l TV Channel not just to stop broadcasting this one, but also those lousy so-called mystery dramas from Italy, such as the one with the Catholic father, and that two love birds detective one(Inspector Montalbano may be the only one not to be cut), because they are so shallow, so elementary, so childish and so ridiculous.

Murders in Sweden

[ykhzzvr · 10/10 · 10 January 2024]

This was an excellent series! I really got invested in the characters and the storylines just got more intense and suspenseful ! The characters were very endearing with a touch of humor making them more human. Very good writing and acting overall.

I'm bummed however that we are only able to watch two seasons out of nine.

I hesitate to keep my Masterpiece subscription if this happens again. Get the entire series or nothing at all! Please do better as your paying customers expect to enjoy entire series.

For now I recommend the show but only if you don't care it's only two out of nine seasons.

Tried to watch it..

[dp1974 · 2/10 · 13 March 2019]

I have it second chance tonight. The writing is not particularly well seated in reality. For instance. If the leader of the second largest political party in Sweden was an alcoholic and it was public known then she would never had been the leader.

It instantly spilled over into steroe-type forbidden love and annoyed lover colleagues. The scenario is so old and worn out and again in the real world. One or the other would seek transfer. You can't have a professional relationship in the police and be partners too.

The story kept developing stereotypes to the point I shut it off and did something else.

Horrible Swedish crime/drama series

[propsguy · 2/10 · 28 April 2013]

Mild spoilers.

I'm a big fan of many of the current crop of Scandinavian police and drama series with the exception of this one. This is just terrible.

Bad writing. The plot has more holes than a swiss cheese. Over complicated and quite unbelievable. Police chasing the baddies on their own with no backup.

Bad acting. A police officer who screams when she sees a dead body. Townsfolk rioting and burning houses for no apparent reason. Parents having hissyfits when the police say they can't see their infected children.

Awful crew. Wern falls on top of a body possibly contaminated with bird flu, in the next scene two days later she is wearing the same clothes. The same line-up of cars at the ferry several days apart. I could go on.

I should add that this review is based on the first series "Strange Bird".

Walk, no run away from this horror-show.

Worst writing, direction and editing

[derrgeor1215 · 3/10 · 4 July 2014]

This series has a long ways to go before I would be able to stand it. The editing is terrible. Teen age girl dead on the road blinks her eyes. Why wasn't that picked up in editing?....shame on you. The writing is just barely watchable. The only reason I watched 3 episodes is because of the scenery and the attractive, but not very talented lead. I normally enjoy Swedish TV and movies, but this left a lot to be desired. I read that one of the writers was a crime book author. I will be sure never to read one of her books. A real disappointment. There is a scene where a bus driver has to swerve to avoid running over a dead body in the road. The lead character and her daughter are sitting next to each other on the bus. When the bus comes to a stop, the lead can't find her daughter. Suddenly the daughter appears outside the bus. You have to watch to see how empty this scene is. I guess you're supposed to think the daughter just somehow disappears and this is supposed to cause the mother to panic.....come on..the daughter was sitting next to her and the bus did nothing but swerve. How did the daughter disappear from the bus upon stopping??

SO IMPLAUSIBLE IT MAKES MY HEAD HURT

[daftrancenergy · 1/10 · 22 September 2023]

UNTIL RECENTLY I THOUGHT ALL NORDIC NOIR EQUALS HIGH QUALITY STORIES AND PLOTS AND THEN YOU WATCH SHOWS LIKE STHLM REQUIEM AND MARIA WERN.

I HAD ORIGINALLY STARTED WATCHING SEASON 5 BECAUSE THAT WAS THE OLDEST AVAILABLE ON VIAPLAY. THREE EPISODES IN I THOUGHT THIS MUST HAVE BEEN BETTER IN THE ORIGINAL SEASON OR TWO OR THEY WOULDN'T HAVE MADE SOME MANY SEASONS.

WRONG. I SUBSCRIBED TO MHZ AND STARTED WATCHING SEASON 1. IT IS JUST AS BAD OR WORSE AS THE SHOW IS IN SEASON 5. IT HAS TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE WRITING AND ANOTHER AWFUL FEMALE COP. MARIA VERN COMES OFF AS A NOT ONLY AN INEPT DETECTIVE AND NO GREAT MOTHER, BUT ALL SHE DOES IS FLIRT WITH AND HAVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH HER COLLEAGUES.

INSTEAD OF SOLVING CRIMES, SHE JUST SITS AROUND TALKING, LOOKING AT PICS, BATTING HER EYES UNTIL A COINCIDENCE OF UNREAL PROPORTIONS FALLS IN HER LAP AND THEY SOLVE THE CRIME. EVERYONE ELSE CAN BE AT A CRIME SCENE AND MISS THE MOST OBVIOUS THING BUT THE WRITERS HAVE HER "DISCOVER" IT LIKE SHE'S SOME GENIUS. IT IS PATHETIC.

THEY TOUCH CRIME SCENE OBJECSTS WITH NO GLOVES. WHEN THEY CALL OUT THE REST OF THE COPS THEY LOOK LIKE A SWAT TEAM ON THIS SMALL ISLAND. SHE SPENDS MORE TIME TALKING ABOUT MEN THAN SHE DOES SOLVING CRIMES.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

A good series.

[LauraAnnG · 10 April 2024]

Years ago I belonged to MHz Choice and watch many Scandie Noir series. Maria Wern was one of my favorites., in part because of the amazing Eva Rose (who plays Maria). Also because of the very good mysteries.

Recently I've found that the series has kept on going and it just keeps getting better and better.

The action takes place in Gotland, Sweden.. So we've got another small place that has an inordinate number of murders!

Maria is a police detective and works with a dedicate team.

Somewhere along the way a partner named "Sebastian" shows up and the sparks fly. The two characters (Maria and Sebastian) AND the two actors. (Eva and Erik) have a wonderful chemistry that to the writers' and actors' credit does not overwhelm a la "Moonlighting".

It is good and if you have a chance, worth watching it.