History YMMV / Wallander

** Wallander, definitely. See the DefectiveDetective example. The Branagh version takes this aspect UpToEleven- even Branagh has said he wants to buy the guy a beer and tell him everything will be okay. His career has taken over him so much that even in his 70's, he would rather commit suicide than end his career.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: All of Wallander's incarnations veer dangerously close to this, but the Kenneth Branagh version is frequently cited as the biggest offender. Throughout Wallander is utterly miserable and has few if any moments of genuine happiness, to the point where a viewer can simply grow bored of the fact that nothing ever goes his way.

** Creator/RebeccaFerguson plays a role in ''Sidetracked'' as the mother of Stefan, Louise Fredman.

* TheScrappy: Heinrich Böhle, while a CompleteMonster, is this mostly because of his actor does a poor job of portraying such a formidable villain, making it {{narm}}y rather than terrifying.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome:
** In ''Firewall'' Wallander [[spoiler: saves the world from a massive and destructive cyber-terrorism attack.]]
** In ''The Dogs of Riga'' he illegally sneaks into Latvia, breaks into the archives at police headquarters in Riga and steals a file that a murdered officer had compiled, so that the massive corruption in the Latvian police force can be exposed and the murderer can get his comeuppance. He does all this despite thinking of himself as a coward and having little help apart from a small group of people who were connected with the murdered policeman.
** In ''The Revenge'', the first film in season two of the Henriksson Wallander films, Wallander [[NervesOfSteel very coolly]] rescues a government minister who was [[HostageSituation handcuffed to the murderer]], taking her place instead.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/TomHiddleston played Magnus Martinsson in the first two British series before rocketing to international superstardom as Loki in ''Film/{{Thor}}''.

** Sonja from ''Firewall''. She was raped when she was younger, her mom is dead, she is in trouble with the law due to killing the same guy who raped her previously, she is doing terrible in school due to insecurities despite being a top student in previous classes, and last of all, she gets burned to her death and is used as a distraction for a cyber-attack.

* MagnificentBastard:
** [[spoiler: Lothar Kraftczyk]] in ''Mastermind''. He pretends to work with many different things all while manipulating and secretely watching every policeman with a daughter in order to torture them [[spoiler: because of his own loss]].
** James Carter in ''Firewall'' is definitely this. He plans on improving the African economy by causing as much chaos as possible and destroying the economy in the western world. He uses Sonja's death as a way of distracting everyone from what else is happening.
** Böhle. Everything from using a heart rate monitor in order to kill Yngve's family members, to smoothly escaping from Wallander and nearly pulling a Karma Houdini just shows what a criminal mastermind he is.
** [[spoiler: Alfred Hardeberg]] from ''The Man who Smiled'' is possibly the biggest of them all. He manipulates everyone in the country into believing that [[spoiler: he is an extremely likeable CEO of a company that helps poor families from other countries]], when in reality he is a child murderer who has orchestrated many, many deaths. His daughter was in fact actually adopted, and he only chose her because he needed a mercenary for himself. The best thing is that he gets away with all of this in the end due to his ridiculously high status in society and does a quote about how Wallander will never be able to kill him since Wallander respects the law.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: All of Wallander's incarnations veer dangerously close to this, but the Kenneth Branagh version is frequently cited as the biggest offender. Throughout Wallander is utterly miserable and has few if any moments of genuine happiness or levity, to the point where a viewer can simply grow bored of the fact that nothing ever goes his way.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Almost all of Wallander's incarnations veer dangerously close to this, but the Kenneth Branagh version is frequently cited as the biggest offender. Throughout Wallander is utterly miserable and has few if any moments of genuine happiness or levity, to the point where a viewer can simply grow bored of the fact that nothing ever goes his way.

* CompleteMonster:
** Lassgard Series:
*** [[spoiler:Alfred Hardeberg and his daughter, Kristina]], from ''The Man who Smiled'', are the masterminds behind TLL, a program they use to take organs from poor, desperate people and sell them to the wealthy. The latter also [[WouldHurtAChild murders children]] to harvest organs from their deceased bodies. When the former's business dealing with Sten Torensson and his father goes badly, he hires assassins to kill them, blowing up the entire buildings they are in to murder them.
*** [[SmugSnake Heinrich Böhle]], from "The Pyramid", is a criminal mastermind who is seeking to destroy drug dealer [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Yngve Holm]]'s entire life after a drug deal gone wrong. Introduced during a flashback scene during Wallander's early police career, [[EstablishingCharacterMoment a gunshot can be heard inside an old man's house]] while Wallander is having a fun time with one of his best friends outside. Wallander hears this, and sees Böhle, who manages to escape the scene, killing Wallander's friend in the process. Twenty-five years later, Böhle meets Wallander again, but is even more sadistic and evil this time around. He is this time around introduced shooting an helicopter with two people in it for fun. After one of Yngve Holm's drug dealers accidentally causes an overdose, Böhle, scared that he might get caught by the police, targets Holm's family and friends. He starts out by kidnapping Yngve's sister, and taping her around a chair, he puts a heart rate monitor on her, so that if she tries escaping her heart rate will go up, and a bomb will explode, blowing up the entire house. Her sister comes and tries saving her, but the house blows up, killing them both. Böhle then meets with Yngve's right-hand Frank, and kills him as well. To complete his killing spree, he kidnaps Yngve's daughter who he [[StrappedToABomb puts a bomb on]]. He puts a heart rate monitor on [[DeadManSwitch himself]] this time so that if his heart rate goes below 50 or over 90, the bomb will explode. Despite murder being a very common aspect in the ''Wallander'' series, and something to expect coming into the episodes, Böhle truly stands out in being a [[ArchEnemy personal enemy]] to ''Wallander'' and the final villain in the Lassgard series.
** Henriksson Series:
*** Originally just another simple drug dealer, [[LackOfEmpathy Hosse]], from "The Container Lorry", becomes something much, much worse and manages to stand out in the end. Hired to deal drugs by smuggling them in a truck filled with immigrants, the plan was to drive the truck and keep the immigrants alive in order to distract the police, something Hosse ignores, so he kills all nine of them anyway. However, at the climax of the episode, Hosse makes his already-high body count even higher. While driving in the customs station with the truck, using the same way as he previously dealt them, Karin, who is now a spy for the police who poses as an associate for Hosse and his leader Oskar, is seen by Hosse. Hosse notices that she's with the police, so when she walks by his truck, he viciously grabs her and pulls her into his truck. He demands her to be silent and hide so that the police doesn't see her, or else he'll kill her. Once he's done with the customs station, Karin asks what he'll do with the immigrants. Hosse just answers that he'll kill all of them, gloating about it. Once the police realize that Hosse is holding Karin hostage, they confront him and start shooting. Hosse is behind the truck, but instead of accepting defeat, Hosse stops hiding and grabs Karin. He puts her at gunpoint, and kills her just before he dies himself.
*** [[WouldHurtAChild Rolf "Roffe" Liljeberg]], from "The Secret", is a pedophilic [[DirtyCop retired commissioner]] who at first seems like a really nice guy who is enjoying his retirement after a long career as a police officer. He helps the protagonists find the man who killed a boy named Johannes, the suspect being one of Rolf's friends Magnus. He manages to keep a [[FauxAffablyEvil really good façade]], but his true colors are shown when Stefan remembers how he was heavily abused by Rolf as a child, and a flashback scene is shown where Stefan is running away from Rolf and gets his scar. Stefan goes home to Rolf, and constantly points his gun against Rolf and is willing to shoot him. Rolf laughs and wants Stefan to kill him, since he'll never get away with it. He also states that no one else has successfully tried getting away with similar things previously either. A picture can be seen of a young Stefan naked in Rolf's house. All of this is too much for Stefan to handle, [[spoiler:so he commits suicide]]. It is also now revealed that Rolf is behind the murder of Johannes as well. In his last scene, he kills one of his friends for revealing to much information to the police and tries killing her child as well, but fails. Even in a series like ''Wallander'', where all of the main antagonists have murdered at the very least one person, Rolf stands out in the series as the most sadistic and violent pedophile, and the only one portrayed as a sadist who commits his crimes for fun.
*** [[TerroristsWithoutACause Leonard Belker]], from "The Leak", is a well-known mass murdering terrorist. The episode starts with one of Belker's henchmen shooting an innocent, random old man who was jogging, [[ForTheEvulz for fun]]. The next day, Belker launches a massive terrorist attack, injuring, if not killing, many people. Belker himself is shown a bit later in the movie after trainee Pontus got caught by Belker's henchmen. They trap Pontus in his own car, and Belker finally shows up. He sets the car on fire and leaves Pontus to slowly die, just barely failing to kill him. The next time Belker is shown on screen, he launches another massive terrorist attack in the city, injuring many people, while Belker smugly smiles while innocent people die and the police slowly eliminate every single one of his minions. The leaker, [[spoiler:Sven]], is shown to have been heavily blackmailed by Belker, and once he is supposed to have his money for his work as the leak, Belker only gives him half the money, and threatens to kill [[spoiler:his wife Mette]] by putting a photo of the two in the bag where the money is in, and then aims with a laser gun on the photo from behind. Belker doesn't lie, and betrays [[spoiler:Sven]] at the climax of the episode, where he shoots [[spoiler:Mette]] through her spine, before getting away scot-free.
*** [[spoiler:Victor Nilsson]], from "Missing", is a sociopathic SerialRapist and SerialKiller, and the only season 3 MonsterOfTheWeek who has no sort of redeeming qualities whatsoever. At [[FauxAffablyEvil first]] appearing to be the nicest person in the episode, he uses his position as a wealthy [[spoiler: local grocery store owner]] in order to get a good relationship with people living nearby, primarily women. After he has built a good, personal relationship with them, he rapes them and puts them in plastic bags, which he collects in his basement. He is also behind the disappearance of a little girl. [[spoiler:He even tries raping and killing the girl's mother, who he has previously had a loving relationship with]]. When Wallander realizes that Victor is behind everything and goes to Victor's basement to save her and his own daughter [[ActionGirl Linda]], who Victor had also tried killing, over twenty bodies are shown, much to Wallander's disgust.