Sophie Borg (Lisa Henni) returns to her hometown of Norrbacka in Sweden alongside DCI Tom Brown (Adam Godley) from St. Ives, England, in order to investigate the murder of a British citizen. What seems like a typical setup akin to The Bridge (2011) is quickly turned on its head when it turns out both are rather bad at their job, but through a combination of dumb luck and sheer tenacity they are determined to hunt down the killer and bring justice back to Norrbacka.
Produced by several Scandinavian companies, the show debuted in 2017 on SVT1 before being acquired by Netflix. Showtime was apparently developing a US-based remake, but as of 2021 nothing has come of that.
Fallet provides examples of:
- Bilingual Bonus: Any Swedish not translated for the benefit of Tom (or the audience).
- British Brevity: It's Swedish, but there's only eight episodes (of a mere 30 minutes each) and just one season.
- Cowboy Cop: Sophie is a gung-ho detective who shoots first and asks questions later (providing she didn't shoot them in the head by accident).
- Da Chief: Klas Wall, although the only problem is he's not very good at it.
- Disappeared Dad: Sophie never knew her father, which is quite troubling for her.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Sophie, having boldly declared she's going to shoot Olof Palme's killer in the thigh to stop him from escaping (and from quite a distance!) takes aim... and shoots him in the head.
- Tom sweeps into the dining room of a grand old house in St. Ives, where all the suspects are dining, only to screw up his explanation spectacularly and accuse the wrong man (who wasn't even in St. Ives) of murder.
- Family Theme Naming: Mrs Arnesen's sons are named Björn and Benny. Sophie legitimately thinks she's talking about ABBA until Benny turns up and introduces himself as such.
- Funny Foreigner: Tom is overly polite (to the point where he apologies for tackling a fleeing suspect, and later for apologising so much), and is generally quite unfamiliar with Swedish culture, making him stick out quite a bit. And from his perspective, everybody around him seems offbeat.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: It turns out that Tom is actually Sophie's father, from his brief but intimate romance with Kristina when she was on the St. Ives language course.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Tom and Sophie burst into Arne Arnesen's house to see him about to impale a man hanging from a crucifix, surrounding by chanting hooded figures. Then they realise they've just walked into a rehearsal of Jesus Christ Superstar.
- Nordic Noir: A comedic take on the genre, especially the two-cops-from-different-countries-team-up format popularised by The Bridge (2011).
- Shout-Out: Fallet has many to other crime or mystery shows:
- As mentioned above, the concept itself was popularised in recent history by The Bridge (2011).
- Klas Wall compares Tom to DCI Barnaby so the Swedish reporters might understand what exactly his rank entails.
- Then, in turn, Tom compares Klas to Kurt Wallander.
- When raiding the bar, Bill brings along the captive bolt pistol from No Country for Old Men to blow out the lock.
- The guy in the drug lab looks suspiciously like Walter White.
- Tell Me About My Father: Kristina's refusal to do this is what sparks Sophie's animosity towards her.
