Watching the first season of Young Wallander was an all too familiar but also story-wise, a weird experience. From the language Swedish people were speaking, all the way to the end where the whole show felt incomplete, and it all felt like a Young Wallander season 2 set-up.
I was excited to see the Young Wallander, adapted from a Swedish novel and someone who has lived a long life on shelves and on TV. I haven’t seen any other version of the book’s adaptation, and this is my first interaction with the iconic character, which is why I am so disappointed by what Netflix did with the character.
According to Netflix, “Young Wallander is a young, edgy, and modern series that sees Henning Mankell’s iconic detective Kurt Wallander investigate his gripping first case. The story focuses on the formative experiences – professional and personal – faced by Kurt as a recently graduated police officer in his early twenties.”
Reading that synopsis, I was excited to see the show. A fresh take to a character I knew nothing about, and this would be my first experience with Wallander. Well, Netflix or the makers of the show deciding to abruptly end the show was what made me pull my hair out.
The Second Half of the Show is Missing – Young Wallander Season 2 Set-up
The problem I have with most of the Netflix shows is that the maker of the show is trying to get a second season pick-up. This is why most of the shows end in a cliffhanger, and I’m not too fond of it.
Watching a show should not be about waiting a year for another season to conclude the story started now. Yes, there can be an overarching villain, which is dealt in multiple seasons, but having a single villain and only revealing him/her on the last episode hoping to create tension is getting old.
When I think of shows like these, Godless comes to mind, and how the show came and went like a storm. A plot and a villain were introduced, and by the end of the show, everything was resolved. There was no season 2 because the creators of the show never wanted to make one.
If you have a strong story, just show it off in the first season so that audiences can understand the complexities of everything. But Young Wallander does the same bait and switch most Netflix shows are notoriously known to do.
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While series like The Boys on Prime Video ended in a cliffhanger but there was a reason for that. The whole show was not building up to that cliffhanger; it moved towards The Boys killing villainous “superheroes.”
Young Wallander introduces a hate crime plot, which incites violence between right-wing extremists and refugees. The show is dealing with real-world issues, but the crime in question is never solved by the end of the show, only showing us a person who could’ve done the crime only to tell us they are out of reach.
This is a genuine attempt from the show’s writers trying to set up Young Wallander season 2. Well, at least the show is short, only six episodes, which is why the ending does not sting as much as the first seasons of most 10-episode Netflix shows.
Young Wallander Season 1 Would’ve Been a Fun Introduction to the Character
If the show were built only as an introduction to the book’s beloved character, then Young Wallander would have worked fine. The mystery at the heart of it all just did not make sense when it was not resolved by the show’s end.
The point of having the first season was moot, considering nothing was achieved other than setting a Kurt Wallander relationship with a girl who is going to be his ex-wife in the future. And though I found the show entertaining to an extent, the ending just left a sour taste in my mouth.
So if Young Wallander season 2 happens or not, I do not care as much as I would’ve if there were something meaty in the center to bite down into. Though I am interested in reading the novels about the character; maybe that is the one good thing I can take away from the new Netflix show.
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Last modified: September 9, 2020
