The British mystery series 'Wallander' has come to America as part of 'Masterpiece Theatre'. The first episode introduced Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander and his fellow investigators, as well as Wallander's daughter and his father - a painter stricken with Alzheimer's. Kenneth Branagh plays Wallander and David Warner guest-starred as his father.P.T. Barnum once said that everything outside New York was Bridgeport. Similary, Toobworld Central says that in Toobworld, almost all foreigners will have British accents. (Especially if you go back in Time - like to the age of the Caesars in 'I, Claudius'.) No one in 'Wallander' even made the attempt to pull off a Swedish accent, but the names, locations, even the print on the newspaper were all Swedish.
Not any sort of a hurdle for Toobworld, but even so, 'Wallander' must be relegated to 'The West Wing' dimension rather than being allowed to stay in Earth Prime-Time. That's because there was a Swedish TV series adapted from the novels in 2005. Krister Henriksson starred as Detective Wallander and since it was broadcast first, it belongs in Earth Prime-Time.
And that only seems appropriate, doesn't it? A Swedish show about a Swedish character should have preeminence in Toobworld....BCnU!
1 comment:
I really must try and hunt out the original Swedish version -- even though I rather liked the KB versions, slow and odd as they were with the whole 'Swedish but not' strategy.
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