Familiar and welcome face from several previously-reviewed imported Swedish dramas (“Ragnarok”, “The Bridge”, “Alex Rider”) Sofia Helin returns for six more hourlong episodes of police work in “Fallen: Season 2” (originally “Sanningen”. It mainly covers a single crime, though she’s still plagued by her own unfinished business from seeing her husband murdered before the events of Season One began. (Review)
All the principal cast is still in place, with progressive story arcs among them. The major subplot is that Iris (Helin) learns that the man behind her husband’s execution – Van Voorst (Casper Crump), who radiates smug evil, or evil smugness without having to utter a line of dialog – has finally been spotted in Spain. That provides a B-story which runs through the season. Iris is quite an emotional trainwreck, buffeted by events that derail her usual smart, stoic command of situations. That also sets up more clashes with her squad and superiors.
The main plotline begins with the discovery of a buried skeleton who may be the area’s richest mucky-muck who disappeared 10 years earlier, leaving a wife, three kids and a massive estate with an elegant mansion. No one knows if he was abducted, killed or took a powder on his own initiative. The bones turn out to be those of a young man who vanished around the same time, prolonging the mystery of the community’s missing pillar and the lad.
There are a lot of people to dislike here. The domineering matriarch, Marianne (Marika Lindstrom) is the sort of cold, judgy mother that creates sagging from overuse in psychiatrists’ couches everywhere. As adults, the daughter is a bitter, struggling druggie; one son is a failing restaurateur; and the eldest is a hopelessly submissive mama’s boy, greatly to the consternation of his wife. The three siblings have little to do with each other. The more exposure we get to Marianne, the more likely it seems that ANY husband would walk away from oodles of wealth and stature to be free from her. The new case reopening the two old events unfolds slowly, and over resistance from police and political toadies who are also intimidated by the widowed (or abandoned, as yet to be determined) harridan. The result is a lot of soap opera subplots competing for airtime with the mysteries.
Though the old cases are solved, the season ends with developments that call for a third round. Since this one just aired last year, I don’t know if another will follow. I hope it does.
“Fallen: Season Two”, in Swedish with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice on March 24, 2026.
RATING: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars
