Annika (My rating 4+)

Detection with audience participation, Shakespeare and more

The Annika series – shown on BBC and now running in its second season on PBS – is a great show and a strange creature. Originally a BBC Radio series, Annika Stranded, written by Nick Walker and set in Oslo, Nicola Walker (no relation) played an Oslo detective in the boat patrol. The TV version shifts the action to Glasgow, Scotland and the River Clyde. Walker continues to play DI Annika Strandhed but now of Norwegian ancestry and head of a marine homicide squad. (This is one of the reasons I like British TV mysteries, there are no limits on mixing, matching, moving and recycling plots, places and actors to make a good show.)

I generally dislike too much focus on back story and interpersonal dynamics of the leading characters. Gets in the way of catching the killer. But it comes much to the forefront in Annika. She “breaks the fourth wall” by speaking directly to the viewer. (I listened to the radio version a bit and she does the same.) I should find this annoying, but Walker’s Annika is engaging and witty as she – aloud to us – weaves recollections of Shakespeare, classic novels and myth into her thinking about what is going on in the investigation and her life. As the second season went on, the back story – her personal dynamics (especially with daughter Morgan) and those of her entire team – come to take more and more of the space with Annika actually asking for our help in the last episode.

Many British detective shows highlight their setting, whether stunning if desolate landscapes such as in Shetland (about to start a new season) or somewhat grungy yet attractively presented cities such as Newcastle in Vera. Entices visiting. Who wouldn't want to spend time in the pleasant English rural towns of Midsommer Murders? Indeed, my wife and I went to Guadeloupe in part because Death in Paradise is filmed there. (I won’t admit how much but you can see me standing in front of the “Saint Marie police station” on the masthead of this blog.) Annika’s Glasgow river setting suggests to me that I am overdue to get there too (we did like our trip to Scotland many years ago).

Nicola Walker is always worth watching (or listening to) and she makes all the personal and team dynamics – the cast is excellent too – go down well. I thoroughly enjoy her bringing me into her confidences. But the latest season does veer at the end toward the increasingly normal tendency of these crime shows to juice things up with perhaps over-the-top personal drama. (For this reason, I stopped watching Grantchester with the latest season). Also, the police procedural elements – including reliance on the apparently ubiquitous British CCTV and foot chases of suspects who foolishly decide to try just running away – fade into the background a bit. Thus my rating of only 4+. I am hopeful of some kind of correction if there is a 3^rd season.

An extra: A good friend and reader of this blog pointed me to an interview with Nicola Walker. Here is she talking about breaking the fourth wall and her relationship to the audience, to us:

You’re my best friend, you’re my confidant, you’re my therapist, you are my judge and jury, you are my everything. You are my partner in crime. As ever, Nick Walker is playing with us as an audience and saying, “Yeah, we are used to the idea of the cop buddy.” Well, the cop buddy here is everyone at home watching Annika. You are my cop buddy. You are real for her. You’re not a manifestation of her mind. To her, you are a real huge and an important force in her daily life.