Streaming series review - Fallen (originally Sanningen): Season Two

Fallen (originally, Sanningen): Season Two *** (out of 5) Familiar and welcome face from several previously-reviewed imported Swedish dramas (Ragnarok, The Bridge, Alex Rider) Sofia Helin returns for six more hourlong episodes mainly covering a single crime, while still plagued by her own unfinished business from seeing her husband murdered before the events of Season One began. Here’s the link to that review:

https://patch.com/missouri/clayton-richmondheights/streaming-series-review-fallen

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 rich guy that 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 overuse sagging 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 wealth and stature to be rid of her. The new case reopening the two old events unfolds slowly, and over resistance from police and political mucky-mucks who are also intimidated by the widowed or abandoned 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 as of 3/24/26)