The Swedes have enough to be gloomy about without the additional weight of solving hideous murders.
The lack of sunshine, bland food, desolate landscapes, the ingrained existential brooding. Or is it too many meatballs? They’ve got that somber thing going on.
Kurt Wallander, soulful Swedish cop, travels by Volvo to a grim (but discretely filmed) crime scene at the start of the latest Wallander mystery, based on the novels by Henning Mankell.
Three new 90-minute Wallander stories unfold over three consecutive weeks: “Faceless Killers” on Sunday; “The Man Who Smiled,” Oct. 10; and “The Fifth Woman,” Oct. 17 on PBS’s “Masterpiece Mystery,” locally at 9 p.m. on KRMA-Channel 6.
With a stubbly gray beard and red-rimmed blue eyes, Kenneth Branagh portrays the detective whose troubles with family, friends and colleagues add to his burden.
In the first mystery, racial tensions and suspicions surrounding foreign migrant workers in a mostly homogenous country provide a strong subplot. Wallander’s father, convincingly played by David Warner, suffers dementia and his daughter is dating a Syrian-Swede. Wallander begins to question his own deepest feelings about “foreigners.”
For fans of “CSI” accustomed to zooming into blood vessels via gory computer graphics, the action here is a different kind of internal: meditative rather than anatomical. Long stretches of silence show the inspector deep in thought. Even surprising plot turns unfold with slow and steady, serious, moody music in the background.
It’s Branagh’s show and he makes it a mesmerizing character study.
Michael Feinstein on PBS.
Savor the standards, the songwriters, the singers:
“The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Come Fly With Me,” “Time After Time.”
George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn and Cole Porter.
Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore.
That’s just a hint of the inventory of musical greats celebrated in a PBS musical overview premiering next week.
“Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook” amounts to a short course in American popular music. Also a bit of a vanity project.
The performer and serious collector of vintage American pop music is the hook for a three-part showcase on PBS starting Wednesday, locally at 7 p.m. on KRMA-Channel 6. It’s part performance, part musicology lesson, part ode to Feinstein.
The “Songbook” works backward in time, opening with big, brassy ’50s arrangements and the influence of Sinatra, moving to World War II-era music and USO shows in the second hour, and focusing on the jazz of the ’20s and ’30s in the final hour.
Unflattering aspects of the historical record, including racial and sexual stereotypes revealed in lyrics, and the well- known stories of white singers like Pat Boone taking hits from black singers’ works, broaden the cultural history.
The film lets fans in on Feinstein’s private life (Michael on his treadmill, Michael in his private plane, Michael and his personal staff) and the rigors of his 150 shows a year. More interestingly, it shows him going through estates and storage lockers full of sheet music, audio cassettes, TV scripts, early films and more to find lost treasures.
He has not only amassed an impressive collection of original manuscripts and orchestrations, but also he’s spreading the word about the importance of preservation.
There are too many self- aggrandizing moments when Feinstein is presented as a one-man savior of America’s musical soul, but mostly the music is great, his performances enjoyable and the anecdotes served alongside (what Rosemary Clooney taught him!), are a treat.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
