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'The Truth Will Out,' a Compelling Mystery from Sweden, Arrives on Acorn
March 25, 2019  | By David Hinckley  | 14 comments
 

Nobody does gloom better than the Swedes, and a gloomy new crime show from Sweden offers a bright ray of TV sunshine.  

The Truth Will Out, an eight-episode drama, becomes available Monday on the streaming service Acorn, and it’s all the things a limited-run series should be: intriguing, mysterious and suspenseful, played at a pace where we get to know all the players.

Robert Gustafsson, who is best known in Sweden as a comedian, plays Peter Wendel, a Stockholm detective who seems physically incapable of cracking a smile.

Wendel, who lives with his teenage daughter Vera (Tyra Olin), has just returned to the force after an unexplained medical leave. The leave seems to have followed his divorce from his wife Ann-Marie (Maria Sundbom), and among the attendant questions there is why Vera is living with Peter.

Peter has been reassigned at work, perhaps judiciously, to launch a cold case task force. Since he can hire three detectives, he sees this as an opportunity to start fresh and make a mark.

He arrives at his new office to find it empty except for one woman, Barbro (Ia Langhammer), who brings her dog to work and seems much more concerned with better results from her dating app than about remembering to tell Peter there’s someone here to see him.

His call for applicants to the task force, meanwhile, has brought exactly two nibbles: Jorma (Christopher Wagelin) and Kajsa (Louise Peterhoff).

Jorma, who has been working homicide, is quitting police work to become a real estate broker. Because he ratted out a colleague to Internal Affairs, he thinks it might be easier to serve his last few weeks in the quiet of Peter’s task force.

Kajsa is also from homicide. She’s the one Jorma ratted out. She’s also under investigation for multiple other problems, notably alcoholism.

Peter dismisses them both. Then a message arrives – on a corpse – saying Sweden’s most notorious convicted serial killer, Klas Leven, is innocent. Which means the real killer may still be out there.

Suddenly we have the ultimate urgent cold case, or cases, meaning Peter must plunge into battle with the only people available. Barbro, Jorma, and Kajsa.

He foresaw an elite unit. He’s got the Bad News Bears.

There are further complications. The homicide detective on the corpse case, Temo (Thomas W. Gabrielsson), is an arrogant jerk who tries to undermine Peter at every turn.

Meanwhile, Ann-Marie just got a big promotion in the office of the minister of justice, Bjorn Stenius (Johan Ulveson). Stenius signed off on the Leven conviction, so he has skin in this game, and Ann-Marie is now, among other things, his fixer. Did we mention Peter thinks Stenius is an idiot?

It’s a complex plot, and creator/co-writer Leif G.W. Persson handles it beautifully. He’s skilled at misdirection, and he lets the whole story unfold at what feels like a real-time pace. We get a sense for how the tension of the situation impacts each character and dictates their actions.

Since we’re dealing with murder here, there are good guys and bad guys. But there are shades of grey, and no character is without shadows.

Tellingly, we see almost no violence and almost no weapons. Persson lets the lethal dangers play out mostly in the viewer’s head, which also creates an odd and unspoken bond with Peter Wendel. We gradually come to understand why he so seldom smiles.

Gustafsson plays Wendel marvelously. The whole cast is strong, both the characters we like and the ones we don’t. Wendel’s team provides some valuable snippets of humor as we see that under their damaged exteriors, they have real skills.

The more forces mobilize against Wendel’s team, the more we want them to win. The Truth Will Out reminds us that the good part of gloom is the flickering possibility that just maybe there’s a ray of light on the other side.

 
 
 
 
 
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14 Comments
 
 
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Paul Wassermann
This is not a slow burn, it is a very slow smolder. I have never seen a series where 90% of the screen time is filled with staring, thinking, mumbling, non engaging dialog. Also more stair climbing than I have seen in any other series. And at the end of it all you ask, "why" "what" "who". This is the slowest moving series I have ever witnessed.
Oct 9, 2021   |  Reply
 
 
Stephanie
The series currently playing on Fox - The truth will out, the daughter Vera does not seem to be the same actress as when I watch the series last year?.
Jul 31, 2021   |  Reply
 
 
christophe
I can't imagine why the producers of Swedish police dramas have so much contempt for the police. Every character is dull witted, self absorbed, unimaginative in their thinking, and completely un-relateable. Watching these self absorbed nincompoop blunder their way through the narrative in an exercise in frustration.
Sep 4, 2020   |  Reply
 
 
Suzanne M Goodwin
Excellent series! I binged it for two nights! It's dark, riveting and has wonderful characters!
May 9, 2020   |  Reply
 
 
Laura Etheridge
Does anybody know what kind of dog it is?
Dec 17, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
Suzannah B. Troy
I have PTSD and chronic insomnia so I can't watch it straight through but the parts I do watch are powerfully filmed (I love the cinematography), directed and very well acted. I love the lead actor he such a good actor. The story itself is crazy.... but..... I love the girl with the Dragon tattoo although way too violent -- such excellent actors...Real title was the men who hate women and it was changed to girl w/ d t but anyway this is another powerful production wonderful actors! I just can't watch it all of it because of my own traumas but I'm so impressed with us and especially the acting. I'm an animal lover I love even the little sequences with the dogs. I was a fan of Wallender TV series and blogged about Jusse the dog -- every so often I still get people that search Jusse! ps I want to global audience to know what was done to me so please Google Dr Fagelman assault youtube. 0 arrests just like Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were never arrested by the NYPD and DA.
Dec 3, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
Rocky Casner
Will there ever be a season 2?
May 24, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
Jeanne
Will there be a season 2? I loved this series.
Apr 21, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
mllea
I usually like Scandinavian films but this one leaves me wanting to shake Peter and the director to "give me something" that doesn't feel like zombies swimming in mud. Peter is attacked with a stun gun, the women in the apartment that the killer took is dead, he's on the phone when with the attacker/ murderer when his superior is there and hears him but they all act like it's all in Peter's depression addled brain. WTH is the point of this low pulsed, nonsensical, illogical noire?!!
Apr 7, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
Barbara OConnor
The film says it is inspired by a true story. Do you have any information on the story on which the movie is based?
Apr 7, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
D70inilm
And what exactly does this have to do with Martin Clunes?
Mar 25, 2019   |  Reply
 
Linda Donovan
Nothing, of course. Our mistake. Our apologies to all. The correct photo is now up.
Mar 26, 2019
 
 
 
 
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