Series / Martin Beck

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Beck is a Swedish Nordic Noir film series, based on the characters from the Martin Beck novels by Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall. It stars Peter Haber as Stockholm homicide investigator Martin Beck, following the cases and personal lives of himself and his colleagues.

Following in the footsteps of earlier films (starting with 1967's "Roseanna"), the singular Beck began as a Direct-to-Video series in 1997 with several years between seasons. The Beck films (51 total to date, across 10 seasons) have been broadcast on Sweden's C More since its fourth series in 2015. Since then, the series has been broadcast with English subtitles on BBC Four in the United Kingdom, Prime Video in the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand, and Apple TV+ in Australia.

There have been two distinct eras of Beck: the first (1997-2015) with Haber's Beck as his squad's lead investigator, supported by co-star Mikael Persbrandt as his mercurial partner Gunvald Larsson; and then since 2016, featuring Beck in semi-retirement as the squad's supervisor. Easy-going Norwegian transplant Steinar Hovland (played by Kristofer Hivju) initially takes Beck's place as acting lead investigator, until Interpol liaison Alexandra 'Alex' Beijer (played by Jennie Silfverhjelm), is named as his permanent successor, with Hovland continuing on as a recurring character. Martin's grandson Vilhelm (now played by Valter Skarsgård), born early on in the series to Beck's daughter Inger (Rebecka Hemse) and growing up on screen, has also become part of the main cast as a trainee cop just starting out in the family business.

• Adaptation Distillation: The series takes the characters from the novels, but has almost never used the original novels' plots.
• Anti-Hero: Gunvald Larsson, who abuses every single criminal he meets and constantly insults them, even if they are innocent. He's the secondary protagonist.
  • Joakim Wersén, Beck's boss in the first season, is surprisingly nice for the protagonist's boss in a crime-thriller, but seems to be obsessed with how media sees the police, rather than making more necessary decisions. Understandably so, however.
• Affably Evil: Very rare. Most of them are faux, and the three villains who are affable include a mentally-challenged pedophile, a criminal who is also a member of a cult which sees reality as a literal video game and kill random people because they want to experience the video game in real life, and a Finnish gangster who threatens everyone who he dislikes. The nicest of these is the pedophile, by the way.
• Alas, Poor Villain: After Karin, in "Eye for Eye", has been discovered as the serial killer behind the five murders, she explains that the reason she killed her classmates was because she was raped for an entire hour when she was only thirteen, and everyone just stood and laughed. Lena offers to help her, but Karin instead points the gun at Lena, but changes her mind, and commits suicide instead.
• Asshole Victim: Very frequently. A big example however is when Gavling is preparing to kill a woman he had previously victimized, killing her newborn baby by throwing it down from a balcony, but this time actually wanting to kill her ten years later, using a... syringe... this time, in order to cause an overdose. The police come in time, and offer him to jump down from the balcony, or they'll shoot. They have too shoot.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Due to Martin's job, he often has a hard time getting free time with his family. However, the scenes where he actually does have that, it becomes this.
• Big Damn Heroes: Gunvald has lots of these, often during interrogations, in fact. However, he has a pretty awesome one where he forces the entire police squad to protect one woman who he previously dated from an eco-terrorist group, even doing a car chase scene where he kills one of the members of the group at a pier, where he is forced to brake.
• Billing Displacement: Kristofer Hivju appears so prominently in promotions for the show (likely to capitalize on his Game of Thrones fame) that you would think he were the star, despite only being in the more recent series, and ultimately not being chosen as Beck's successor.
• Big Bad: Gavling, in season 1, is one of the few recurring villains in the series.
• Bitter Sweet Ending: Gunvald's death is regarded as this. He gets killed by some random mook while searching for a dead body. Now, that's not really how you kill off a character who is more popular than the main protagonist.
• Bury Your Gays: A gay police officer gets killed in The Money Man, although it is moreso because he is a police officer he gets killed rather than being gay.
• Butt-Monkey: Martin. Especially in Buried Alive, since he gets, well, buried alive by the killer, and it's revealed that he is in fact claustrophobic. Poor man, poor man.
• Cowardly Lion: Oskar Bergman (Måns Nathanaelson), a member of Beck's squad since the third series (and now the longest-tenured), lacks a good deal of grit (not to mention talent) that would probably be necessary in a detective. He looks up to the cavalier Gunvald, but frequently drives him up the wall with his attempts to emulate him.
• Cult: There is a disturbing one in "Traces in the Dark", see the entry on Affably Evil.
• Darker and Edgier: While the show was never necessarily "lighthearted", episodes like The Girl in the Cellar and Buried Alive are much darker than other episodes, with almost no humor at all, which is something the show is known for having.
• Deadpan Snarker: Gunvald.
• Defective Detective: Martin is definitely this. Mostly disconnected from his family, his entire life is dedicated to his job, and always has to go through rough cases.
• Disappeared Dad: Martin himself is this. He has a son who didn't even know he had a dad until he was in his 20s.
  • Gunvald tells a story of how his dad just disappeared one day. He would apparently always joke about disappearing, and one day, he did.
  • Vilhelm's father was never in the picture, although Martin readily fills the role in his place.
• Driven to Suicide: Many criminals in the series end up pulling a Suicide by Cop, or, in extreme cases, kill themselves. It's actually more common for them to attempt suicide, in fact.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Jesper Wennqvist, in "The Ad", may be a serial rapist who lures people into "buying" a sofa from him, but only to rape them once he meets them. However, he genuinely loves his mom, and his background is rather tragic as well, being born from a serial rapist himself.
  • Gavling's unnamed mercenary seems to generally care for his associates.
  • The true murderer in "The Girl in the Cellar" kidnapped a little girl while on a trip to Germany with her husband, because she wanted children, and she is shown to actually care for her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Santos Golenza and Victor Bengtsson from "The Price of Revenge" are absolutely shocked by Dag Sjöberg's utter cruelty and sadism. The biggest example is when Dag kills two police officers at the start of the episode, just because they happen to be nearby. Then again, all three of them are fine with blowing up a scraper.
• Faux Affably Evil: As stated before, most villains in the series appear to be polite, but often it's just a facade.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Martin Beck is grizzled but honorable and by-the-book, Gunvald Larsson is a Cowboy Cop of the first order.
  • Josef Eriksson (Martin Wallström), introduced in series 8, takes after Gunvald in this way.
• Headache of Doom: In The Hospital Murders (Sjukhusmorden), Gunvald is put out of commission with chronic headaches. Partially averted as the headaches eventually subside, but it instead serves as an omen for the next film.
• Jurisdiction Friction: The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) frequently makes it difficult for the police to do their jobs when their interests cross paths, even when lives are at stake. Beck even winds up working as their police liaison for a time.
• I Never Said It Was Poison
• Karmic Death: Dag is a six times cop killer, and he gets killed by a cop.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The homosexual police officer is killed by Gavling this way.
• No Name Given: Beck's neighbor is never named until nearly two decades into the series; and then it isn't even invoked in his presence. Beck is asked to name the three most important people in his life outside of the police, who he lists by name before having to explain who they are to him: Inger, his daughter; Vilhelm, his grandson; and Valdemar... his neighbor.
• One-Steve Limit: No character in the series is named "Gunvald" or "Martin" other than Larsson and Beck. Wonder why.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Klas Fredén, the police superintendent in series 5-9. A self-serving ladder climber, he can be counted on to stand in the way of Beck and his squad's activities if there's any risk the top brass might not approve.
  • Joakim Wersén, the superintendent from the first series, who values results over thorough police work.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Beck's eccentric, epicurean next-door neighbor, played by Ingvar Hirdwall (a theater friend of Peter Haber) until his death in 2023. They usually meet on their balconies or in the hallway outside their apartments. He's always ready with an offbeat anecdote and a "stänkare" (a 'sprinkler', or snifter of liquor). Earlier on, Beck doesn't really know how to deal with his peculiar company, but in time he becomes like family.
  • While not entirely "plucky", a lot of Gunvald's humor is kind of plucky, especially that one time where he gets angry at a coffee machine for not having cappuccino.
• Protagonist Title: Obviously.
• Rabid Cop: Gunvald is often very violent against the suspects. It is deconstructed in one of the episodes where he gets suspended for his behaviour.
• Running Gag: The Neighbour wanting to take a drink with Martin.
• Serial Killer: Everything from criminals who just kill lots of people, rapists, or even terrorists, exist. It is more common though for a villain in the series to only kill one-two people rather than being full-blown serial killers.
• Shrinking Violet: How investigator Jenny Bodén (Anna Asp) starts out when introduced in series 5. She begins to develop her confidence as a member of Beck's squad, and this is no doubt helped by being more competent at her job than Oskar.
• Techno Wizard: Ayda Çetin (Elmira Arikan), the squad's IT specialist since series 5. She is also trained as a social worker.
  • Lena Klingström (Stina Rautelin) from the first series and the specials between series 3 and 4, who has a short-lived relationship with Beck.
• Tender Tears: The three main protagonists in the first seasons all have their villains. Beck cries at Jesper's death in The Ad, who is about as tragic as someone can be. He was born from a serial rapist raping his mom, which caused him to go insane. Lena Klingström feels bad when Karin explains her motivation and commits suicide. And Gunvald cries when a heartless monster dies, Dag Sjöberg, one of the few men he was ever truly terrified of.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Beck retires as an investigator not long after Gunvald's death, only to come back as a supervisor when he realizes he's married to his job.
• The Other Darrin: Vilhelm, recast twice since becoming old enough to be a creditable part. Lampshaded by Valter Skarsgård's Vilhelm commenting that he's the same person he's always been.
• Trauma Conga Line: Beck being buried alive.
• Truth in Television: "The Price of Revenge" was acclaimed for being realistic and very similar to an event that happened in Sweden years before the episode where two police officers were killed.