In Stockholm, they began to discover the corpses of girls killed according to the same scheme. All the dead are blue-eyed blondes. They are immobilized by injecting a drug, after which they are buried alive, leaving a tube for breathing. After some time, the tube is removed, and the grave of the unfortunate woman is covered with asphodel flowers.
The investigation of these crimes is led by police inspector Michael Eklund (Michael Nykvist). However, it turned out that some time ago similar crimes took place in New York, which were then investigated by Inspector Tommy Conley (Dominic Monaghan), and the Americans assumed that we were talking about the same serial killer who simply changed his place of residence. And Tommy flies to Stockholm to help Eklund.
These terrible murders stirred up the whole country, the investigation was declared a matter of extreme importance, and Eklund and Conley form their own separate group with analysts of various kinds. Both police inspectors participate in “field” investigations, department analysts collect and process information, computer specialist Fille (Kristoffer Berglund) is looking for various clues on the Web.
After some time, the group gets to the bottom of the fact that a mysterious man with the initials LH is hiding behind these crimes. This person created a special forum on the Internet and on this forum he finds people with an unstable psyche and a craving for committing crimes.
***
I love Scandinavian detective series. They differ markedly from similar American series in their style and atmosphere. However, not all series are good. For example, “Bridge” is excellent. “Fortitude” is also quite exciting (I’m just watching right now). But “The Murder”, with all its high ratings, in my opinion, is noticeably weaker purely in terms of plot, not to mention how utterly zilch the entire first season ends. (I didn’t even look at the second one.)
I also wanted to watch this series because of the international composition: a good British actor Dominic Monaghan, whom we know from The Lord of the Rings, the series Lost and the film X-Men Origins, Wolverine, is participating here. Well, and also based on the United Statesn film “Soldiers of Fortune”, where many American actors starred. The film has an amazingly moronic script, but I note that Monaghan gave it his all.
Well, also here in the second main role Mikael Nykvist from “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” is also a characteristic and interesting actor.
Watched the first season. In general, quite liked it. Usually Scandinavian series are very leisurely, but here the dynamics are clearly livelier: all twelve episodes of the action unfolded quite rapidly, one plot twist followed another.
It also added variety to the fact that they were, in fact, hunting for several people: the investigation team quickly found out that although the murders were always carried out according to the same scheme, the killer was far from alone, they were directed by this mysterious LH.
What is the “code one hundred” that gave the series its name? I have no idea. This is not explained in the series. I know that the police have special codes that indicate the type of crime – for transmission by radio. But it doesn’t show up here. So that’s another mystery that the series leaves us with. Not the last riddle, I note.
Why is the asphodel flower (asphodelus) always featured in murders? This is a reference to the ancient Greek notions of fields of asphodels in the underworld, where the shadows of the dead wander. Asphodel is a symbol of oblivion.
The detective line itself is interesting, but I liked the psychological component more in the series. A pair of detectives are completely different: Eklund’s northern restraint, Conley’s impulsiveness and emotionality. Each of them has its own problems. Eklund has things in his past that he deeply regrets and that have greatly ruined his relationship with his adult daughter Hannah (Felice Janckell). Conley has in the past the death of his wife, in which he considers himself guilty, and periodically Conley wants to commit suicide. However, everything is actually far from so gloomy there: several funny moments are connected with this couple and they dive in an interesting way at times.
Both characters are played very well. Eklund Nyqvista is a calm, responsible, good policeman. But in the series it is shown that he has a lot of things going on in his soul that periodically comes out. Monaghan’s Conley is impetuous, a bit goofy, shall we say, but he’s also a tough cop and rooting for his job. That’s what I like about Monaghan, with his appearance as a small-sized hobbit – he quite adequately plays roles of various types and looks very good almost everywhere. In this case, you really believe that Conley is a tough cop. Because the true steepness is in the head and in the appropriate preparation, and not in the size of the muscles and not in the growth.
A separate line is dedicated to Eklund’s daughter Hanna. She falls in love with police officer Goran (Peter Eggers), his father’s subordinate. And Goran, to be honest, is the type, so we will all worry about Hannah.
There are all sorts of interesting characters in the Eklund and Conley group, among which the computer genius Fille and the analyst Bjorn Johnsson (Danilo Bejarano) are especially good – a shy fellow who is not suitable for “field” work and hardly builds relationships in the team.
Good series, I liked it. However, I must warn you that there is a certain element of incompleteness in it that slightly surprised me. Usually in such series, at the end of the season, the main storyline ends – the search for a mysterious villain. Here, the villain was not one, and they exposed and caught several, but decided to leave a fat backlog for the second season. Which, apparently, will never take place, because, unfortunately, the actor Mikael Nykvist died in 2017. And since it’s already 2019, and there has never been a second season, it’s clear that the production team did not change Eklund for another character. They probably did the right thing, but it’s still a shame that the series actually ended in mid-sentence.
However, I think it’s well worth watching. We don’t watch detective shows to find out that the killer is a gardener, right? The process itself is important there, the psychological aspects of the interaction of characters, style, atmosphere, and so on are important there. With this, this series, in my opinion, everything is in order. Well, plus, I warned you, and whoever is warned is armed, so you will not have a syndrome of deceived expectations.
PS They suggested that the “code 100” for the police is “Accident. The driver fled the scene”.
Code 100 / The Hundred Code
Director: Bobby Moresco Cast: Dominic Monaghan, Mikael Nyqvist, Felice Janckell, Charlotte Jonson, Danilo Bejarano, Kristoffer Berglund, Peter Eggers, Hedda Steinsted, Roshin Murphy, Martin Wahlström
Series, Sweden-Germany, 2015, 60 min.