If you don’t feel like cheesy Christmas movies during the cold season, you might find a different suitable entertainment in Scandinavian crime dramas. There is currently a whole series available for free and without a subscription. Kenneth Branagh plays the lead role.
Which series is it about? In the 1990s, Swedish author Henning Mankell created the character Kurt Wallander. He is a commissioner who must solve various cases in the Swedish town of Ystad in several novels.
Several of the novels have been filmed multiple times. Between 2008 and 2015, the series “Kommissar Wallander” aired with 12 episodes, in which Kenneth Branagh plays the lead role of Wallander. Most people probably know him as the worst teacher from Hogwarts, Gilderoy Lockhart, or the charming detective Hercule Poirot from Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
If you’re more into dark crime dramas from Scandinavia during the cold season, you’ll have plenty to do with the “Kommissar Wallander” series, as you can currently watch a total of 11 episodes for free and without a subscription.
You can watch a trailer for the first season of “Kommissar Wallander” here:
Melancholic, dark, and cold
What is “Kommissar Wallander” about? The series is divided into 4 seasons, each consisting of 3 episodes. In each episode, which lasts about 90 minutes, a different novel by Henning Mankell is adapted. Each episode deals with a different case.
As in many Scandinavian crime dramas, a conscious contrast is created between brutal murders and the idyllic scenery. Wallander himself is a melancholic figure who struggles with personal issues and doesn’t always adhere to legally correct paths. He is emotionally impacted by the cases.
The perpetrators are usually not purely evil people and act out of tragic motives such as revenge.
Where can I watch “Kommissar Wallander” for free? Currently, there are 11 out of the 12 Wallander episodes with Kenneth Branagh available for free and without a subscription in the ARD media library. Most of them will be available until summer 2026. You can go directly there via this link.
Only the case The Man Who Smiled
is missing in the media library; if you have a Netflix subscription, you can catch the film there.
If you want to see more of Wallander after the films with Kenneth Branagh, there is another Wallander series in the ARD media library, this time with Krister Henriksson in the lead role. You can find more cold
crime series in this list: 5 strong Nordic crime series for a gloomy TV evening
