The second and third films, "Firewall" and "One Step Behind," are less mannered than the first, and that they are all based on novels protects them from some of the more predictable turns and twists of TV crime drama; they take on teenage prostitution, anarchy in the computer age, and an old-fashioned serial killer, with a good deal of suspense.
But what makes "Wallander" memorable in the end is the arc that underlies them -- the detective's own story as he plummets toward emotional and physical crisis.
Branagh contrives to look worse as the series goes on. Living alone, about to be divorced, out of shape, unshaven, unwashed, unwell and falling asleep everywhere but in a bed, he's been a good policeman but a bad husband, father, son and friend. (David Warner makes a memorable appearance as Wallander's own father, an artist on the edge of dementia.)
It is also a kind of murder, these stories suggest, to isolate yourself from others -- a crime for which the solution always lies within.
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robert.lloyd@latimes.com
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'Masterpiece Mystery!: Wallander'
Where: KCET
When: 9 p.m. Sunday
Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)
