There’s something rather un-Swedish about this Swedish series. Of course, Nordic Noir has dealt up some less than wholesome images of Scandinavian life over the years, offering up numerous ways to kill, maim or torture one’s fellow human beings. But Walter Presents: ‘Top Dog‘ isn’t your traditional snow-clad Scandi thriller.
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading this article now.
Teddy and Emily are an odd couple on the face of it. He’s a (mostly) reformed gangster, and she’s a hot-shot lawyer. But their lives continue to be intertwined, resulting in them helping and hindering each other throughout their journeys.
Emily is out of work and suffering with set-back after set-back. But when she sneaks a look at some of Teddy’s paperwork, she comes across the name of a company owned by billionaire Paul Ahlborg. Intrigued, she manages to wangle an interview with Ahlborg and impress him sufficiently for him to offer her a job within his company. However – of course – this means she’s muddying the waters for some shady business affairs that Teddy is involved with.
Meanwhile Teddy has issues of his own when he learns that his nephew, Nikola, has been detained following the shooting of his friend, Chamon. Chamon was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a shooting occurred in a restaurant; but rather than running away like any sensible person would, Chamon waited until the shooter had left before robbing the pockets of the victims. But that greed backfires when he realises that he’s been pursued by the killers. He seeks out his friend, Nikola, but the gunmen appear out of nowhere and shoot Chamon on the street.
The show has had two nominations at the Swedish broadcasting awards, Kristallen (meaning “Crystal”), and the composers of the musical score, Carl-Johan Sevedag and Jon Ekstrand, won Best Music at the Cannes International Series Festival – so this is a show with pedigree. The two main actors – Josefin Asplund (‘Vikings’, ‘Snow Angel’ and ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’) and Alexej Manvelov (Tom Clancy’s ‘Jack Ryan’, ‘Before We Die’ and ‘Stockholm Requiem’) – are both excellent in their roles, continuing to spark off each other in an on-screen relationship that is both passionate and highly unusual.
The plot has more holes than a well-drilled colander, but if you can get past that, this is actually a highly-rewarding series to watch. The central characters are well-rounded and believable, and mostly we find ourselves sympathetic to their causes – even the “bad boy” Teddy is a good boy at heart.
I would suggest watching Season 1 of ‘Top Dog’ first, rather than jumping straight in to Season 2; but if you enjoy gangster family style crime dramas, with a Nordic twist, this might be up your street.
Walter Presents: ‘Top Dog’ Season 2 launches launches on Channel 4 at midnight on Sunday 17th March. The full box-set is available on Walter Presents via Channel 4 Steaming from Friday 15th March.
