“Bordertown” Season 3 – TV Review

The first two seasons of the moody Finnish police procedural, “Bordertown” were excellent, featuring one of those troubled, eccentric, brilliant police detectives that have been so popular for many years, in many countries.

Here is the link to my laudatory review of Season 2 to bring you up to speed on characters and relevant backstories for this one: www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2024/04/bordertown-season-2-review/.

Unfortunately, Season 3 doesn’t quite live up to the first two. Again it’s 10 episodes, with each featured crime covered in two or three of them, and several subplots carried over from before and recurring throughout this one. Kari’s wife dies in the first, and the way he and daughter Janina deal with their grief is the stuff of which melodramas are made for the whole season. Many clashes and moody musings take up considerably more of the running time than before, and grow rather tedious for those who are watching for the sleuthing.

Brilliant psycho Lasse Maasalo (Sampo Sarkola) energizes many of the episodes with his devious and deadly schemes, showing the quiet cunning of villains like Cristoph Waltz’s Nazi colonel in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. Former assistant Niko, who’s been promoted to head their Serious Crime Unit, is overwhelmed by the admin duties of the position, especially agonizing over a looming budget cut that could mean the end of its existence. Kari’s other partner, Lena, is still at odds with her less-than-stellar past and with her daughter, Katia, for reasons that become increasingly muddled.

The crime plots are again varied and intriguing, including a couple of serial killers, the patriarch of a feuding family being offed, brutality within the enclave of a demented cult leader and his flock of acolytes, and a poison or pandemic mystery threatening the whole community.

The shift of balance between criminal activity and inner workings of the principals’ minds is what made the same number of episodes seem longer. A couple of writers from the first two seasons were replaced in the third, perhaps by former psych majors feeling compelled to apply their education in this non-clinical arena. The good news is that the season – and presumably the series, since it’s been four years after the last one aired – ends with a reasonable degree of closure on all threads. For those who want more, there was a follow-up TV movie in 2021 with many of the characters returning. It’s on Netflix, but I was even more disappointed by the script for that one. It felt as if they were still pumping a dry well.

“Bordertown: Season 3,” in Finnish with English subtitles, is available streaming starting Tuesday, June 4, on MHzChoice.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars