Blood ties - Season 2 - DVD

Movie: On a picturesque island in the Swedish archipelago, siblings Lasse, Jonna and Oskar run the small guesthouse that their mother Anna-Lisa Waldemar left them after her suicide. Their first season together was turbulent and opened up many old wounds. Now it's winter and the guesthouse is about to reopen shortly before Christmas. But Oskar, who was supposed to take care of everything here, has fallen into a deep hole after the disappearance of his wife Liv. He has failed to take care of important repairs as well as orders and licenses. When Simon returns from Stockholm, he finds his brother in almost as dilapidated a state as the house. Now he has to take care of it - while he has quite different problems that will bring a lot of trouble to the island. Jonna takes the reins after her arrival, but can only fix superficial flaws. For the problems the siblings face run much deeper and threaten to escalate when their uncle finds his brother's dead body. A slew of fake money, Liv's sudden return, and the family secrets still unresolved make for another tumultuous season on the small island.

Sweden's gritty family drama Blood Ties from producer Henrik Jansson-Schweizer (The Centenarian Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared) enters its second round. And life on the small island is getting harder for the three siblings. Old conflicts from the first season continue to run circles around them, while new problems also befall the three. The mystery surrounding the death of their father, for example, which was actually solved in the first season, now takes on unexpected proportions and threatens to drag all three siblings into the abyss. Also, the not-so-easy relationship between Oskar, his wife Liv, and her old feelings for Lasse made for complications in the first season, the extent of which are only now becoming apparent.

That's not enough, of course: Oskar and Lasse's daughters also seem to have caught the bad karma hovering over the family. For they too are part of the increasingly dramatic story that can't really have a good ending. One could almost argue with the second season that the conflicts and twists are almost too much of a good thing. But the direction, scripts and actors are so good that the whole thing still works. Yes, it's a bit thick in parts. But the dense atmosphere creates a gripping tension that is hard to resist. You root for the characters, and even if their actions aren't always morally pristine, you still wish everything would work out for the best for them in the end.

Blood ties is also in the second year again a successful mixture of drama and thriller, which knows how to entertain well with very quiet, but also some extremely exciting moments. Visually and dramaturgically very good television that can be recommended to all lovers of Nordic dramas of the suspenseful kind. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The atmospheric images of the island landscape in the Swedish archipelago can unfold well on the DVD. While there are slight drops in detail here and there, especially in the darker scenes, overall the decent overall sharpness and very atmospheric color scheme leave a very positive overall impression. The same goes for the audio, which is in stereo and more than satisfactorily fulfills its primary purpose of making the dialogue and some atmospheric ambient sounds sound well-matched. Good.

Extras: Unfortunately, the box has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: Blood ties enters the second round in an exciting and rousing way. Old conflicts from the first season are expanded upon and more are added. The visuals once again provide a dense atmosphere. This keeps it exciting even in those moments that seem a bit too thick. The DVD presents the series in good picture and sound quality. Unfortunately, viewers have to do without bonus material. Nevertheless, there is a clear bottom line: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp