Verdict Revised - Innocent Convicted Season 1 - DVD

Content: Once upon a time, Markus Haglund (Mikael Persbrandt) was an enormously successful lawyer, usually able to secure an acquittal for his clients even in seemingly hopeless cases. But after one of his clients rapes and kills a mother and her daughter shortly after the acquittal, Haglund quits his job and tries to drown his guilt over this horrific act in alcohol. When his old friend Caroline Gustavsson offers him a professorship in criminal law at Uppsala University, the fallen lawyer gets a second chance. But instead of standing behind the professor's desk or correcting students' papers at his desk, Haglund prefers to spend his time sitting at the bar, drunkenly hitting on women.

And so he's about to lose that job, too. But when law student Fia Jönsson (Sofia Ledarp) asks him to help a friend's wrongfully convicted stepfather, Haglund begins a new chapter in his life. Initially under only pressure from Caroline, he makes it his mission, along with Fia and two other stundents, Anna Sjöstedt (Helena af Sandeberg) and Belal Al-Mukthar (Francisco Sobrado), to investigate cases of possible wrongful conviction. And right away, Fia's friend's first assignment has it all. Because Haglund and his young team come across inconsistencies that lead them to a special police unit. But here they come up against a wall of silence, Belal even becomes the victim of a brutal assault. But when the young policeman Roger Andersen (Leonard Terfelt) breaks his silence, Haglund not only finally comes closer to solving this case, he is also able to add a man to his team.

Verdict Revised - Innocently Convicted is a thrilling crime series that truly need not fear comparison with British or American genre representatives. Series creator Johann Zollitsch has not reinvented the wheel here. So the basic idea is very reminiscent of US series such as Justice: Not Guilty and follows the structure of this and similar representatives of this genre. And yet there are several aspects that make this Swedish TV series stand out from the crowd in terms of quality.

Probably the most important of these aspects is lead actor Mikael Persbrandt and the Markus Haglund he portrays. Persbrandt, who has gained widespread popularity outside his homeland through the series Kommissar Beck and the Oscar winner In a Better World, gives the cynical professor with a fascinating complexity. At times he is a simply brilliant mind, at other times charming and empathetic, and at other times he exudes an almost vicious indifference. It makes this character tremendously interesting, which is good for the series overall. But Haglund's team also consists of interesting characters, convincingly embodied by actors such as Sofia Ledarp, known from the Millennium trilogy, or the charismatic Leonard Trefelt.

The twelve cases of the first season itself are solid and exciting, and even if the really big surprises are missing, the action never gets even remotely boring. Especially since the viewer also learns more about the backgrounds of the main characters in each episode and so it is gradually revealed that not only Haglund has to fight with his inner demons. If you like suspenseful thrillers, gripping courtroom dramas and Nordic crime entertainment, then Verdict Revised - Innocently Convicted is not to be missed. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: About the very clean and in most moments pleasantly sharp image can hardly complain, especially since the color scheme and the matching of contrasts can convince. The stereo sound is largely unspectacular, but is quite appropriate for the content of the series. For this, the bottom line is a well-deserved: good!

Extras: Bonus material is unfortunately not available.

Conclusion: Verdict Revised - Innocently Convicted is an exciting as well as entertaining series, which may not deserve an award for originality, but due to the good actors and the clever scripts offers the best entertainment, even if here only in familiar waters is fished. The technical realization for the DVD can be seen and heard for a TV series, only the complete lack of accompanying extras clouds the consistently positive overall impression a little. Nevertheless, for lovers of Nordic crime entertainment, this series is absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp