So two years after the end of the first series of the U. K. remake of the Swedish original series, we pick up from when Lesley Sharp's dogged detective Hannah Laing has just killed the Croation gangster son of the Mimica family matriarch while her own son Christian, Patrick Gibson, is now hooked up in Puerto Rico with the crime family's young daughter but always looking over his shoulder as he knows there's a contract out on him.
Sure enough, some Croatian heavies turn up to take him down but he manages to escape, albeit without his now-wife Bianca who instead is kidnapped and taken back to her mother by boat. Naturally Christian follows her back but as a marked man, this is a high risk strategy.
Meanwhile Hannah doesnt initially know if her son is alive or dead but when she learns he's coming home, her suspicions about leaks in her department are found to be true, greatly jeopardising Christian's prospects, but just how many leaks are there and how high do they go?
Meanwhile Mama Mimica is still sitting on all that cocaine which her overlords back home are keen to finally move on for cash and, to protect their investment, send over her niece, son of the mother's brother who was also killed at the end of the previous series. The mother imprisons Bianca at home but then learns that she's pregnant with Christian's child. On her side, Hannah has her faithful sidekick and support Billy Murdoch, Vincent Regan, but will the two of them stay alive long enough to keep Christian safe, free Bianca and make the big bust?
It all ends somewhat melodramatically with one gun-toting, vengeful mother hunting down the other like two female Clint Eastwoods, where credibility is strained by Dubravka missing Hannah at point-blank range and then shooting dead her youngest nephew who takes Bianca's side at the conclusion. This isn't the only time credulity is stretched to breaking point as we've earlier seen Billy left to die in a seeming death-trap by the high-ranking insider cop, like it was an old episode of "Batman" or James Bond, so you can guess how that turna out.
I really liked the first series and was happy to reacquaint myself with Hannah, Christian and Billy, as well as the Mimica clan, but I felt this series was a little too improbable with too many hairsbreadth escapes and major coincidences getting in the way of my enjoyment.
It was still fun and entertaining to watch and I enjoyed the playing of Sharp, Regan and Gibson et.al in this exciting if unlikely police procedural. It may have been inferior to Season One, but it was still better than many other cop shows around. There was still a loose end or two outstanding by the end, giving some hope they might just squeeze a third series out of these characters which I'd certainly be happy to watch.