Underworld Trilogy: The Lawyer

These three episodes were the best Finnish TV that I've ever seen, at least for a long time. Teijo Eloranta is a perfect fit for the role of the blues playing, underachieving but golden hearted lawyer Tomas Mattila who struggles with alcoholism. The "underworld" of Helsinki and Stockholm where he drifts and desperately tries to navigate is dark but humorous and it's incidents and characters do not try to be too realistic but are still believable in their own world. They seem to have the right balance of caricature and depth. The story lacks no tension and surprises and you can really feel what Mattila is going through when he tries to come on top in the desperate circumstances.The plot is complex, but not artificially so, and is unraveled in a captivating manner that does not feel rushed.

Everything is crowned with the amazing soundtrack created by Lauri Porra and the guest musicians. It brings forth with great strength the whole range of emotions that are present in the story. It is quite rare for a story to manage to be light and deeply touching at the same time. Teijo's harmonica playing has a big effect too (he played the instrument himself).

I think the earlier parts of the series suffered a bit, among some other issues, from varying performances by actors, but in Lawyer I found the acting top class through and through. I want to give special credit to how well Eloranta and Hyytiäinen play together when their characters share screen time.

I highly recommend this if you like crime stories, beautiful bluesy music and strong finnish atmosphere.