The Killing II - review

The Killing II startedon BBC Four this week-end and I made sure I watched it. I missed out on thefirst showing of the original cult hit series from Denmark The Killing, a gap in my TVviewing I mean to fill as soon as I can, given the enormously positivereception it received.
So what do I make ofthe follow-up? Well, the first two episodes were extremely watchable (the moreso by comparison, since the previous night I'd watched a rubbishy film calledThe Resident which was shorter than the two hour-long episodes but was soannoying that it felt as though it might never finish).
The story is a mix ofthe personal and the political, a bit like the recent UK series Hidden, butbetter. A woman is found murdered in bizarre circumstances. Her husband is asuspect, but it soon seems that there may be a link with a second killing. Thewoman was a military lawyer who worked in the Middle East, the man was anex-soldier. A third strand of the story involves another ex-soldier, nowconfined to an institution and mysteriously denied his release.
The structure of TheKilling II reminded me of the early series of Taggart. Three or four enigmaticstory-lines, connected in some (we hope) ingenious way. And, as in theGlaswegian series, dogged detective work, this time by Sarah Lund and UlrikStrange.  The suggestion at the moment isthat Muslim fundamentalists are responsible for the killings, but we don'treally believe that, do we? Could the military man who is father-in-law to theinstitutionalised bloke be key to the story? That's my bet at the moment, but weshall see. I certainly plan to keep watching.