MHZ Mysteries

For reasons I no longer recall, I set my dvr to record a series titled Wallander, which showed on MHZ.  (MHZ is a foreign cable channel -- has news from India, Russia, Germany, France, and various other things.)  I wish I could recall what prompted the recording -- the three episodes I have so far are in Swedish, English, and then Swedish again.  At least I think it is Swedish -- the story seems set in Sweden.  But the episode in English is set in Denmark.  (My speculations are confirmed by Wikipedia -- of the clever one.)  The English and Swedish versions have different actors, but the plotting and characterization seems very close, if not identical.  Every once in a while a US channel picks up something from UK and tries to redo it.  Some succeed, like The Office (which, at least in the UK versions I saw was far too close to life to be funny) and some fail (miserably in the case of Coupling -- the US version used the identical script and was still absolutely awful).  But, getting back to it, the Wallander stories all seemed to fit together.  I am assuming it was originally Swedish, because there were twice as many, and the English version was not even set in the UK.  Aside from the curiosity of it, it was a nice reminder of parochial thinking and assumptions.  Borrow from the nearby nations?! My god, such a thought!  And for those of in the US (let alone Zion), it is so rare that it is a shock.  It is one (of a number of reasons) I read some British journals.  They have reviews and essays about apparently well-known folk I have never heard of, the obvious whole culture out of my sight.  (The audacity!)  It is a good thing to run into that with some regularity.  It wold be even better if, after these several years, it was al still a bit of a surprise to me.  Perhaps a board to get through the thick wit.