Kenneth Branagh is Kurt Wallander, Masterpiece mystery's newest detective. USA Today hails, "A terrific performance by Branagh as TV's latest brooding, troubled crime-fighter." Wallander is battling crimes and his own demons in the bucolic but brutal seaside town of Ystad, Sweden, and is pitted against the creeping malaise affecting the country, where law and order are being undermined.

In the premiere season, a maelstrom of bizarre crimes taxes Wallander's wits, while his personal life and health spiral out of control. Based on the bestselling Swedish crime novels by Henning Mankell, Wallander was filmed in rarely seen locations in southern Sweden.