This is exactly my take on Thomas Buch, too. He's as fascinating to watch as Troels Hartmann was, but for totally different reasons.

It all started to get a bit red herring-y last week, so I'm really looking forward to the denouement this weekend. I wish it hadn't been so short, though! Sarah Lund is still a wonderful, wonderful character and I hope this isn't the last we see of her.

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I wonder whether the evocatively-named Strange is a goody or a baddy. My guess is goody, sleeps with Lund in episode 9, gets horribly murdered in episode 10.

Buch makes me laugh out loud he's so inept. But I also feel very kindly disposed towards him of of course. When his eyes go all watery with tears as he is outsmarted again by the smug fascists. Poor soul.

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After last week, surely someone must be slashing Buch and Krabbe. I can just see Krabbe waking up with a start and thinking that it's bad enough having to get into bed politically with a bleeding-heart pinko like Buch, but now he's having nightmares about actually being in bed with him... and then he hears a snore under the bedding and remembers that he is.

Definitely a plus having fewer episodes this time. You knew perfectly well that none of the suspects in the first fifteen or so episodes could be the real killer, and having that many red herrings made the police look stupid. I'm just hoping it doesn't do anything totally unbelievable to throw me out of the story in the final episode, like with Troels's aide last time.

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Oh, I never thought of that. But it's a great pair-up: lifelong enemies co-operating against a greater corruption. I thought it was so funny when Buch thought the picture of Krabbe's wife was the au paire.

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BTW do you think the two Civil Servants will get together? Or will he get sent to Skopje as threatened.

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Well, from our brief glimpse of Monberg, her tastes are younger, slimmer and darker. But I am confident he will be spared Skopje, even if he has to shop Buch to do it.

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But they keep bickering! I think they will get it together.

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Unless it turns out it was Plough wot did it and then Skopje becomes too good for the likes of him.

They are rather Humphrey and Hacker. Bless.

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Ooh, that would be exciting!

Actually, the biggest mystery for me is his name. Plough? How can he be called Plough?

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Perhaps it is nickname referring to his ploughing a lonely furrow as chief wotsit to the minister of justice? Or else he was named after the constellation because of his fondness for wobbly saucepans?

I could go on, but it's probably best not to.

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I really hoped for some Buch/Lund when he was arranging the meeting in the kitchens beneath her mother's wedding ("He eats sweets nervously while accusing the Minister of Defence on prime time TV! She puts on a reindeer jumper and an expression of extreme prejudice to fly to Helmand province! Together they fight crime!")

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The snag is that Lund is just about the only person I can't see finding herself in bed with Buch by accident when all she meant to do was pat him on the head and say "There, there" after he turned up drunk and tearful and carrying evidence of a major cover-up in the MoD. Because she wouldn't waste time on saying "There, there", just rush off to arrest the Defence Minister before all her superiors could tell her not to.

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So funny. I am really enjoying these comments. I thought she might get it on with Troels too, but they just like to tease us.

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I thought she might get it on with Troels but that was just another of the multiple red herrings, alas.

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Sophe Grabol apparently forbade it because she thought it would weaken the character.

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Love scenes that never happen are the most interesting. On TV as in real life :-)

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I really like Buch and he is a complete contrast to Troels Hartmann. The actor playing Buch does slow thinking really well. As with Lund, it's all happening on the inside. Physically Buch is a complete contrast with Hartmann, too, even down to Hartman's cleancut appearance and Buch's unshaven, slightly-too-long stubble. I do hope Buch is vindicated. I don't know Danish politics but I wonder if they're based on specific politicians and not just types?

For me it is the political repercussions that are the drivers for the episodes in this season, with the emotional family drama (the fugitive's family break-up, Lund's family relationships) much more in the background. In fact in some ways the emotional drama has been relocated to the army men in the barracks, rather than playing out between blood relatives and lovers.

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I like the way nowadays you can read articles in all different languages and get a workable translation on your browser (boy, we are living in the future) so I've been reading a few Danish newspaper articles. The guy that played Buch spent some time shadowing the actual Danish Minister of Justice. But I expect that was more for the feel of the office than characterisation.

Also, he won the Danish best actor award two years in a row, the second time for Hamlet. I think he's one of hte most talented actors I've seen on the show.

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Sounds like we should acquire S2 once we've finished spinning out S1. (I think it's coming out on DVD before Christmas.) Mr EA is a huge fan of political drama.

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BBC Four are going to show another Danish political drama, Borgen, so that might be of interest to Mr EA. The article says it's by the same production company as Forbrydelsen.

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ooh, brilliant recommendation

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Ooh, excellent! We nearly always miss stuff when it's broadcast (mr_ea being away all week doesn't help) but I'll look out for it.

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