Wallender Returns

<p> Inspector Kurt Wallender (Kenneth Branagh) moves into his country dream house and before the boxes are all unpacked, his dog digs up a human skeleton in the backyard. And then, a woman's body washes up on a nearby shore. “Do you think this is fate?” he asks his wife, and then answers himself: “A policeman isn't supposed to believe in coincidences.” That belief in patterns and convergences is a grim faith on which to sustain a life, but it's all Wallender can summon. </p> <p>In the third series of the popular British series, debuting in the U.S. Sept. 9 on “Masterpiece Mystery.” Wallender is as emotionally corked as ever, a dogged yet unwise detective whose pursuit of justice often raises as many problems as it solves. Based on the novels of Swedish author Henning Mankell, Wallender is a detective for a postmodern age when only fools seem certain and the center barely exists. He's neither a good role model nor a heroic figure despite his disregard for danger; the show's suspense never builds because the expected happens in an instantwhether a suspect's suicide or the attack of a vicious dog. </p> <p>“Wallender III” is drenched in the twilight atmosphere of Sweden, a country under a cloudy shroud, girded by forests only the Brothers Grimm would gladly hike. The sun seldom begrudges the sky or lights Wallender's perpetual depression. It's another fine performance from Branagh, one of the great character actors of our time. “Wallender III” runs 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, 16 and 23 on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10.1. </p>