This kitsch and sinfully entertaining drama takes the story of murdered Swedish politician Olof Palme and injects it with artistic license – and much toxic masculinity
Who killed Olof Palme? The Swedish prime minister was shot dead in a Stockholm street in February 1986, and for decades the identity of his killer remained a mystery. Even last year, when the case was finally officially concluded and the blame was pinned on Stig Engström – an insurance company employee who killed himself in 2000 – there was hot debate in Sweden about whether he had actually carried out the crime.
No such doubts plague The Unlikely Murderer, Netflix’s new five-part drama about the Palme case. Engström guns the PM down in the first scene, leaving the show free to meld facts and speculation into an irresistible story of an eccentric who somehow outwits the police, set in a beautifully realised late-80s world of thick knitwear, chunky ashtrays and big, solid barnets.