Jana, Marked for Life, on Viaplay

In the late Eighteenth Century, Norrkoping was one of three Swedish cities where Jews were allowed to live (along with Stockholm and Gothenburg). In recent years, there has been a dark side to the harbor city’s openness, as the authorities have struggled with illegal immigration and human trafficking. Perhaps something like that happened to Jana Berzelius, who has recently followed in the footsteps of her adoptive father, into the prosecutorial service. However, her first case might be her last, when she participates in an investigation involving child assassins who literally bear the same markings she still carries on he back of her neck in co-creators Felix Herngren & Henrik Bjorn’s six-episode Jana, Marked for Life, which premieres tomorrow on Viaplay.

Hans Juhlen was the director of the local government migrant agency, who was known to get a little “hands on” with some of his cases. As fate would have it, he helped facilitate Karl and Margarethe Berzelius’s adoption of Jana, after she mysteriously washed up in the harbor. However, she was so prone to rage, paranoia, and violence, they sent her to a psychiatrist privy to questionable trauma research, who basically drugged Jana’s bad memories away.

Of course, they were not really gone. They always returned in dreams and now start surfacing in sudden flashes prompted by Berzelius’s first case: Juhlen’s murder, apparently committed by a child. Even though Juhlen approached Berzelius at her father’s retirement party, on the night of his death, she minimizes her connection, so she can still work the case. To put it bluntly, she lies to Peer Bruckner, the senior prosecutor assigned to the case (and perhaps her potential love-interest) and she keeps deceiving him as she gets pulled more deeply into her dangerous past.

It is hard to say who makes worse decisions, the erratic, half-cocked Berzelius, or her law enforcement rival, police officer Mia Bolander, whose class-conscious resentment of the new prosecutor also acts like an antidote to her common sense. However, their horrendous decision-making at least earns credit for advancing the plot. Without them blundering into crime scenes, most of the series would probably consist of Bruckner filling out forms in triplicate.

In fact, their impulsive recklessness in compulsively watchable. Both Madeleine Martin and Moa Gammel are uncompromisingly fierce as the prosecutor and the cop. It is almost impossible to turn away from them. Fortunately, Frederik Hallgren provides a grounding, relatable presence as Bolander’s long-suffering partner, Henrik Levin. In fact, he has some of the series’ best human drama, depicting how the violent exploitation of the child-assassins taxes the copper-father’s soul.

There are many, many cringy face-palm moments in Marked for Life. However, it should be stipulated, the adaptation of Emelie Schepp’s novel boldly goes to some very dark places. Arguably, it illuminates the evils of human trafficking somewhat more than pulls the heartstrings on behalf of the migrant population, but a little of both are certainly on its agenda. Some of the killer kid material might even appeal to horror fans, but the lack of “adult supervision” will annoy a lot of healthy viewers. Mostly recommended to the curious for the characters’ credibility-stretching excesses, Jana, Marked for Life starts streaming tomorrow (5/8) on Viaplay.