As you might recall, WGBH Drama Club brought you a no-spoilers special edition of Drama After Dark featuring the first season of the Swedish thriller, Modus. If you didn’t catch our special, here's the key takeaway: we just love this show. Spooky, sexy and highly cerebral, Modus follows criminal profiler Inger Johanne Vik (played by Melinda Kinnamen) and police detective Ingvar Nymann (Henrik Norlén) as they pursue high-profile crimes. In the show's first season, the crimes in question were committed by a merciless killer on a mission of hate. (Psst, if you want to catch up on the action before watching Modus season two, mosey on over to Passport.)
Now, in the show's second season, Ingvar and Inger are back and on the case as the first female President of the United States (portrayed by Kim Cattrall of HBO's Sex & The City fame) is kidnapped. Needless to say, we're delighted to continue bringing you coverage of this dynamic series. First up? Let’s take a look at the compelling cast behind season two:
Melinda Kinnaman as Inger Johanne Vik
Our heroine from season one, Inger Johanne Vik is a driven — but sometimes compulsive — criminal profiler and certified badass (can we say that on public TV?!). Melinda Kinnaman fulfills the role to a tee, making the character more dimensional than just the stereotype of tough crime fighter. Kinnaman’s first role was as Saga in the classic Swedish film My Life as a Dog, at the age of 14. While she is a citizen of both Sweden and the U.S., she tends to stick to Sweden with her roles, leaving the U.S. to her brother Joel Kinnamen, who is known for his titular role in Robocop and for portraying Will Conway in Netflix's House of Cards.
Henrik Norlén as Ingvar Nymann
The show's returning hero, Ingvar Nymann, is more of the strong, silent type when juxtaposed to Vik. Norlén has some serious BDE (that’s Big Detective Energy, for those playing along at home), and makes Nymann more than just a flat-foot tagging along with Vik’s swashbuckling. Aside from Modus, you might have seen Norlén as Ulf in 2019’s horror hit Midsommar. If you’re a fan of Swedish drama, he has also appeared in the Johan Falk series, portraying Lasse Karlsson.
Greg Wise as Warren Schifford
A new character introduced in season two, Warren Schifford is an FBI agent from Vik’s past. Creepy, sadistic and overbearing, Schifford is everything that we love to hate in a villain — although if and how he’s ultimately involved in the mystery is yet to be seen. Schifford is played to the hilt by pedigreed British actor Greg Wise. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s definitely graced your screen: as Lord Mountbatten in The Crown, John Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility, or, for you comedy fans, Agent One in Johnny English.
Kim Cattrall as Helen Tyler
Helen Tyler, as played by Kim Cattrall, is the first female president of the United States. In the first episode, and during her first hours in Sweden, Tyler is kidnapped, kicking off the mystery that unfolds over season two. You probably know Cattrall from her turn as Samantha Jones in Sex & the City. But her career began at the age of 19 in the film Rosebud, directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Peter O’Toole. She went on to appear as a guest in a great many episodes of classic TV shows like Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, Quincy M.E., Charlie's Angels, and The Incredible Hulk, as well as in films like Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Paprika Steen as Alva Roos
The leader of the Swedish task force pulled together to protect — and then to find — the U.S. President, Roos gives Vik a run for her money when it comes to tough policewomen. Actress Paprika Steen is a powerhouse in Scandi films. She was an active participant in Dogma 95, the Danish hyper-natural film movement, acting in Lars Von Trier’s The Idiots, Thomas Vintenbergs Festen, and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen’s Mifune’s Last Song. She has also directed three films herself: Aftermath, With Your Permission, and That Time of Year.
Johan Rabaeus as Harald Bohman
Bohman is the Swedish prime minister who’s supposed to meet with Tyler upon her visit to the country. And while we haven’t yet seen if he has a connection to her kidnapping, we definitely think he has something shady going on — though that might just be Johan Rabaeus, the actor portraying Bohman, who is known for his work in psychologically disturbing films, like Evil, The Rabbit Man, and Greyzone. When he’s not on screen, Rabaeus is on stage, starring in such musicals as The Sound of Music, as Captain von Trapp, the opera version of Dr. Zhivago, and Kiss Me Kate, as Patruchio.
Lachele Carl as Lori Reed
As the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Lori Reed takes on Dale and Zoe, the president's family, as they reel from Helen’s disappearance. And it seems that Reed has a little sleuthing experience, herself. Lachele Carl, who portrays Reed as highly strung and exacting, is probably most familiar to BBC fans as Trinity Wells from Doctor Who and Torchwood. Viewers with small children might also recognize her as the voice of Muck from the kids' show, Bob the Builder.
Billy Campbell as Dale Tyler
Another American joining the cast for season two of Modus is Billy Campbell, who plays Dale Tyler, the First Man of the United States (yes, FMOTUS). Campbell first hit the scene in the 90’s as Luke Fuller in Dynasty, Cliff in The Rocketeer, and Quincy Morris in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For you sci-fi fans, here's a fun fact about Campbell: he was an early consideration for the role of Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation, before the iconic Jonathan Frakes took the role.
Emilia Pomona as Zoe Tyler
The flighty teenaged daughter of the Tyler’s is along for the ride on her mother’s political journey; in fact, it’s she who first discovers that her mother is missing. This is Pomona’s first recorded on-screen role as an actress; she’s actually a Julliard-trained pianist and opera singer, a fact that is hinted on throughout the series.
Jonas Malmsjö as Oscar Ek
The über-creepy and wily primary suspect in early episodes of season two, Oscar Ek seems to us to be a little too obvious to be the only person involved in Tyler’s disappearance. Malmsjö might be familiar to viewers as Skorpa from The Last Kingdom, although he’s also appeared in the Swedish series Labyrint and the apocalypse film Operation Ragnarok.
A cast like this one, combined with an elegantly winding mystery, makes Modus season two is a can’t-miss. Check it out today on WGBH Passport.
