Last weekend, after watching a new movie on HBO (will write about that later), I caught a glimpse of this new series which seemed really interesting and I really could not wait to write about it. It was a mystery thriller and only consisted of 6 episodes. Now why don't I just get into it.
Brief Story Line
Story was set in the Antarctic where due to its location on earth, half of the year was filled with darkness. A group of scientists were working in Polaris VI station during this period where they would be cut off from the civilization until the summer arrived. The group consisted of 10 people with their leader Arthur (John Lynch - In the Name of the Father etc), his partner Annika (Laura Bach), Erik (Richard Sammel - 3 Days to Kill etc) who was in charge of security, the cook Ramón (Álvaro Morte - Money Heist series etc), the doctor Maggie (Katharine O'Donnelly), the new guy Aki (Tomohisa Yamashita - Kurosagi, Code Blue the Movie etc) and few others.
After 6 months there, Annika's husband Johan (Alexandre Willaume) together with his friends came to Polaris VI worried as there had been no communication for the past 3 weeks. What Johan found was truly shocking as most of them had died and only very few had survived.
So what happened to the people at Polaris VI? Find them all in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
This was absolutely brilliant! At first I thought the series had similarities with the quite popular & famous movie The Thing (1982 version directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russel) and funnily enough the movie was shown a bit in this series. But later on it was clear that it took a different approach from mystery & thriller side. From the moment that Johan came to Polaris VI station, the intensity and suspense was felt through the whole series.
What amazed me here was how intelligent the story telling done as it was told from the point of view of the survivor, showing us only what the person could have seen and experienced. And then came episode 3 where suddenly we were given the seed of doubt on this story. Even the smallest detail like why the most important information was only told towards the ending was also explained. And the dark & mysterious tone was also consistent till the finale.
Another point that I liked about this series was the acting of most of the cast. They were generally convincing in their part, but I believe the writing (David Pastor & Alex Pastor) and directing (Jorge Dorado) was the main part which made this series truly enjoyable to watch. Despite the unfamiliarity of their faces, I did not have any problem in familiarizing myself with the cast due to their wonderful performances. Btw, the language spoken in here were mostly English, but there were also some Danish and Sweden.
There were obviously some twists which should satisfy fans of such genre, and for me in particular, I really like it when I could still be surprised even if it's only in part. That final moment was one of the best I had seen in quite some time. Oh, the music in here was also a great factor. They added the intensity during the whole 6 episodes. There was also a very nice song during closing credit, titled Nights Cold which was sung by Tomohisa Yamashita himself (I have added the video below).
Overall this was one of the best I had seen for a mystery thriller series. I think 6 episodes were the perfect length, as it was not too long with much distracting side stories and not too short that everything felt rushed. Audience were kept in the dark for almost the entire season and the ending was truly satisfying. The only thing that I thought was a bit confusing was the time line as there was no indication mentioned, which meant I had to guess by myself. But other than that, I thought everything was just awesome. I am just unsure whether there would be a second season or this is a one time off (mini series). So for those looking for this type of series, The Head should not be missed. It's available on HBO Go.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Here's a link of the song Nights Cold by Tomohisa Yamashita
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