Brief Story Line
Experienced Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck (Matthew Goode - The King's Man, The Good Wife TV series etc) who worked in Edinburgh police office was reassigned by his boss Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie - Game of Thrones TV series, Damaged etc) to a newly formed Department focusing on cold cases. Despite his obvious resentment, Carl did not have a choice since he was just involved in a major incident earlier that required him seeing psychiatrist Dr. Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald - Boardwalk Empire TV series, No Country for Old Men etc).
Carl also had personal issue having been separated with his wife Claire Marsh (Shirley Henderson - See How They Run, T2 Trainspotting etc). During his investigation, Carl was informally assisted by Akram Salim from Syria (Alexej Manvelov - season 3 of Jack Ryan TV series etc) and later Cadet Rose (Leah Byrne). Sometimes Carl's partner James Hardy (Jamie Sives - Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself etc) would also help them in their work. Meanwhile prosecutor Merrit Lingard (Chloe Pirrie - Under the Banner of Heaven mini series etc) who was working on a high profile case was getting threats from unknown person. However she never reported this to her superior, Lord Advocate Stephen Burns (Mark Bonnar - The Rig TV series etc).
So how would Carl juggle between working with his new team while trying to resolve his personal problems and the case involving himself? And what would be the connection with Merrit's case? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was one entertaining series. Earlier I thought this would be a police procedural type where there would be one case per episode, which to be honest made me confused on the way the story told in the pilot. However once I reached the end of that episode, it quite blew my mind as I did not see it coming. Frankly after such ending, I viewed the series differently and appreciated it better. As the story progressed I could also see the nice characters development which made me liked most of them. From the scarred & totally sarcastic Carl, the cool & mysterious Akram, the cheerful optimistic Rose to the dark & ambitious Merrit. But best of it all would definitely be how the investigation was done which was somehow easy to follow and felt entertaining.
Now although the story was about one major case, but there were plenty of other things that did not feel as deception like in other series. The side stories seemed to correlate nicely with the main plot. And as this is a Scottish series, it also has strong British feel, like its dry humor or the difficulty in expressing feelings and so on. But the one thing that you could not miss would be the Scottish accent that even my wife felt when she heard them on my TV. Anyway this series was apparently based on Department Q book series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. It has actually been adapted into few Danish movies as well that were quite successful. The English language series was created & developed by Chandni Lakhani and Scott Frank the screenwriter of Logan, creator of The Queen's Gambit and man behind many critically acclaimed films & series. So it was no wonder this series was getting a lot of praise.
The cast here in general were brilliant as I enjoyed their performances. Aside from the names I mentioned above who were credited as main cast, there were many recurring characters who were important to the story. Some of the notable ones were Merrit's younger brother William (Tom Bulpett), journalist Sam Haig (Steven Miller - Casualty TV series etc), female kidnapper (Alison Peebles - Where Do We Go From Here? etc) and several others. It made me wonder why they were not part of the main cast, whereas at least two who only appeared few times were shown in the opening credits. I guess it's because they were pretty well known.
The series itself has 9 episodes (a bit unorthodox as usually it's 8) with duration between 42 to 71 minutes. My favorite was definitely the finale which was intense and emotional. Throughout the whole season, I was gradually able to figure out the person responsible for the major crime. However, there was one shocking revelation that I missed out towards the end of episode 8. Btw, at the time I posted this, there was no news yet whether the series would be renewed. But I am definitely going to watch if there is a second season. It should not be difficult to do since there were plenty of books they could adapt.
Overall this was an entertaining crime thriller series with engaging characters and great story telling. The mystery was well written and the Edinburgh setting was nice to see. However, there were few scenes that might be disturbing for audience like the extreme violence or a bit of nudity. So if you are in the mood for an enjoyable series with attributes as above, then likely you would love this one. But if you prefer a more traditional one case per episode police procedural series, then probably you would enjoy the 7 seasons of Cold Case better. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment