Stoic Coppers, Murders, and the Welsh Countryside Equate to Good TV ("TV Tuesday"...)
"TV Tuesday"...
If all you had to go by was what you know of my reading and watching habits, you might assume I'm a grim, humorless thing. (In reality, that couldn't be farther from the truth, but like I said... going by the stuff that pulls me in, you'd be forgiven for assuming so.)
But sometimes, even I'm surprised by how dark something is.
If "Hinterland"--which I've finally gotten around to watching--were a color, it might be a super-dark and utterly-depressing shade of green, like sodden, rotting vegetation. Or maybe it would be a blue so murky and opaque that it was nearly black, like the bottom of the ocean. That's how the characters in "Hinterland" strike me.
There is, you see, no smiling in "Hinterland". Seriously. I've watched all but the last couple of episodes, and I can't remember anyone smiling. Now, maybe--surely(!)--someone showed a smidgeon of humor, for a split second, at some point... but if that's the case, I can honestly say I didn't catch it. These characters are GRIM.
Between the fabulously-intuitive-but-perpetually-morose lead character, DCI Tom Mathias (until recently a Londoner, now holing up in tiny Aberystwyth, Wales), who clearly has some Bad Stuff in His Past to Get Over (After Beating Himself Up About It), and his partner, local gal DI Mared Rhys (a smart but sober single-mom copper with a [well-deserved] chip on her shoulder), there isn't any friendly banter goin' on as they drive around the pastoral Welsh countryside from one murder scene to the next.
Nor is there any joviality or gaiety at the police station, where younger cops DC Lloyd Ellis (a geeky chap who always watches everyone else in the squad room and almost certainly still lives with his mother) and DS Sian Owen (a capable, pleasant young woman who probably does smile--but only when she's not at work) are usually found doing busywork, while their boss, Chief Supt. Brian Prosser, rules with an officious, unamused hand from his office down the hall (unforgiving countenance and creepy, off-putting presence, firmly in place).
It is, in a nutshell, a show of long, sober, silent, Meaningful Looks. Plus, murderin' murderers (and the concomitant corpses).
Lest you be tempted to hold any of that against "Hinterland", though, please don't. This is a fascinating, intelligent, police procedural populated with interesting, complex characters. Sure, the murder rate is rather shockingly high for such a small community (it's spread out but sparsely-populated), but the cases are always intriguing, multi-layered affairs.
With only a dozen episodes comprising the entirety of the show's run (it aired from 2013-2016), it's really hard not to blow right through them too quickly on Netflix.
Grim and serious it may be, but it's also an atmospheric, irresistible look at a remote little part of the world and the people who live there. "Hinterland" is well-worth the viewing.
~GlamKitty
If all you had to go by was what you know of my reading and watching habits, you might assume I'm a grim, humorless thing. (In reality, that couldn't be farther from the truth, but like I said... going by the stuff that pulls me in, you'd be forgiven for assuming so.)
But sometimes, even I'm surprised by how dark something is.
If "Hinterland"--which I've finally gotten around to watching--were a color, it might be a super-dark and utterly-depressing shade of green, like sodden, rotting vegetation. Or maybe it would be a blue so murky and opaque that it was nearly black, like the bottom of the ocean. That's how the characters in "Hinterland" strike me.
There is, you see, no smiling in "Hinterland". Seriously. I've watched all but the last couple of episodes, and I can't remember anyone smiling. Now, maybe--surely(!)--someone showed a smidgeon of humor, for a split second, at some point... but if that's the case, I can honestly say I didn't catch it. These characters are GRIM.
Between the fabulously-intuitive-but-perpetually-morose lead character, DCI Tom Mathias (until recently a Londoner, now holing up in tiny Aberystwyth, Wales), who clearly has some Bad Stuff in His Past to Get Over (After Beating Himself Up About It), and his partner, local gal DI Mared Rhys (a smart but sober single-mom copper with a [well-deserved] chip on her shoulder), there isn't any friendly banter goin' on as they drive around the pastoral Welsh countryside from one murder scene to the next.
Nor is there any joviality or gaiety at the police station, where younger cops DC Lloyd Ellis (a geeky chap who always watches everyone else in the squad room and almost certainly still lives with his mother) and DS Sian Owen (a capable, pleasant young woman who probably does smile--but only when she's not at work) are usually found doing busywork, while their boss, Chief Supt. Brian Prosser, rules with an officious, unamused hand from his office down the hall (unforgiving countenance and creepy, off-putting presence, firmly in place).
It is, in a nutshell, a show of long, sober, silent, Meaningful Looks. Plus, murderin' murderers (and the concomitant corpses).
Lest you be tempted to hold any of that against "Hinterland", though, please don't. This is a fascinating, intelligent, police procedural populated with interesting, complex characters. Sure, the murder rate is rather shockingly high for such a small community (it's spread out but sparsely-populated), but the cases are always intriguing, multi-layered affairs.
With only a dozen episodes comprising the entirety of the show's run (it aired from 2013-2016), it's really hard not to blow right through them too quickly on Netflix.
Grim and serious it may be, but it's also an atmospheric, irresistible look at a remote little part of the world and the people who live there. "Hinterland" is well-worth the viewing.
~GlamKitty
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