Are you pining for a bit of intensity in your viewing experience now that the Handmaids Tale has come to an end? Do you find yourself feeling ripped off by shows that try and pass themselves off as drama? Is your viewing experience basically, well, bleh? Well, I may just have the solution.
Just over a week ago I stumbled upon another gem in the SBS stable. Fortitude. If you love Nordic Noir, or just a good mystery that isn’t your average predictable shite, then this may be the show for you.
SPOILER ALERT!
Fortitude takes place in a mining town of the same name. Located on a Norwegian island and with a population of a few hundred, it’s a quiet town with more or less no crime. That is until a mutilated body is discovered and the search is on for the killer. At first glance it’s a murder mystery, but it goes deeper than that. Along the journey to find the killer we see that just because there it’s a town with virtually no crime rate, it doesn’t mean is as it seems. As we descend down the rabbit hole, all manner of things come to light regarding the townsfolk. Dark, weird and unfortunate.
Add in the questionable circumstances of a geologist’s death by polar bear months earlier, a drunk photographer dying of cancer who saw said death and a mysterious find in the ice that could change everything and the story is set to take you on a ride you don’t expect.
A cop from the UK is dispatched to investigate the murder, as the victim was a UK citizen. You can imagine how warmly he was welcomed by the little police department, but he makes headway nonetheless. Then there’s the Spanish waitress with the mysterious past and her strange relationship with the sheriff. There are several sub-plots that may, or may not be related. Just when one question gets answered, another two crop up.
At times it’s dark, brooding and at others it’s just plain strange. But all the time, it’s clever. Clever, subtle and unapologetic. It’s certainly more clever than I am capable of describing here. I’m hooked and I’d love to know what you think.
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