La faille

This was without doubt one of the most debased and depraved series I have had the misfortune to watch. It did not start out so bad. There are 8 episodes. By Episode 5, I had had enough. It is merely an excuse to watch men abuse women, portray women in degrading and dehumanizing conditions, blame the women for their situation, and in most other ways offend viewers sensibilities. A creepy town and a creepy plot. And I thought Canada was a pretty nice country!

Episodes of forty minutes, cliffhangers, twists and turns. What more could one want to while away lockdown evenings?

Fermont is a grim place to live, behind a wall and with many of its facilities seemingly underground and needing to be ventilated by huge fans. This is what we see virtually at the beginning of the initial episode; something has gone wrong and the ventilation is wafting a terrible odour into the shops and corridors.

Upon the discovery of the cause of this, an experienced CID detective is drafted into take charge of the investigation from the local cops. Her sense of personal relationships is a disaster zone but she manages well enough with the young cop who's assigned to her as principal helper.

Various characters have murky motivations and pasts; some have perverted desires that become clear as the series progresses. The investigation is set against commercial and political malarky involving the local mine owner and his wife the local mayoress as well as the separate ambitions of their son involving some very shady activities.

It stands to reason that there are several false trails and red herrings but if one can't work out "whodunnit" by the end of episode four, then it's all going in one ear and out of the other.

It's easy watching and a reasonably well-directed production. Some of the personal relationships from before the start of the events in the series are to be swallowed only with a fistful of salt but in general one can let their unrealness pass.

I enjoyed the dichotomy between the claustrophobic, confining atmosphere of the small mall housing the cop shop, boutiques, bars and services against the vastness of the countryside and its hinterland, some of which can only be reached by "Ski-Doo", an iconic Canadian type of snowmobile.

I didn't binge watch one after the other, but saw it all within a couple of days and enjoyed it. It's eminently forgettable and the opposite of profound but there's nothing wrong with that. It's a series that did its job.

The first episode starts off by providing little or no context as to exactly what's happening. To make matters worse, there are many characters who are introduced in rapid succession in the first few scenes, and no context is provided as to who any of them are, or what their roles might be. As the first episode moves along in a disjointed and disconnected manner, viewers are taken from one location to the other, with little in the way of continuity of dialog to even start to pick up the threads of the story. By the middle of the first episode, the confusion and chaos is proving so tiresome that there is loss of viewer engagement, and the correct course of action is to cease watching the bit of rubbish.

I found season one was quite good 7/10 but s2 was a flop and i could not watch s3. The characters were weak and poorly acted. The whole thing was too much of the same.

"The Wall" is a crime drama series that revolves around a police officer and her team as they investigate various cases in Montreal. The series was created by Martin Michaud and stars Maripier Morin, Julianne Côté, and Sophie Desmarais.

I don't speak french so i had to pause play a lot to catch up with the subtitles at times. The french speak nearly as fast as the spanish.

S1 was entertaining, s2 was okay, s3, I had had enough of it and their fake stories that sound too unbelievable and poorly acted by some of the cast.

I enjoyed "The Wall" in part because Céline Trudeau is at the forefront of the action, a gutsy, mature, experienced woman often outpacing her younger male counterparts. The storylines are interesting, and the settings are beautiful. (Plus, the language is so melodic for us non-French speakers.)

Each season's major crime is different, allowing Céline to shine, whether it's dealing with a small northern mining community's murders and mishaps, an urban environmental conference marred by murder or a trip down memory lane among her homefolks that unearths family secrets - literally.

If I have one complaint, it's that the story arcs are about 25% too long and tend to drag a bit. Solid editing could pick up the pace, keep the storyline intact and still allow the plots to develop and the characters to shine.