La faille

Season 1 The started off fine, but you need a big woolly jumper just to watch. It looked so cold and bleak.

It is set in Labrador, Northern Quebec in French with English subtitles.

This first season is set in the mining town of Fermont, north-eastern Quebec, Canada.

Fermont's major structural feature is popularly known as the Wall, which comprises self-contained residential, commercial, recreational and educational buildings.

In La Faille the main protagonist, detective sergeant Céline (Isabel Richer), is sent from provincial capital Quebec City to investigate the murder of a stripper-prostitute, inside the Wall. Assisting Céline is local uniformed policeman Alex (Alexandre Landry).

Céline encounters her estranged daughter Sophie (Maripier Morin) who is married to the mine-owner's son Lou (Jean-Philippe Perras).

I was expecting this to finish around episode 4, or 6 at the latest, but it was drawn out way too long to 8 episodes.

By the end it all got so contrived and bizarre that it was very difficult to work out what it was all about.

Especially, frustrating was not knowing what happened to Lou and whether he was culpable in one or more misdemeanours.

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.

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!

This series from Quebec is centred on Céline Trudeau, a police detective. The first season, subtitled 'Cover Your Tracks' sees her dispatched to a remote mining town where the body of a young woman has been found; it is clearly murder. The way she died makes people wonder if an earlier death of a child wasn't the accident it was initially assumed to be. In the small community just about everybody knew the victim and there are plenty of suspects. Matters are complicated by the fact that somebody close to Céline is there.

The second season, titled 'The Château Murders' sees Céline back in the city of Quebec where she investigates the death of a man who was found dead in a prestigious hotel... in a bath of concrete. Is it revenge for deaths caused by a bridge collapse some years previously, related to a new bridge contract or is it something else? Céline and her new partner won't have an easy job finding the killer.

I thought this was an enjoyable crime drama. Céline isn't the most likeable of characters; she rubs most people the wrong way and more than once behaves in a dubious manner but grows on the viewer as the series progresses. The cases are interesting; providing plenty of suspects to keep one guessing. The locations are almost characters in their own right; snow covered in a way that makes the viewer almost feel the cold. The cast does a solid job bringing their characters to life. The identity of the killers aren't too obvious but I suspect most viewers will have guessed their identities some time before the reveal. Overall a solid drama; I enjoyed the first two seasons and look forward the third being available here some time,

These comments are based on watching the series in French with English subtitles.

Yet another menopausal female detective but this time from French Canada rather than Skandi Noir . Possibly would benefit from blitz watching but frankly too slow paced ( nothing much happens in each episode ) and I'm pretty sure I have most of it worked out after the first 3 or 4 episodes but frankly not that interested in who did what to whom or why . Some reviewers mentioning extreme violence must have watched more than me and I may be tempted to watch the final 2 episodes when Channel 4 UK airs them just to see if I am correct in my theories as to the perpetrator or perpetrators but won't waste anymore time watching what goes on in the mean time .