Anthracite

Small town mystery tropes include: (1) People holding onto secrets for a long time (2) Mythologies around unsolved crimes (3) Embarrassing or criminal relational connections (4) "Outsiders" who are more connected to the small town than they knew

Anthracite has all those tropes and more and was still a fun ride. Ida's quirkiness was fine but her French so fast at points that i needed to replay some of her scenes.

Surprisingly Jaro was bewildered to be the object of every woman's affection except his ex's. Was he that clueless?

But seriously, it was fun watching the mystery u fold and trying to figure out why people did what they did and if the characters we came to care about would get what they needed.

I recommend. And 6 episodes is the sweet spot! USA productions need to keep that in mind!

Anthracite is set in a small village in the Alps, that was shaken to its core in 1994, when the collective suicide of a sect called Les Ecrins hit the headlines.

Don't let Ida's character irritate you at the beginning of the series, she will change quickly and is much more bearable.

The plot moves around quickly, while the beautiful surroundings of the Swiss Alps make for a great visual backdrop, and the cast makes the most of the many twists and turns that the series has to offer. It delivers a great blend of suspense and humour, making it really intriguing.

Anthracite is the kind of big hamburger full of sauce and ingredients that you know will stain you. And even though there are times when it seems unclear where the show is going, it skillfully keeps things moving forward by adding really good turns and surprises, making for an engaging and exciting story.

The series explores dark themes, leaving the audience intrigued, it is worth the watch!

A girl goes looking for her disappeared father and finds out major secrets about herself and a city. Plenty of twists and killings, but for the most part the characters maintain more of a lighthearted borderline comedic vibe.

This show isn't great but its better than the average in several ways.

Ida is a star and lights up the screen in her scenes! She is mainly outrageous and hilarious, but also shows darker sides of personality. The show would have been 1 star without her performance/character.

The setting/scenery is another major plus for this show. The show avoids the pale/dreary stereotypical look of euro crime series. It also shows many beautiful mountains, drives, buildings etc, putting the viewer deeper into that region more firmly than most shows.

The pacing of the show could have been better. The show starts strong then glides a bit and then they packed too much into the final episode, could have added one more episode or paced it better to fit.

Let me be clear, this is a mess.

The premise is quite interesting and some scenes are quite beautiful and breathtaking and some of the actors are actually believable (kudos to Hatik in particular).

I grew up watching French TV shows and they act like they are on stage and it's either over the top or not acting at all in general...

But with a Netflix budget and actually believing on some of the cast and crew it looked passable.

There are so many faults in the scenario and gaps in the story and it's super annoying... But I did finish it. That's like a plus... Not great, but better than the usual.

I binged watched in two days. From the first episode the story hooks you and then takes you on a crazy, twisty, turny rollercoaster ride right up to the 6th episode. There is so much plot, but you can keep up, I loved Ida from the start, she is endearing, vulnerable and simply a delight, I am not sure why she gets such negative reviews.

The story is jam packed with demon cult activity, protestors, incest, murder, more murder, car chases. Weird mountain people, dead sheep, poison and confused cops. You won't be sorry.

What I really enjoyed, was that it ended without any loose ends and questions. If you love a good thriller with a whole lot of story line, this one's for you.

I was left wanting more...