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.

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 .

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.

I have watched a crap ton of these kinds of shows and really like Nordic-Scandinavian noir procedurals because they tend to be more myopic, character driven, and tightly written-which this is. If you want overly dramatized twists so you can't guess the killer and wild plot beats with gorgeous, likable, actors for the partners, which 90% of these shows are, this is not for you.

This is for fans of the also pretty great Canadian show Cardinal, Midnight Sun, Mare of Easttown, Wisting. Personal, slow burn but well written shows. Not something as bombastic and shocking like Happy Valleys plot beats develop into or The Killing, The Bridge, Pagan Peak, with substantial sub plots. This is 8 episodes a season, much more tight.

The characters are flawed and realistic and the casting is subversive of type. Though, the leaders I would say are still quite attractive, the hotshot young one has a great character arc across the 3 seasons, and the relationship between the detective and him fits the show very well. The lead is only unlikable only if you don't like competent, confident and over 30. I don't need or want characters to be likable. I want them to be understandable and compelling in ways I haven't yet seen much of, or at all.

The writing is excellent. I always know who does the murder regardless of the plotting, it's just the way it is unless the show deliberately withholds information from the viewer. Instead, the red herrings and the investigation proceeds in such a way as to bring a very nice character arc and thematic crescendo, which is much preferable to me over a wild twist. Every character and every piece of dialogue is there for a purpose, even if you don't realize it until the last couple episodes, and even side characters are well written. They're dynamic, sometimes for descent queer rep, sometimes to hit a trope or to subvert it.

The acting delivers, though isn't academy award level, but far more serviceable than anything you'd be watching on mainstream. Very pleasantly surprised.

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.