Troubled Waters

Good quality, realistic acting, characters and story. One user reviewer said this takes place in New Brunswick. Another reviewer said it takes place in Novia Scotia. The characters state multiple times that it is in northern ONTARIO, including a TV news crew near the scene of the found body: the reporter says on camera, "Reporting from Northern ONTARIO". In episode 1 two characters are sitting on a bridge over a river. The local girl tells the new kid, "This is the Mattagami River". The Mattagami River is an actual river in northern ONTARIO. It seems that sometimes "reviewers" are skimming over the show instead of actually watching it before writing a "review".

This is a short French-Canadian series with a heavy emphasis on the issue of lost First Nation women. The story revolves around Marianne, a police detective and single mother to teenage Billy. Marianne is reassigned to her hometown after a costly mistake that results in a young woman's shooting. Her new boss asks her not to look at it as a demotion because they are lucky to have her expertise in their small town. She gains her first case on her first day on the job and it is a murdered First Nations girl, who ends up being her ex's niece, who she doesn't recognize because of the big lapse in time.

The show leaned heavily into the topic of missing indigenous peoples...women in particular. Highlighting some of the prejudice thinking and struggles, while at the same time having a very diligent police detective actively working hard to solve the crime. The mystery itself was decent and if you like the topic you should definitely check it out.

Troubled Waters (Eaux Turbulentes) is an interesting series, because in the three years since it first aired, it is has barely caused a ripple of interest. Indeed as I write this, there are no other posted reviews. Despite this, the 4-ep miniseries is well worth watching. In my view, it's a solid 7.5.

The premise is a good one: Due to struggles in her own life, a female detective returns to the police force in her home town of Queensbury, New Brunswick, a French-speaking area with significant tensions between whites and the indigenous population. Almost immediately, she is confronted with the murder of an indigenous girl. Her struggles with the case, her ex-husband, and her alienated teenage son create interesting cross-currents that pull the viewer in.

The dialogue is mostly French, sometimes English, and consistently well-acted. My biggest disappointment was that this is a one and done miniseries, despite the fact that there was enough dramatic potential for another season or two. Worth a look.

Correction: After writing this review, I discovered that this is actually season 2 of this series. PBS Masterpiece platform misleadingly calls it "Season1," probably because they don't have the true season 1 available. There have in fact been 8 episodes in total, not 4.