Anthracite

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.

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!

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...

Most people that get annoyed by Ida didn't even watch further then the first 2 episodes. Don't get mislead by all those bad reviews, if u are looking for a new serie to watch try this one.

I myself didn't get annoyed by Ida, I don't know why so much other people do. It was clear for me from the first few episodes that see had a fatal sickness, they also explained why her personality was that way mostly because her bad social skills because she hadn't a lot of real life contact with people only over the internet.

I give the serie 7 stars. I like the characters and in 6 episodes u are able to learn about them. There are some random things that were unnecessary, from the top of my head one where Ida gets visual emoijs out of nowhere that don't really add something and they didn't do it often enough to let the viewer really get it.

The serie is about a cult and it has a few deeper meanings that are really fun to get when u get further into the series, really fun plottwists. I did get the feeling that the last few episodes had a big increase in pace, it didn't feel rushed so it isn't a bad thing but u could not really lose your attention otherwise u could miss something important in the story.

It's of course ur own choice if u want to watch this serie, but please don't get influenced by the bad reviews. It isn't that bad as they say. Serie is a good choice when looking for something to watch, only 6 episodes, try to get to 4 if u don't like it by then I don't know what went wrong.

Anthracite: 1994, a murderous cult commit mass suicide in Levionna in the French Alps, the only survivor being the cult leader. 2024, a journalist who had covered the original story is apparently kidnapped, his web sleuth daughter goes to Levionna to investigate. Another body turns up, are the cult active again? This series involves many plot twists and may well be a tad too lever for it's own good. It's worthwhile sticking with Anthracite though, convoluted as the plot is it involves many interesting tropes. A pharmaceutical company which may be carrying out secret tests on the local populace, a possible serial killer responsible for many disappearances over the last ten years, strange abandoned coal mines which are being reopened by the pharmaceutical company. There are some soap like elements to the plot and who is whose father/mother brother/sister theme which makes you hear dueling banjos playing in the background. It has enough, tension and action to keep you interested as gory violent scenes accumulate plus a nurse who could give Nurse Ratchet a run for her money. Directed by Julius Berg, Written by Fanny Robert, Maxime Berthemy, Sophie Lebarbier, Mehdi Ouahab. Six episodes in Netflix. 7.5/10.