Fortitude

I'm not sure where to start. I have just finished the last episode of the third season.

The first season was absolutely enthralling. Set in a remote community in Norway/Iceland (!) the governor of Fortutude has plans to build an hotel in the glacier. It is designed to be the ultimate in luxury accommodation. The planning report has gone in and is waiting to be approved. However the discovery of a relic revealed to the guy doing the report forces him to review it and he is murdered. Then begins a complex but reasonable storyline of an insect suspended in permafrost, which begins to infect inhabitants of Fortitude. 10/10 for the first series!

The second series continues the storyline but with a more conspiratorial side. Politics and business madness intoxifies the scientific research and progression of the infestation from the first series. 8/10 for the second!

HOWEVER. The third is just a spoof. The characters become ridiculous and the storyline is held together by a gnat's hair. Pardon the pun. If you seriously enjoyed the first and second series I would suggest you will gain nothing from watching the third. There is no conclusion and it feels almost as if one of the producers said "we got them hook line and sinker with the first two series, let's make a third and charge £12.99 for the dvd. That'll get 'em!!" Third series 2/10.

I got caught out! It really is so disappointing, I thought the overall tone was very "Twin Peaks" but it felt it went offline in the very same way. Shame. Sad face.

Season 1 was good .Season 2 was far fetched and Season 3 was ridiculous .I felt like I did when LOST ended - all that for nothing .Started off well and then seemed to lose direction .Nice shots of the snow though !

Fortitude is not your typical drama. It moves slowly, like the ice locked landscape in which it is set.

Its not a series for the impatient. You have to be willing to invest time in this series and accept long periods where partial knowledge and confusion are the norm. If you can do this then you may "warm" to Fortitude.

Without giving too much away very little in this series is what it first appears to be. A police who dun-nit that ever so slowly reveals other secrets that have a lot to do with time, ice and the preservation of "seemingly" dead things.

The cast is top notch and includes the likes of the wonderful Michael Gambon, for those who remember exceptional series like The Singing Detective.

A well deserved eight out of ten from me.

/refers to Season 1/

At present, Brits and Scandinavians (Danes and Swedes in particular) are apparently the most versatile and distinct creator of thrilling crime series; even when clichés available, there are always new angles or approaches, plus competent choice of talented performers, many without global fame. All this also applies to Fortitude, where e.g. always great Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Sofie Gråbøl do not stick out too much, so there is a nice team playing and level differences are conditioned by the "goodness" of a character, not by talent (in my opinion, Gråbøl's character was not too versatile and visible).

As the plot, there were moments when I feared that events would take a too sci-fi turn, but, with the help of flashbacks, mysterious and criminal events found their satisfactory solution (well, a certain scene with flies was too much though). And the Nordic nature, wow... I have had some opportunities to experience it with my own eyes, but it is still magnificent to watch - usually not outside, but inside - as snow is beautiful, but -20 and below C are not...

All in all, another strong brick in the wall of thrilling series. And yes, combining the best from Brits and from Scandinavians can provide a meaty result as well, with inclusion of some other good actors from outside of these areas.

PS Season 2 is even catchier, due to Squaid and Stott.

I'd love to know the story behind the debacle of series three. The first series was reasonably well constructed, lovely vistas. The second series tried to move the original themes forward and failed. The third series looked like somebody got the viewing figures and said, " right, that's enough, this has descended into melodramatic gory crap. Let's cut our losses now!".