The Crow Girl

I think this is really another great, British detective series. Yes, some of it we have certainly seen several times before (the police officer with a troubled personal life, conflicts with the boss etc etc....). But I still think this one ranks among the best in the category.....the acting is absolutely top class from all actors, the story develops in a suspenseful way and for the final twist.....I really don't understand all the negative comments on that? Personally I had never seen it coming? My only concern is that I can see a season 2 is already planned, and I'm afraid that one will just be "milking" the story rather than adding something really new (as the plot is already to some extend wrapped up now I'd say)......but we will of course have to wait and see about that...:-)

I'm ok with a slow burn start as the characters aee introduced and the initial mystery is laid out . I'm ok with twists and turns as characters react to events and reveal their strengths, weaknesses and secrets.

I'm not ok with characters who do stupid things for plot reasons, especially in the last episode, which is an absolute mess and undermines much of the work done getting us there.

The Big reveal is largely telegraphed, but is one of the few things that makes any sense.

And of course the dreaded To Be Continued appeared as the screen faded to black.

I wont be holding my breath for season 2.

I watched 2 episodes and that was enough for me. It moves at glacial speed and isn't focused. Like an American police drama you get a lot of family drama thrown in which is distracting and worthless plus a demanding boss. I really don't care about DCI Kilburn's home situation. Why is a detective inspector the bagman for a detective chief inspector, normally a DCI has a sergeant. It's what I always enjoyed about the series "Vera", she rarely brought in any family stuff and her bosses let her do her job.

This is from a novel by Erik Axl Sund which is the pen name of two Swedish writers. Some Scandinavian novels should be dramatized like "The Killing" and "The Bridge", but I would have left "The Crow Girl" on the shelf.

Nice that it's set in Bristol and not London. I hated Dougray Scott in "Crime", but he's good in this series. I liked Eve Myles in "Torchwood".

I truly do not want to give anything away here. Others have criticised The Crow Girl for having too many plot lines that don't all get wrapped up... but that is what season 2 is for? Weird thing to pick apart really, since this is not a standalone movie.

The first 2-3 episodes are a quite slow and challenging to watch, but it's all worth it for the plot twist towards the end. Usually I see things coming from a mile away but not this one. It's extraordinarily well done whilst at the same time you'll be kicking yourself for not figuring it out in the first place.

In other news: Eve Myles is bloody brilliant in this. Great actor.

This one is an exception for me. Usually, if I see a show or movie, that starts in a way, that suggests that we should know something about what's already happening (no matter how small those things are) and does not start with some flashback like "You must be wondering how I got here", and it's not a sequel - I drop those. Intention is clear: they want to show a "busy world", but more often than not that's just covering up bad writing, since neither the world nor the characters get a natural introduction. It may work in extremely rare cases, I guess, but I can't think of a good one.

The Crow Girl does it right, though. It feels completely natural, as if we are walking in on the characters going on about their days. The interactions that we see also do introduce the characters to us properly and, again, naturally. The introductions do not feel forced, and they are meaningful, starting to explore the relationships right from the start. This generally keeps up through the whole season, too, although quality does drop somewhat sometimes, but still the feeling of "natural" is preserved for the most part, which is really important for a crime series, especially when it's trying to be psychological, as well.

Until the ending happens. I won't spoil it, but the plot twist was shown in a way, that is only possible with because it's a visual medium. It's just the camera showing us 1 thing, when in reality it was another one. It felt like I was lied to, even though the twist itself does kind of make sense. I really wonder how this was handled in a book (probably just omitting descriptions at certain points), and I can get it, that it might have been difficult to do certain shots differently, but in general just obscuring the view would have worked much better, than this. Because of this, I can't give it more than 6/10.