The Crow Girl

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".

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.

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 liked it until the final episode where the policewoman (who until then seemed like a fine detective) turns into a complete idiot. She first totally screws up the arrest of a not so kosher colleague. Then she needs to be looking for someone she thinks is a killer but instead goes to the shrink involved to drink her personal' sorrows away. Very unprofessional. She must also know that more people are at risk of being targeted by the killer, but she doesn't really seem to care. I'm sure that the actress must have been very disappointed when she read the last episode of the script but by then it was probably too late to get out of it.

I wasn't sure about this series after EP 1. But things got going after that and what a ride it was.

I thoroughly enjoyed the crow girl. It really held me.

The series has quite a few things going on at once. You've got misdirection and red herrings thrown in for good measure.

The leads are excellent. Support is very good too.

Maybe the most unconvincing is the doctor but there's a reason for that.

The series avoids getting bogged down in internal and family politics. Yes there's some in there but they never get intrusive.

I'm Really looking forward to the second season.

I originally thought it was a self contained one off series.

Thankfully it's not.

Can't wait for season 2.