Winter

There are two parallel plots that sometimes gets in the way of this otherwise engaging police procedural. The solid acting and direction is why I upped my rating from what I really think (6.5) to 7.0. The effort to keep both the local and federal investigations in the center of the story often creates tangents that dilute the suspense. Also, the police in both camps commit mistakes that I don't believe would happen in real life but are used here to simply insert action and use up time. Minor flubs made me shake my head such as why a criminal would mount the timer for a car bomb in full view on the dashboard. Or why a police artist's sketch of a suspect would not *immediately* be electronically circulated to all involved. However, despite these little things and the slightly irritating over-development of some peripheral characters whose demise and/or personal dramas serve little purpose, I wanted to follow this to the end because there were a few central questions to be answered. And, oddly, this was the first time I've been constantly distracted by an actor's mustache or non-mustache. What is up with Lachlan's unattractive shadow above his lips?

Being a fan of mostly UK and Scandinavian crime series, I sometimes like to widen my horizons and find out what other countries have to offer in a similar area. Prior to start watching Winter, I had some qualms regarding approach and possible easy solution, but it soon turned out to be a versatile story having its twists and turns throughout the 6 episodes.

True, there were some common leitmotifs and predictable character relations, but as I did not surmise the wrongdoer and potential crime motives, I am pleased that I took/found approx. 5 hours for this Series.

"Winter" is an odd one - the cinematography shows occasional spots of brilliance, but is, mostly, simple and functional; the acting is on the spot, with each actor playing their characters efficiently, not missing a beat; the direction is crisp, and so is the editing; this is one of those shows where everything except the plot is good.

Twists abound in the end, and the finale is one to be watched, because it is just so good. However, the red herrings thrown in here and there were never convincing enough - the ideal red-herring is one that is well-justified, but not for the reason we think it to be, and masks the hints that foreshadow the real fact; in this case, though, there are no hints whatsoever to be masked, and some reveals are just like "Uh huh. Ok." instead of "How did I not see that coming??"

In addition, the characters are actually nothing so special. Take Castle. Castle himself is quirky, has a sense of humor, loves adventures, and is basically a big kid. But he also has the ability to show pathos towards his fellow investigators and has good observation skills, which make sense given his novelist background.

Consider House, M.D. He's sarcastic, caustic, permanently ticked-off, insulting, brash, ingenious, playful (to the extent of causing harm) but committed to his work as a doctor.

Now consider Eve Winter. Nothing special, just the typical cop with a haunting past, who is trying to do justice by the victims who keep her work coming. Nothing to write home about.

Consider the Fed, Jake. He just wants a confession and keeps getting into loggerheads with Winter. Nothing special there, either. The only one with a hint of personality is Indiana herself, and thank God for that, because otherwise the entire cast could be replaced by everymen and the story wouldn't change much.

Regardless, I'm giving this an 8/10 for an overall solid show. Good entertainment, but don't expect to be hooked until the penultimate episode.

*sigh* Well I was hoping to cove something else in my first review but I suppose this will have to do.

I think it's biggest problem is quite simply the fact that it's no different than EVERY OTHER POLICE DRAMA EVER! Well apart from the Australian accents (although it does remind me a little of City Homicide back from 2011 and seems to suffer from dullness, anyway I digress).

Almost all of the scenes contain the protagonist played by Rebecca Gibney and a lot of the series would rest on her acting ability. Well... it's not bad, but she's trying so hard to be the tough independent female that her character seems to be a little bit of a mary sue just because she's so one-note. Probably more of the writing and directing at fault to be honest and it's causing the lead role to perform in an almost satire of her character. Maybe her character will be more flushed out in the future but this should have happened in it's predecessor The Killing Fields.

I'm not sure why Channel 7 is trying so hard for this show to succeed putting it in a prime time slot but it saddens me that something with a little more spice could have been put there.

I'd probably would have criticised it a lot more if there was anything to criticise.

TL;DR It's bland, so bland it's hard to call bad. Even bad can be entertaining.

This is a TV series that goes all over the place with its story line. There are so many subplots that are loosely held together that its difficult to know what the main focus of the series was all about. Everyone has a secret, everyone is a suspect is something or another, and at the end, everyone lives happily ever after. The scenes jump around due to poor editing, and sometimes appear in a random order. In the last episode it was as if there was a lot of pressure to wrap things up quickly, so problems were quickly solved, and an all too predictable end finally reached.

The acting comes across as very "tongue-in-cheek", almost as if the actors really didn't believe the words they were saying. This may just have been due to a poor script, or their desire to get to the end of the story and move on to something else.

There are some really good Australian productions. This is just not one of them!