British series examines dark side of life above the Arctic Circle

Opinion

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This article was published 28/01/2015 (3372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every now and then, TV offers up a murder-mystery whodunit in which the “where” and the “who” are of equal importance.

The deep-frozen British import Fortitude, which follows the investigation of a shocking killing in a remote mining town beyond the Arctic Circle, is the latest. And despite being set in one of the coldest places on Earth, Fortitude — which premières Thursday, Jan. 29, on Super Channel (check listings for time) — is a moody crime thriller that generates a whole lot of heat.

Produced for Britain’s Sky TV, this 12-part series is an international co-production filmed on location in Iceland and featuring a stellar cast of British, Scandinavian and American actors.

The story unfolds in the titular icebound community, located on a remote island off the coast of Norway. Because of the varied interests involved in its soon-to-be-shuttered mining industry and a scientific research station, however, Fortitude somehow seems to be under the control of several international jurisdictions.

Its residents — 710 of them, as the story opens — take pride in the fact Fortitude is a very safe place, despite having a polar bear population that outnumbers humans by a margin of three to one. It’s so safe, in fact, that no one is really sure if local police chief Dan Anderssen (Richard Dormer) is a good cop or a bad one because he’s never had to deal with crime of any consequence.

All that changes, however, when a bloody and particularly gruesome murder takes place — one in which the condition of the victim leaves it unclear whether a person or a bear is responsible. If the killer is human, however, the sleepy, snowbound town certainly offers up an intriguing roster of suspects.

The town’s governor, Hildur Odegard (Sofie Gr*bl), has staked her career (and, obviously, a considerable fortune) on an ice-hotel development that will attract high-end tourism to Fortitude, and seems determined not to let anything stand in her way.

Anderssen, in the series’ first hour, demonstrates a knack for being at the scene of the town’s rare outbursts of violence right at the moments they occur; meanwhile, a couple of shady mine workers have stumbled upon an opportunity to make some easy money and are more than willing to twist a few arms (or more) in order to cash in.

Fortitude has plenty of smaller-scale secrets and intrigue, as well, such as the arrival of a new search-and-rescue pilot, Frank Sutter (Nicholas Pinnock), a military veteran who immediately seeks — and finds — an opportunity to step out on his wife (Jessica Raine) and their young son.

And then there’s the aging wildlife photographer, Henry Tyson (Michael Gambon), who’s haunted by an incident that occurred on the polar ice a few months earlier, and the head of the research station, Charlie Stoddart (Christopher Eccleston), who’s reconsidering his support of the ice-hotel project after hearing of a potentially important discovery on the glacier.

It’s a confusing set of circumstances and suspects, particularly for a police department that has never handled a murder investigation. The job is made both easier and more difficult by the arrival from London of a Deputy Chief Inspector Eugene Morton (Stanley Tucci), who has been sent to oversee the case because the victim carried a British passport.

Fortitude’s double-episode opener is a slow-moving affair that doles out storyline details and character introductions in measured doses. But when the impactful moments arrive, they do so with blunt-force emphasis, and the manner in which the bleak but beautiful Icelandic landscape is incorporated into almost every scene is nothing less than an act of seduction.

Several reviewers have referred to Fortitude as a high-Arctic version of Twin Peaks, but the feeling here is that this series lacks the Lynch-ian smirking humour and willingness to engage in narrative mischief that ultimately turned that cult favourite into a betrayal of its fans’ loyalty.

Fortitude is, however, dark and sinister, filled with appealingly conflicted characters, and likely to take viewers down some unexpected and perhaps unexplainable paths. And because of that, even for viewers in a Canadian-flatland outpost where snow and ice offer very little exotic appeal, Fortitude is a place and a yarn worth warming up to.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @BradOswald