It's not nonsense, there's a thread running through the series. They are stand alone storylines but there is nonetheless a thread. Bet you're struggling with Marcella too?
When it's shoe-horned into proceedings so clumsily and without any relevance or buildup then, to me, it is nonsense. Even some of us who saw series 1 were struggling to fully recall the Thomas character. To those who hadn't seen series 1, as I said earlier., they must have wondered what the Hell was going on. There is nothing wrong with recurring themes if they are integrated adequately into the main storyline without disrupting it. This week's diversion patently failed to achieve either.
Out of interest, did you see the episode two weeks ago and, if so, did you think the presence of Mathias's wife, again and again, improved the episode?
Even some of us who saw series 1 were struggling to fully recall the Thomas character.
Exactly - especially as series 1 was quite a long time ago. They needed to do the 'previously' thing before the episode if he was going to pop up, as someone else noted.
Exactly - especially as series 1 was quite a long time ago. They needed to do the 'previously' thing before the episode if he was going to pop up, as someone else noted.
Don't forget we are seeing these episodes some months later than the Welsh audience. I think some of you have watched to much American TV - I absolutely hate it when a programme starts by stating 'previously on N.Y.P.D. Blue' or whatever it is. If I've recorded it then I press the skip button or if it's live I press mute until it's finished.
I work on the principle if I can't remember then I haven't been concentrating, or I'm losing it and need to book myself into a home for the bewildered.
As an aside - Danish audiences can't get enough of Hinterland, they're loving it.
Don't forget we are seeing these episodes some months later than the Welsh audience. I think some of you have watched to much American TV - I absolutely hate it when a programme starts by stating 'previously on N.Y.P.D. Blue' or whatever it is. If I've recorded it then I press the skip button or if it's live I press mute until it's finished.
I work on the principle if I can't remember then I haven't been concentrating, or I'm losing it and need to book myself into a home for the bewildered.
As an aside - Danish audiences can't get enough of Hinterland, they're loving it.
I think there should be a 'previously' but only at the beginning of the series, not every single programme.
That said, you can always google, I'm sure you can find the series 1 overview.
This show should not be on BBC4's highly prized 9pm Saturday night slot. It's truly dire, awful acting, simplistic cases, but hey it's gloomy, ponderous & broody, with long silences between the decidedly average dialogue.
Well like I say I can understand how people would have forgotten that character from series 1 seeing as it aired a fair while ago - can remember everything else. It's nothing to do with watching too many US dramas for me either (weird assumption?!) as I only watch Homeland out of those - I mainly watch the Scandi stuff.
Personally I like that it is gloomy and dark and near miserable. I also like the bleak landscape and that feeling of isolation and loneliness. Like a land/place the world forgot.
I didn't watch the first series, but I can already see a thread running through it. So far there is a lot of connection with children - whether it is to with Matthias' dead daughter or Mared's own child or the children involved in the murder stories. It comes back to haunt Matthias again and again.
The whodunnits aren't that difficult to work out if you put your mind to it. But for me it's not the actual finding out who the murderer is that is the interesting thing in Hinterland. It's the subtleness in its writing and acting to create its 4 main characters, the community that they are a part of and what that sense of community feels and looks like. Without making a big deal of it, I now know that Lloyd goes on dating websites, Mared is a bit of bitch to make subtle fun of that and Matthias wasn't impressed with Mared's putdown snobbery at Lloyd's expense. In other episodes, Mared is able to connect with the distant broody lost soul Matthias as a parent. And Matthias finds quiet kinship with a landscape and community that suits his mood. Although I hadn't watched the first series and didn't know the details, the Thomas/Matthias conversation hinted enough for me to realise that Iwan Thomas was a former colleague of Matthias.
It is more an atmospheric psychological drama which is not easy to pull on-screen. It just means that as a viewer you have to work a lot harder to get beneath its surface. I would admit that the Welsh/English mix was rather offputting at first. But it does work on a level of familiar unfamiliarity which only helps to create the kind of alienating mood of the series.
I find it a fairly diverting watch, but it's not perfect. I've complained before about the format - a different murder every week. I've always thought it would've been better if they'd gone full 'Scandi-Noir' and have a single case spread out over the whole series. There can't be that many killings in Aberystwyth surely?
Two other thoughts: What's with the boss copper who hangs round like a bad smell every week? Is he supposed to be sinister or something?
And finally, I find the blonde policewoman very attractive. Actually, thinking about it, the brunette one is quite saucy in a MILF-ish sort of way too.
Personally I like that it is gloomy and dark and near miserable. I also like the bleak landscape and that feeling of isolation and loneliness. Like a land/place the world forgot.
I didn't watch the first series, but I can already see a thread running through it. So far there is a lot of connection with children - whether it is to with Matthias' dead daughter or Mared's own child or the children involved in the murder stories. It comes back to haunt Matthias again and again.
The whodunnits aren't that difficult to work out if you put your mind to it. But for me it's not the actual finding out who the murderer is that is the interesting thing in Hinterland. It's the subtleness in its writing and acting to create its 4 main characters, the community that they are a part of and what that sense of community feels and looks like. Without making a big deal of it, I now know that Lloyd goes on dating websites, Mared is a bit of bitch to make subtle fun of that and Matthias wasn't impressed with Mared's putdown snobbery at Lloyd's expense. In other episodes, Mared is able to connect with the distant broody lost soul Matthias as a parent. And Matthias finds quiet kinship with a landscape and community that suits his mood. Although I hadn't watched the first series and didn't know the details, the Thomas/Matthias conversation hinted enough for me to realise that Iwan Thomas was a former colleague of Matthias.
It is more an atmospheric psychological drama which is not easy to pull on-screen. It just means that as a viewer you have to work a lot harder to get beneath its surface. I would admit that the Welsh/English mix was rather offputting at first. But it does work on a level of familiar unfamiliarity which only helps to create the kind of alienating mood of the series.
An excellent post, I agree with everything you have said here.
This show should not be on BBC4's highly prized 9pm Saturday night slot. It's truly dire, awful acting, simplistic cases, but hey it's gloomy, ponderous & broody, with long silences between the decidedly average dialogue.
You are of course entitled to that view, misguided as it is, though thank you for sharing it with us.
Personally I like that it is gloomy and dark and near miserable. I also like the bleak landscape and that feeling of isolation and loneliness. Like a land/place the world forgot.
I didn't watch the first series, but I can already see a thread running through it. So far there is a lot of connection with children - whether it is to with Matthias' dead daughter or Mared's own child or the children involved in the murder stories. It comes back to haunt Matthias again and again.
The whodunnits aren't that difficult to work out if you put your mind to it. But for me it's not the actual finding out who the murderer is that is the interesting thing in Hinterland. It's the subtleness in its writing and acting to create its 4 main characters, the community that they are a part of and what that sense of community feels and looks like. Without making a big deal of it, I now know that Lloyd goes on dating websites, Mared is a bit of bitch to make subtle fun of that and Matthias wasn't impressed with Mared's putdown snobbery at Lloyd's expense. In other episodes, Mared is able to connect with the distant broody lost soul Matthias as a parent. And Matthias finds quiet kinship with a landscape and community that suits his mood. Although I hadn't watched the first series and didn't know the details, the Thomas/Matthias conversation hinted enough for me to realise that Iwan Thomas was a former colleague of Matthias.
It is more an atmospheric psychological drama which is not easy to pull on-screen. It just means that as a viewer you have to work a lot harder to get beneath its surface. I would admit that the Welsh/English mix was rather offputting at first. But it does work on a level of familiar unfamiliarity which only helps to create the kind of alienating mood of the series.
Really good response - for those who are still struggling with this series Nihonga has absolutely nailed it.
Personally I like that it is gloomy and dark and near miserable. I also like the bleak landscape and that feeling of isolation and loneliness. Like a land/place the world forgot.
I didn't watch the first series, but I can already see a thread running through it. So far there is a lot of connection with children - whether it is to with Matthias' dead daughter or Mared's own child or the children involved in the murder stories. It comes back to haunt Matthias again and again.
The whodunnits aren't that difficult to work out if you put your mind to it. But for me it's not the actual finding out who the murderer is that is the interesting thing in Hinterland. It's the subtleness in its writing and acting to create its 4 main characters, the community that they are a part of and what that sense of community feels and looks like. Without making a big deal of it, I now know that Lloyd goes on dating websites, Mared is a bit of bitch to make subtle fun of that and Matthias wasn't impressed with Mared's putdown snobbery at Lloyd's expense. In other episodes, Mared is able to connect with the distant broody lost soul Matthias as a parent. And Matthias finds quiet kinship with a landscape and community that suits his mood. Although I hadn't watched the first series and didn't know the details, the Thomas/Matthias conversation hinted enough for me to realise that Iwan Thomas was a former colleague of Matthias.
It is more an atmospheric psychological drama which is not easy to pull on-screen. It just means that as a viewer you have to work a lot harder to get beneath its surface. I would admit that the Welsh/English mix was rather offputting at first. But it does work on a level of familiar unfamiliarity which only helps to create the kind of alienating mood of the series.
Wow, you have noticed a lot more than I have. I would say there are only 2 main characters - Matthias and Rees. The other guy and the other woman are just there to tell them stuff now and again. I didn't realise they even had names, nor that Rees had a first name.
Looks like Prosser has a dark secret which might be revealed next week.
Presumably he is involved in covering up historical child abuse. But it does seem pointless having him just giving dark looks every week instead of having stuff happen in this supposed plot arc.
There had been history between the Bowens and the Watkins that dated long before Aron/Cal Bowen and Marc/Abi Watkins were born (or at the very least when they were just little children). Years back the Bowens' boatyard had worked on the Watkins's family boat which the Watkins used to make a living. Will Watkins, his father and other men working for the Watkins took the boat and went out to sea but they got into trouble when the boat capsized in rough weather: the repairs the Bowens did on the boat was shoddy and the engine had failed. Will Watkins was the only survivor. So ever since that day there has been feud between the two families.
Fast forward many years and we see that Will Watkins is now the father of Marc and Abi Watkins, and Annes Bowen is the mother of Aron and Cal. Abi falls in love with Aron Bowen and they have a baby. Abi is killed and Aron goes down for her murder. Expect that it was Annes Bowen who had killed Abi. She had warned Aron about the family's disapproval of his relationship with Abi, and how the Watkins will now try to get their hands on the Bowens' boatyard business. When Mathias looked at Aron's interrogation tapes, Aron had told the police (i.e. Brian Prosser - or Tosser as I like to call him - who is now the Chief Supt) that after the argument/fight he had with Abi about his suspicious over the affair he suspected Abi to be having, he went over to see his parents about the argument/fight. His dad was already in bed asleep, but his mother was awake. Annes shouted at Aron, told him he had ruined his life for getting involved with Abi in the first place and the Watkins family, and threw in him out. But Mathias knew that Annes had lied to him, having told him a different story earlier on, and that's when he realised that it was Annes who had gone round to Abi's to kill her after Aron had come round to see her. So her son went down for a crime he did not commit, and Annes knew this but did not care.
Then to top it off, it was Cal who killed Aron. Cal had believed that Aron really did kill Abi and that Aron had no right to a relationship with Ffion, which was what Aron pushing for. Sadly, he had not only killed his brother; he killed a totally innocent brother. When Annes was justifiying her actions with "I did it for my family", Mathias told her her family had gone, which is true: Cal had killed Aron who was innocent, and her husband had drank himself to death believing his son Aron was a murderer. [ETA: Apologises for long reply. Hope it helps though:)]
I think because of the effect it has had on Ffion (and Aron being innocent and how much he has suffered), this episode is probably the saddest one of this current series for me so far. Watching Mathias's home burn down with the photo of his daughters just added to the poignancy.
So Mathias suffers from insomnia. Not surprising. I often wondered how he functions given his own personal tragedy and his work as a murder detective. Just it was lovely to get a glimpse of Lloyd's life as a single man who wanted to have a relationship of his own to assuage his own loneliness, it was nice to see Sian Owens get a little look into her character rather than be an expert on police gruntwork:D. I wonder what is up with her and that Craig Jones. And although I didn't see the 1st series (I really should see it), all the stories from there just adds to the growing mysteries that make this community what it is. The past really weighs heavily on their individual stories and this on-going story with the children's home/child abuse that keeps popping up.
PS: That Chief Supt Tosser sure has a lot of skeletons in his cupboard. I can almost feel how the walls seem to be closing in on him.
Really good response - for those who are still struggling with this series Nihonga has absolutely nailed it.
Ah, thanks for that. Tbh, it took three episodes to understand what the hell was going on. Faust's post about running threads/themes helped. So I can't really take all the credit, lol.
Presumably he is involved in covering up historical child abuse. But it does seem pointless having him just giving dark looks every week instead of having stuff happen in this supposed plot arc.
Yeah, and there was that episode about the housekeeper and the lawyer a couple of weeks back. He was locating back to England which meant that the housekeeper would've been left homeless. Prosser/Tosser didn't give a fig about the young man who was being hunted down by the rest of the community. All he cared about, in fact he seemed that bothered by it, was solving who had killed his lawyer friend.
I wonder if this lawyer had any connection with the historical child abuse and its cover up.
You have to hand it to Nihonga who really does absorb the programme chapter and verse - which is exactly the same way I do. It's the only way I can watch TV - I have to totally absorb things in order to understand all the plot lines.
Watching Mathias's home burn down with the photo of his daughters just added to the poignancy.
Presumably he has photos of them on his phone or can get some more from his wife or other relatives? It would be pretty unusual nowadays for there not to be loads of photos of them, wouldn't it? Maybe he will move into an actual house, or at least a flat, next series; good riddance to that horrible caravan, I say.
Presumably he has photos of them on his phone or can get some more from his wife or other relatives? It would be pretty unusual nowadays for there not to be loads of photos of them, wouldn't it? Maybe he will move into an actual house, or at least a flat, next series; good riddance to that horrible caravan, I say.
So sad about the caravan going up in flames. Someone is not happy with Tom. The man is left with hardly anything. TBH, I can see him living in another caravan in the next series!! To me, he feels as if he doesn't deserve anything else or somewhere more substantial. It's a penance.
Comments
When it's shoe-horned into proceedings so clumsily and without any relevance or buildup then, to me, it is nonsense. Even some of us who saw series 1 were struggling to fully recall the Thomas character. To those who hadn't seen series 1, as I said earlier., they must have wondered what the Hell was going on. There is nothing wrong with recurring themes if they are integrated adequately into the main storyline without disrupting it. This week's diversion patently failed to achieve either.
Out of interest, did you see the episode two weeks ago and, if so, did you think the presence of Mathias's wife, again and again, improved the episode?
Exactly - especially as series 1 was quite a long time ago. They needed to do the 'previously' thing before the episode if he was going to pop up, as someone else noted.
Don't forget we are seeing these episodes some months later than the Welsh audience. I think some of you have watched to much American TV - I absolutely hate it when a programme starts by stating 'previously on N.Y.P.D. Blue' or whatever it is. If I've recorded it then I press the skip button or if it's live I press mute until it's finished.
I work on the principle if I can't remember then I haven't been concentrating, or I'm losing it and need to book myself into a home for the bewildered.
As an aside - Danish audiences can't get enough of Hinterland, they're loving it.
I think there should be a 'previously' but only at the beginning of the series, not every single programme.
That said, you can always google, I'm sure you can find the series 1 overview.
I didn't watch the first series, but I can already see a thread running through it. So far there is a lot of connection with children - whether it is to with Matthias' dead daughter or Mared's own child or the children involved in the murder stories. It comes back to haunt Matthias again and again.
The whodunnits aren't that difficult to work out if you put your mind to it. But for me it's not the actual finding out who the murderer is that is the interesting thing in Hinterland. It's the subtleness in its writing and acting to create its 4 main characters, the community that they are a part of and what that sense of community feels and looks like. Without making a big deal of it, I now know that Lloyd goes on dating websites, Mared is a bit of bitch to make subtle fun of that and Matthias wasn't impressed with Mared's putdown snobbery at Lloyd's expense. In other episodes, Mared is able to connect with the distant broody lost soul Matthias as a parent. And Matthias finds quiet kinship with a landscape and community that suits his mood. Although I hadn't watched the first series and didn't know the details, the Thomas/Matthias conversation hinted enough for me to realise that Iwan Thomas was a former colleague of Matthias.
It is more an atmospheric psychological drama which is not easy to pull on-screen. It just means that as a viewer you have to work a lot harder to get beneath its surface. I would admit that the Welsh/English mix was rather offputting at first. But it does work on a level of familiar unfamiliarity which only helps to create the kind of alienating mood of the series.
Two other thoughts: What's with the boss copper who hangs round like a bad smell every week? Is he supposed to be sinister or something?
And finally, I find the blonde policewoman very attractive. Actually, thinking about it, the brunette one is quite saucy in a MILF-ish sort of way too.
An excellent post, I agree with everything you have said here.
You are of course entitled to that view, misguided as it is, though thank you for sharing it with us.
Really good response - for those who are still struggling with this series Nihonga has absolutely nailed it.
Wow, you have noticed a lot more than I have. I would say there are only 2 main characters - Matthias and Rees. The other guy and the other woman are just there to tell them stuff now and again. I didn't realise they even had names, nor that Rees had a first name.
Presumably he is involved in covering up historical child abuse. But it does seem pointless having him just giving dark looks every week instead of having stuff happen in this supposed plot arc.
That was mega confusing
Who is it killed who (whom?)
and why?
Tim
There had been history between the Bowens and the Watkins that dated long before Aron/Cal Bowen and Marc/Abi Watkins were born (or at the very least when they were just little children). Years back the Bowens' boatyard had worked on the Watkins's family boat which the Watkins used to make a living. Will Watkins, his father and other men working for the Watkins took the boat and went out to sea but they got into trouble when the boat capsized in rough weather: the repairs the Bowens did on the boat was shoddy and the engine had failed. Will Watkins was the only survivor. So ever since that day there has been feud between the two families.
Fast forward many years and we see that Will Watkins is now the father of Marc and Abi Watkins, and Annes Bowen is the mother of Aron and Cal. Abi falls in love with Aron Bowen and they have a baby. Abi is killed and Aron goes down for her murder. Expect that it was Annes Bowen who had killed Abi. She had warned Aron about the family's disapproval of his relationship with Abi, and how the Watkins will now try to get their hands on the Bowens' boatyard business. When Mathias looked at Aron's interrogation tapes, Aron had told the police (i.e. Brian Prosser - or Tosser as I like to call him - who is now the Chief Supt) that after the argument/fight he had with Abi about his suspicious over the affair he suspected Abi to be having, he went over to see his parents about the argument/fight. His dad was already in bed asleep, but his mother was awake. Annes shouted at Aron, told him he had ruined his life for getting involved with Abi in the first place and the Watkins family, and threw in him out. But Mathias knew that Annes had lied to him, having told him a different story earlier on, and that's when he realised that it was Annes who had gone round to Abi's to kill her after Aron had come round to see her. So her son went down for a crime he did not commit, and Annes knew this but did not care.
Then to top it off, it was Cal who killed Aron. Cal had believed that Aron really did kill Abi and that Aron had no right to a relationship with Ffion, which was what Aron pushing for. Sadly, he had not only killed his brother; he killed a totally innocent brother. When Annes was justifiying her actions with "I did it for my family", Mathias told her her family had gone, which is true: Cal had killed Aron who was innocent, and her husband had drank himself to death believing his son Aron was a murderer. [ETA: Apologises for long reply. Hope it helps though:)]
I think because of the effect it has had on Ffion (and Aron being innocent and how much he has suffered), this episode is probably the saddest one of this current series for me so far. Watching Mathias's home burn down with the photo of his daughters just added to the poignancy.
So Mathias suffers from insomnia. Not surprising. I often wondered how he functions given his own personal tragedy and his work as a murder detective. Just it was lovely to get a glimpse of Lloyd's life as a single man who wanted to have a relationship of his own to assuage his own loneliness, it was nice to see Sian Owens get a little look into her character rather than be an expert on police gruntwork:D. I wonder what is up with her and that Craig Jones. And although I didn't see the 1st series (I really should see it), all the stories from there just adds to the growing mysteries that make this community what it is. The past really weighs heavily on their individual stories and this on-going story with the children's home/child abuse that keeps popping up.
PS: That Chief Supt Tosser sure has a lot of skeletons in his cupboard. I can almost feel how the walls seem to be closing in on him.
Ah, thanks for that. Tbh, it took three episodes to understand what the hell was going on. Faust's post about running threads/themes helped. So I can't really take all the credit, lol.
Yeah, and there was that episode about the housekeeper and the lawyer a couple of weeks back. He was locating back to England which meant that the housekeeper would've been left homeless. Prosser/Tosser didn't give a fig about the young man who was being hunted down by the rest of the community. All he cared about, in fact he seemed that bothered by it, was solving who had killed his lawyer friend.
I wonder if this lawyer had any connection with the historical child abuse and its cover up.
Mainly because it's difficult to remember what I had for breakfast, let alone what happened in an episode of a TV show I saw 18 months ago!
Thanks very much
A good dose of brain training for you I think?
Great stuff - can't wait for another series.
Presumably he has photos of them on his phone or can get some more from his wife or other relatives? It would be pretty unusual nowadays for there not to be loads of photos of them, wouldn't it? Maybe he will move into an actual house, or at least a flat, next series; good riddance to that horrible caravan, I say.
So sad about the caravan going up in flames. Someone is not happy with Tom. The man is left with hardly anything. TBH, I can see him living in another caravan in the next series!! To me, he feels as if he doesn't deserve anything else or somewhere more substantial. It's a penance.
Not much help for those of us who didn't see S1.
tim