Fortitude: Sky Atlantic's big-budget semi-Scandi murder-mystery drama (aka "Fjordchurch")

How is this now?

I think p good, it's kind of silly but compelling. It really is a patchwork quilt of so many other shows.

I've not seen last night's episode but last week's was one of the most disgusting scenes I've ever seen on TV - had to switch it off. That's prob the show's biggest achievement and it's a bit cheap.

sold

file with walking dead for "why am i still watching this" combined with "and yet"

You talking about the chest ripping open bit or something else?

that bit, yeah. maybe it's just me, i'm not generally squeamish, i've watched lots of things that are apparently shocking, but i honestly just found that disgusting.

felt like they prob hadn't earned it either, was maybe a bit cynical.

It's a shame because this show is so nearly there - beautifully shot, well-acted, genuinely sinister in places, but the characters are mostly underwritten. Plus it's so obvious what's going on that the sense of mystery just isn't there.

I actually thought the feeder guy buying a funnel so he could pour melted ice-cream down his ill girlfriend's throat was more disgusting than any of the actual dismemberment fwiw.

all of the feeder stuff was disgusting from the start. the way they handled that storyline, until monsterism, is prob the best thing in the show.

it's still decent but it hasn't gotten over sky1's curse - copying other shows, ticking all boxes, feeling that it was made by committee.

this actually stuck the landing decently, perhaps surprisingly...though the penultimate episode felt more dramatic as befitting a finale, the last episode felt like tidying up with a random extra ill person stuck in for drama. a few unexplained loose ends and i'm really not interested in a second series but that was a satisfying ride overall.

yeah i actually think this was p good overall - it's far from perfect but it had some moments of brilliance - the music is incredible and some of the shooting is so lavish. that entire rape scene was harrowing to watch but the pace of it and the character of the storytelling was immaculate.

Yeah I was losing interest midway through but this really brought it together well at the end. Terrifying prehistoric insects are a better conceit than whatever supernatural shit I'd initially feared they'd come up with, and actually I'm actually quite stoked at the prospect of an uncontrollable plague in S2. I even started to feel for the annoying drama school scientists by the end.

Felt weird to watch an ensemble TV show that didn't even nominally have a lead, every time you thought someone was going to fill that role they killed them off.

You'd have thought that, given it's an isolated community in the snow surrounded by polar bears and troubled by unexplained murderers, someone would have thought to hire a second doctor as quickly as possible.

Also I have been caning Ben Frost's Aurora album from last year, as a direct result of watching this, so that's a tick in its favour as well.

I felt the ending was disappointing actually, a lot what were obviously intended to be big emotional payoffs (eg Dan shooting Elena) felt glib and unearned. Still hadn't really forgiven them for disposing of Morton in such and offhand way.

Still an enjoyable series, loved the setting and atmosphere, well acted and paced for the most part. I'll watch a bit of s2 at least out of interest.

actually thought the feeder guy buying a funnel so he could pour melted ice-cream down his ill girlfriend's throat was more disgusting than any of the actual dismemberment fwiw.

― Matt DC

Feeder guy may be the best surviving character.

i never understood why people had so much affection for morton, one of the less compelling characters imo

Dry outsider's perspective always attractive.

Also Tucci is an excellent actor imo.

yeah i like tucci

Did anyone watch series 2?

I did.
It gets weirder, and not necessarily better. Lots of minor threads from the first series are left unresolved.

There is a shaman. And castration. And more reindeer juice.

Apparently this is on Amazon Prime in the US. I'm mildly intrigued.

did quite enjoy first season. enjoyed the 2nd season too but it's much harder to suspend disbelief as the series draws to a close.

First season overall vibe reminded me of X-files cold opens stretched out to ten episodes, sans Scullder. My frustrations w/ the show came from the fact that at every single damn opportunity in which it could conceivably have gone dark/violent/gory/sucker-punchy it did so, to the point where it lost any shock factor. Its scares and gross-outs were, by the end, as predictably gratuitous as Dennis Franz's pebbly buttocks in late-season NYPD Blue

did you watch the 2nd season? penultimate ep really has the top gross out scene.

It's in the queue. I like so many of the actors. It's kind of like Masterpiece Theatre: Garbage Pail Kids

There was a second season of this?

Yes and it sucked.

Not that surprised. The first season had sucky elements.

There seems to be a third season coming up (in the UK).

Can't actually remember how the second season finished.

Was season 2 a stealth scifi one like the first series? I liked that.