Midnight Sun

This murder mystery had potential to relocate a number of standard crime thriller tropes in an unusual setting - the land of the midnight sun. The plot revolves around an improbable couple, Leila Bekhti as Kahina Zadi, French detective sent to the mining town of Kiruna - probably north of the artic circle because of the brutal murder of a French citizen (he is tethered to the blade of helicopter, and spun to his head explodes!!!) and Gustaf Hammarsten as Anders Harnesk, who seems to serve the function of the CPS, who reluctantly takes over, when his predecessor is also murdered (by poison). She is macho - presumably a strong independent woman, and he is a metrosexual, closet-gay, who ducks out of anything that might put himself in danger. Her back story is that she became pregnant at 15, was forced to hand over her baby to her mother (her background is Algerian French), who raises the boy as her brother. Anders has been married, has a daughter, who lives with him, who he thinks does not know he is gay. He is also half Sami and in a relationship with a helicopter pilot (whose name is I think Torn).Various elements do not fit together very well. Within the mining community of Kiruna there have been two past crimes, the theft of Iron? from the mining company by a shift of miners ten years previously. At the time one of the miners was the now dead police official. The second crime is the misuse of the mine by the French secret service to dispose of spent uranium. Linked to this are to historic murders, the first of a young son of one of the miners involved in crime number 1; the second is of a Sami punk poetess (these murders occur about two/three years before). Gradually more murders occur and they are all linked in some way to Sami folk-lore and ritual, which Anders has to explain to Kahina (and of course the audience). The plot revolves around the complicated and often hostile relationship between the Sami and the Swedish population - which of course for Kahina reflects her own complex relationship with France.On top of all of this Kahina's son manages to find her in Kiruna having hitch-hiked all the way from France and a French secret service man arrives both to help her and to cover up.I will leave it there- I think Bekhti and Hammarsten pull off their very difficult roles and they resolve the odd couple problem by simply acknowledging they have nothing in common and will never see each other again - not helped by Kahina having sex with Torn (who proves to be 'greedy').For my money all of this is too messy - and the audience is asked to accept too many improbabilities. In addition I did not find the portrayal of the Sami very convincing and could not see any obvious differences in their life style or culture other than a considerable amount of not too convincing mysticism (at this point I need to say that I have no knowledge at all about Sami culture or the veracity of the practices described).

I thought “Midnight Sun” was very good. Initially being drawn to the drama because of the participation of leading actress Leïla Bekhti – rather than anything else, I watched “Midnight Sun” without any preconceptions about how it might go, but I found that by the end of each episode I was left in eager anticipation of what would happen next. It is, perhaps not without “faults” as some of the one star reviews have pointed out, and yes some of the English dialogue spoken by people for whom English is not their natural language comes across as a bit – well not like that of native English speakers which the characters, as it happens are not (so actually quite convincingly as far as this drama is concerned), but optional English Subtitles for the English spoken dialogue could have been helpful at times, and especially helpful if one’s hearing is at all problematic, but if you have ever conversed in a language that is not your natural language you should appreciate how convincing this multi-language drama really is as far as the dialogue is concerned. Secondly, some of the story might seem a bit far-fetched but it is fiction and, well, it could happen (couldn’t it?).On the other hand there are many pluses to make up for any of that negativity. The story and where the story was going, even quite a few episodes in, I wasn’t able to second-guess, and by the time things started to make sense it did so without me feeling like the narrative had cheated me in some way as the story is really cleverly revealed over the eight episodes.Acting was first-rate, the Swedish scenery was a delight and was shown realistically without being “picture-perfect” (a la Hollywood). The music complemented the drama really well. The cinematography was fine (as long as you can put up with a great deal of hand-held and at times (deliberately?) shaky camera-work), and generally "Midnight Sun" looks like there is a lot of high quality effort and production value put into the drama, and you can tell that “Midnight Sun” has certainly not been made on the cheap. It is also educative in that way that fictional dramas can sometimes be.The DVD version consists of three discs that show eight episodes altogether. There are no Extra Features. Subtitles are given for all non-English dialogue only and are not optional. Total running time for the drama is 7 hours 11 minutes (roughly eight 55 minute episodes). There is a choice of 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 Dolby Digital.Finally I would say “Stick with it” as a number of one-star reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere had decided early on that they didn’t like “Midnight Sun” and some who didn’t take to it did not see it through to the end, and whilst they make some valid critical points and are entitled to their opinions, where reviewers have given five stars, they have seen the series through to its conclusion – and, it would seem, have been rewarded well by doing so.

I quite enjoyed this series despite the sometimes slow soul searching bits of dialogue interspaced with the main interesting part of the story. At least there is plenty of magnificent, wild and desolate landscape to view, both from the ground and from the frequent helicopter rides. I like TV series such as these where the action takes you out and about in foreign countries. However, I dropped one star because of Studio Canal. To start any episode you have to endure the annoying Studio Canal jingle three times per episode making a grand total of 24 by the end of the series. By the third episode there are groans of "not again, for goodness sake get on with it", or words to that effect. There is no way of avoiding viewing this irritation as it occurs at the points where you have to select an episode and after selecting play. I have noticed that this seems to be a Studio Canal feature these days, seemingly a need to constantly remind you of who is responsible for the production of what you are watching. I have just started on the UK TV series "Paranoid" and Studio Canal annoy again though to minor relief, only two playings of the jingle before they leave you in peace.

good value and VERY fast send many thanks