The Tunnel: S02E08

We made it to the finish line! I have to admit, season two of The Tunnel wasn't quite as compelling as its first, though I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it was the lack of any juicy Karl/Elise interaction. Their dynamic felt a bit muted, though this final episode did a lot to make up for it.

I also found it more difficult to follow the narrative thread this time around. A rewatch would probably clear up some of the intricacies, but The Musketeers has finally started so there's precious little time for that!

The Tunnel: S02E06 + E07

If you've been wondering why I missed reviewing last week's episode of The Tunnel, it was because my usual torrent supplier temporarily vanished. We're back on track now, but I'll merge episode six and seven into one post.

The big reveal of these episodes are that Eryka is one of the masterminds behind this entire plot, working with Koba* towards some nefarious end. I suppose it's fitting in an ironic sort of way that in the same week we learn Delphine is still alive, we're also treated to an evil bisexual who deliberately seduces one of our protagonists to throw her off her game. The universe giveth, and the universe taketh away.

*Yes, it's Koba – not Cobra as originally thought. In my defence, the characters made that mistake too.

The Tunnel: S02E05

I suppose after last week things were bound to be a little less exciting, but now that we're halfway through the season (only eight episodes this time) I'm surprised that we're not inching a little closer to getting things wrapped up.

I'm also nursing a few flu symptoms, so this'll be a bit shorter than usual. 

The Tunnel: S02E04

Whoa, that was the best episode this show has done since Angel Coulby was tricked into standing on a bomb detonator last season.

The Tunnel: S02E03

I've just learned that this season has only eight episodes (as opposed to last season's ten) which certainly explains why things are moving at such a brisk pace this time around.

It's only to be expected from a police drama/political thriller, but I like it when investigative teams are depicted as good at their jobs, as is the case here. Their efficiency is probably to do with the reduced amount of episodes in which they've got to find their targets, but it's always satisfying to see people making proper conclusions from the evidence that's been gathered, especially when the audience is more aware of what's actually happening than the characters are.

The Tunnel: S02E02

This episode was brutal. I needed a bit of time to recover after watching it.

Plotwise, the episode spread itself out over several strands: the ongoing investigation, Elise/Karl's lives at home, the plotting of the terrorists and a return of the narrative device perfected in the last series: introducing a new character who initially seems completely irrelevant to the overarching story before getting drawn into the bigger picture.

Their presence serves to humanize the tragedy and give us someone to follow through whatever crisis befalls them, but in this case it also continues the recent television glut of dead women and minorities. It even managed a two-for-one!

The Tunnel: S02E01

It's back!

I love a good political thriller, and in 2013 The Tunnel neatly swiped the premise of the Swedish/Danish production Bron/Broen and its American/Mexican remake The Bridge to craft a French/English version. 

Police investigators from both countries were called to the Eurotunnel after a body was found right on the dividing line, and were subsequently forced to work together once it became apparent the body was in fact two bodies: the head and torso of a French politician, and the hips and legs of an English prostitute.

Though the collaboration of Elise Wasserman and Karl Roebuck led to the apprehension of the man known as the Truth Terrorist, a trail of dead bodies was left in his wake, including that of Karl's eldest son Adam.

By all accounts the drama closely followed the trajectory of the original Scandinavian show, but season two is staking out its own territory with a brand new storyline.

So how do they up the ante from the last series and keep the show's title relevant? First by staging a kidnapping in the Eurotunnel, in which a husband and wife are dragged from their car (leaving behind their traumatized daughter) and then by having an airplane crash in the English Channel, killing everyone aboard.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E10

Yes, I'm back! Sorry I've been out of commission for so long, breaking one of the cardinal rules of blogging as a result (always provide regular updates) but study with the Open Polytechnic suddenly intensified and I found a project deadline looming that needed my full attention.

But it's all over now, so I can return my attention to more interesting matters. TV shows! I've been keeping up with The Shannara Chronicles and The 100 and their less-than-exemplary creative decisions, so hopefully I'll have some reviews up soon. Until then, here's the last instalment of The Tunnel to tide you over.

When I started this rewatch, I made a deal with the universe that by the time I reached its final episode we would have some news on its next season – and ho, the universe delivered! We now have a range of promotional pictures (scroll down), a teaser trailer (that doesn't give much away) and a full trailer (which is entirely in French).

Hey, it's better than nothing, and it looks as though Angel's role has been expanded upon. And is that Emilia Fox? Morgause and Guinevere together again! Okay, that doesn't make much sense considering those two characters didn't interact once in Merlin (unless you count a brief reaction shot in The Eye of the Phoenix) but I'm going to be so annoyed if they don't share a scene in this forthcoming season.

On with the review. Since this is the final episode, please expect SPOILERS below the cut.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E09

So can we all safely agree that this was Angel Coulby’s episode? Whenever she’s given the chance to unleash, she always delivers, whether it’s finally becoming Queen, or singing jazz in front of an audience, or this – coping with a life-or-death situation.

SPOILERS

And this episode very much centred on her character: the danger Laura was in, the way she dealt with it, and the effect it had on other characters. With only one episode left to go, all cards are on the table: TT is Kieran Ashton, who has a vendetta against Karl Roebuck as well as life in general, going after his wife and children in revenge for his part to play in the termination of Operation Riga (details of which are still sketchy) and for having an affair with his wife Zara (you just couldn’t keep it in your pants, could you Karl).

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E08

Last week I was left wondering where the plot would go now that TT's five truths have been completed. As it turns out: personal vendetta.

SPOILERS

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E07

This was definitely the best episode yet. Last week I felt oddly disconnected from the father/son drama, but it turns out that the only thing I needed to be roped back in was a bus-load of kidnapped school children. It certainly didn't hurt that this episode also had the most of Angel Coulby that we've seen thus far.

So TT's latest truth is to shine light on the exploitation of children in sweat-shops by kidnapping a group of kids and their bus-driver, demanding that the public riot against various stores that stock goods supplied by child labour. The public duly complies, but things take a turn for the truly dark when two children are left shackled in the barn: a white girl and a black boy. It was at this point I felt ill, for it was pretty clear where this was headed.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E06

This time I only have a few brief notes...

So it turns out that Stephen is just a Red Herring? I can't say I'm surprised but – wow. That's a lot of screen-time and built-up to spend on a red herring, especially one that was so obviously not going to turn out to be the killer.

I'm not even sure if it's possible for someone to die of slit wrists that quickly, though the preceding scene in which he takes a woman hostage was fairly suspenseful, all the more so because it was so downplayed. That is probably how a situation like that would unfold in real life, without all the yelling and panic and gunplay.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E05

Despite steady improvement over the past four weeks, this episode stalled a little in terms of the investigation and the climax.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E04

The advantage to shows which start slowly is that as they continue, they get discernibly better week-by-week as the plot kicks in and the tension ratchets up a notch. I was pretty riveted from start to finish this time around, with the various detectives pooling their resources in the hopes of finding Delplanque before he dies of hypothermia. Elsewhere, subplots that have seemed rather irrelevant are getting sewn into the fabric of the murder case, with various clues dished out as to how the killer is pulling all this off. It’s like watching a huge jigsaw puzzle be slowly pieced together.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E03

So I’m beginning to get the hang of this show’s format. Every week the detectives inch closer understanding what the killer is trying to achieve, whilst new side characters are slipped in and given their own subplots that may only seem tangentially connected at first, but eventually end up being fairly crucial to the overarching flow of the series.

As much time is spent on these periphery characters as it is on our lead investigators, which means that there’s the danger of what I call AAK syndrome (that is, Audience Already Knows syndrome).

Because the viewer is given access to information that the investigators are not, the show spends a fair bit of time showing us Karl and Elise figuring out stuff that the audience is already aware of: that Suze was stealing medication from the nursing home, that Suze and Gemma had the same pimp, that the teenagers who find the veteran are not involved with his kidnapping. But there are a few clever ways in which they manage to avoid the pit-falls that comes with this “viewer knows before character” style of storytelling...

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E02

The plot thickens as the killer’s patterns and motivation begin to reveal themselves, a few more supporting characters are introduced to the mix, and another dramatic murder closes the episode.

Rewatch: The Tunnel: S01E01

The Tunnel: Sabotage is scheduled for early next year, so now seems as good a time as any to revisit the first series. Back in 2013 I made the decision not to watch the original Scandinavian drama Bron/Broen, partly because I didn't have time, and partly because I didn't want to watch two shows in quick succession that have virtually the same plot.

You probably know the setup by now: the dead body of a woman is found at the exact mid-point of the Eurotunnel, her head in France and her feet in Britain. Two sets of investigators are dispatched to the location: on the French side is Elise Wasserman (Clémence Poésy), a young Brigade Criminelle Captain with an Ambiguous Disorder (probably autism or Asperger's) that goes largely unmentioned, and on the British side is middle-aged Karl Roebuck (Stephan Dillane), an easy-going father of five children (to three different mothers, though he’s happily married to the third).

Yet when the time comes to move the body, it becomes apparent that they’re dealing with not one but two victims: the head and torso of the missing French MP has been severed at the waist, and the legs belong to a British prostitute that disappeared several months ago. Naturally, this forces the two sides to work together to track down the culprit.