I'm using the last episode of season 2 to comment on this second 6-part season based on detective John Cardinal. It's actually taken me three years to go back to the show after enjoying the first season which didn't help me with some of the continuity obviously carried over here, concerning in particular Cardinal's psychologically troubled wife and two back-up detectives with different sized-axes it would seem to grind against firstly Cardinal himself and his female partner Lisa Delorme.
These however are firmly entrenched as sub-plots of varying interest as the main plot concerns a psychopathic serial killer of Native American origins with a particularly grisly line in ritual murders but who gets hung up on the one that got away, a young red-haired girl with whom he fancies he's made a particularly strong connection which of course isn't likely to end well for her. The show starts with her escaping through a forested landscape before being apparently shot and killed by her pursuer, but she miraculously survives, albeit with amnesia. Cardinal and Delorme pick up the case and it's not long before they're drawn into the search for the mysterious man known as North Wind who, when he's not committing unspeakably macabre murders, is also trying to muscle in on the local drug scene currently controlled by a biker gang.
In the background, Cardinal struggles to rebuild his relationship with his emotionally unbalanced wife, she in particular still feeling guilt about causing the death of a cop at the conclusion of the first series, but less is revealed this time about Delorme's character, other than her on-off-on promotion prospects and her relationship with a young female undercover cop who gets caught in the crossfire.
Unlike the first season, which made great play of Algonquin Bay in winter, this time the action was set in the summer time which for me took away some of the chilly and chilling atmosphere I recalled from before. The story too seemed over-contrived and again the incidences of coincidences in the narrative occasionally took some swallowing. Now where did I see that dead giveaway carving above the very place where North Wind hangs out, ahh, of course I remember my photographer wife taking a random picture of it only recently...
Still it all built up to a tense "Cape Fear"-type stand-off between Cardinal and the baddie and just for good measure there was a would-be teasingly but actually quite predictably set-up epilogue which if nothing else might clear the way for some romantic sparks to fly between whispering Cardinal and woman-of-few-words Delorme, but I doubt it would be much to shout about.
With some ghoulish crime scenes involving dismembered and mutilated bodies and a particularly graphic murder of one of North Wind's young henchmen, this season isn't for the squeamish but while I enjoyed this run, I'd be lying if I didn't say I found it a bit less compelling than series one.
These however are firmly entrenched as sub-plots of varying interest as the main plot concerns a psychopathic serial killer of Native American origins with a particularly grisly line in ritual murders but who gets hung up on the one that got away, a young red-haired girl with whom he fancies he's made a particularly strong connection which of course isn't likely to end well for her. The show starts with her escaping through a forested landscape before being apparently shot and killed by her pursuer, but she miraculously survives, albeit with amnesia. Cardinal and Delorme pick up the case and it's not long before they're drawn into the search for the mysterious man known as North Wind who, when he's not committing unspeakably macabre murders, is also trying to muscle in on the local drug scene currently controlled by a biker gang.
In the background, Cardinal struggles to rebuild his relationship with his emotionally unbalanced wife, she in particular still feeling guilt about causing the death of a cop at the conclusion of the first series, but less is revealed this time about Delorme's character, other than her on-off-on promotion prospects and her relationship with a young female undercover cop who gets caught in the crossfire.
Unlike the first season, which made great play of Algonquin Bay in winter, this time the action was set in the summer time which for me took away some of the chilly and chilling atmosphere I recalled from before. The story too seemed over-contrived and again the incidences of coincidences in the narrative occasionally took some swallowing. Now where did I see that dead giveaway carving above the very place where North Wind hangs out, ahh, of course I remember my photographer wife taking a random picture of it only recently...
Still it all built up to a tense "Cape Fear"-type stand-off between Cardinal and the baddie and just for good measure there was a would-be teasingly but actually quite predictably set-up epilogue which if nothing else might clear the way for some romantic sparks to fly between whispering Cardinal and woman-of-few-words Delorme, but I doubt it would be much to shout about.
With some ghoulish crime scenes involving dismembered and mutilated bodies and a particularly graphic murder of one of North Wind's young henchmen, this season isn't for the squeamish but while I enjoyed this run, I'd be lying if I didn't say I found it a bit less compelling than series one.
