The pluses Mireille Enos has to be one of the most watchable actresses ever. Her quiet portrayal of a policewoman with a lot of suppressed emotional baggage was beyond brilliant. She also looked as if she was not wearing makeup.
The absence of background music for most of the series, especially when the characters were speaking was another plus. What music was used was kept very low and in the background. This, along with the silent pauses in conversation greatly enhances the suspense, and this whole series had suspense to spare. After the frenetic bustling about of series like the West Wing, where shouting conversations always take place as the characters walk rapidly down a corridor as extras carrying files scurry back and forth in the background, and no one ever uses sentences longer than five words delivered at machine gun speed, the slower pace was refreshing.
The negatives: I may not have been paying attention, but I did find a lot of the plot was either unexplained, not followed up, or preposterous. e.g. in Season 3 why was a suspect who had not been on trial and found guilty locked in the next cell to someone on death row! Come on! That would never happen. The Gimme a break reaction kicked into overdrive all too often.
The finale with the Mayor coming up with a "Here's what we're gonna do" solution to save the Deportment's face and reputation showed that nothing had really changed. The crusader who was going to do things the right way had faced reality and accepted that the right way often involved compromise. Admitting that the pied piper killer was one of their own policemen would have had such serious repercussions that the city would likely never had recovered. I just wasn't sure that the creepy pornographer man who was blamed had actually killed anyone.
Again, this might be inattention due to late night bingeing, but where was the mother of Holder's daughter at the finale when suddenly the two smoking buddies decided to give romance a try? That was a major plot misstep and certainly would not have happened in a European production. Far better from them to have gone their separate ways with Sara looking longingly after Holder and realising that she had left it too late. I felt like shouting at the screen "Get away from her Holder, she's TROUBLE". Perhaps the producers were setting up the possibility of a fifth season as the dysfunctional Sara and occasionally relapsing former addict teamed up romantically.
The absence of background music for most of the series, especially when the characters were speaking was another plus. What music was used was kept very low and in the background. This, along with the silent pauses in conversation greatly enhances the suspense, and this whole series had suspense to spare. After the frenetic bustling about of series like the West Wing, where shouting conversations always take place as the characters walk rapidly down a corridor as extras carrying files scurry back and forth in the background, and no one ever uses sentences longer than five words delivered at machine gun speed, the slower pace was refreshing.
The negatives: I may not have been paying attention, but I did find a lot of the plot was either unexplained, not followed up, or preposterous. e.g. in Season 3 why was a suspect who had not been on trial and found guilty locked in the next cell to someone on death row! Come on! That would never happen. The Gimme a break reaction kicked into overdrive all too often.
The finale with the Mayor coming up with a "Here's what we're gonna do" solution to save the Deportment's face and reputation showed that nothing had really changed. The crusader who was going to do things the right way had faced reality and accepted that the right way often involved compromise. Admitting that the pied piper killer was one of their own policemen would have had such serious repercussions that the city would likely never had recovered. I just wasn't sure that the creepy pornographer man who was blamed had actually killed anyone.
Again, this might be inattention due to late night bingeing, but where was the mother of Holder's daughter at the finale when suddenly the two smoking buddies decided to give romance a try? That was a major plot misstep and certainly would not have happened in a European production. Far better from them to have gone their separate ways with Sara looking longingly after Holder and realising that she had left it too late. I felt like shouting at the screen "Get away from her Holder, she's TROUBLE". Perhaps the producers were setting up the possibility of a fifth season as the dysfunctional Sara and occasionally relapsing former addict teamed up romantically.