The Crow Girl

I'm ok with a slow burn start as the characters aee introduced and the initial mystery is laid out . I'm ok with twists and turns as characters react to events and reveal their strengths, weaknesses and secrets.

I'm not ok with characters who do stupid things for plot reasons, especially in the last episode, which is an absolute mess and undermines much of the work done getting us there.

The Big reveal is largely telegraphed, but is one of the few things that makes any sense.

And of course the dreaded To Be Continued appeared as the screen faded to black.

I wont be holding my breath for season 2.

I watched 2 episodes and that was enough for me. It moves at glacial speed and isn't focused. Like an American police drama you get a lot of family drama thrown in which is distracting and worthless plus a demanding boss. I really don't care about DCI Kilburn's home situation. Why is a detective inspector the bagman for a detective chief inspector, normally a DCI has a sergeant. It's what I always enjoyed about the series "Vera", she rarely brought in any family stuff and her bosses let her do her job.

This is from a novel by Erik Axl Sund which is the pen name of two Swedish writers. Some Scandinavian novels should be dramatized like "The Killing" and "The Bridge", but I would have left "The Crow Girl" on the shelf.

Nice that it's set in Bristol and not London. I hated Dougray Scott in "Crime", but he's good in this series. I liked Eve Myles in "Torchwood".

I truly do not want to give anything away here. Others have criticised The Crow Girl for having too many plot lines that don't all get wrapped up... but that is what season 2 is for? Weird thing to pick apart really, since this is not a standalone movie.

The first 2-3 episodes are a quite slow and challenging to watch, but it's all worth it for the plot twist towards the end. Usually I see things coming from a mile away but not this one. It's extraordinarily well done whilst at the same time you'll be kicking yourself for not figuring it out in the first place.

In other news: Eve Myles is bloody brilliant in this. Great actor.

Complicated in an unintelligent confused way that played like the writers made it up as they went along, then suddenly realised they needed an ending. An ending unsupported by the previous chaotic episodes trying to make several different stories into one and failing to tell any completely.

Filled with frustrating slow scenes of characters badly acting struggles with inner demons which any responsible adult would be able to dismiss in a breath.

Disappointing and obvious,boring at times, shallow drama belonging on daytime TV if anywhere.

The very annoying thing about this kind of show is like the dentist, you have to suffer to get to the result or ending, just bad but gripping enough to make me want to see what Happens next.

What do you get if you take Eve Myles's Faith from Keeping Faith and Dougray Scott's DI Ray Lennox from Crime and send them to Bristol? You get The Crow Girl!

Maybe I am too cynical these days and Police shows have to have the smart talking main character detective who plays fast and loose, they put their work above all else including their family, then there needs to be the incompetent police sidekicks who have to be told to do everything, and the stern boss who berates the main character but relents when they see that the unconventional methods are working, so if you're into that then take a peek at this.

To be fair the wife liked it, I found it frustrating in the first episode but then it did get quite creepy in terms of the subject matter.

Ultimately it's OK in the grand scheme, you could do worse, like watching a Harlan Coban adaptation.