Bordertown: The Mural Murders. Characteristically dark and traumatic feature-length case for the troubled detective that follows on from the three series.

https://youtu.be/KmYOk8zNCIo

An expert confection where the feature-film length of the show allowed for a grimly steady unfolding of the story. I think I missed some elements as it is clearly meant to follow on from the three series of episodes and I have only seen 1 -and part of the second - but it will be interesting to see these now, particularly the last one as I sensed that the situation for the hero that we see him in at the start is a direct result of the events and situations of the third series.

Soronen is a fascinating pretty deeply damaged character and the way his friends family and colleagues deal with and respond to him is one of the many thoughtful strengths of the series. The camera work is a fine combination of documentary-style recording of certain scenes, but with stylish imagination shown in others to convey the mood and feel, usually of the murder scene or a particularly traumatic moment that the main characters have to navigate. I feel this is an intelligently sophisticated way to film this sort of drama - too often directors either go all out for every scene to over-emphasise drama and emotion, even with plainly functional, plot-moving dialogue or they film everything overly simply to convey ‘realism’ but which, if sustained over a film or an entire episode merely ends up being rather dull and uninvolving.

The Lighthouse. DEEPLY dark and twisted with cinematic style matching the content.

Single All The Way. Wonderfully sentimental confection that leaves no gay/seasonal/rom-com cliché unexplored.