Low Winter Sun: Penultimate Review

Low Winter Sun has been struggling.  AMC's positioning of the series right after Breaking Bad hasn't worked so well, because, well, after Breaking Bad, no one's much in the mood for a noir cop drama in Detroit.

But I've been watching the series - on DVR - a day or two after its airing, and I think it's pretty good. The two-hour finale will be on next week, so here are some thoughts about what has been happening since episode 1.3, which was the last episode I had a chance to review.

The set-up - of two detectives investigating the killing of a detective whom they themselves killed - has held up well and works.   Frank Agnew, in particular, is one of the more interesting anti-hero cops to come down the pike on television.  Not as vicious as Vic Mackey on The Shield, Frank has a keen intelligence and persuasiveness.   You almost believe that he is really trying to find the killer as he goes through the complex charade of an investigation into who killed McCann.   His goal, of course, is to pin the killing on a plausible suspect other than him and his partner Joe Geddes.

But it's not easy, not least because the other detectives are watching his every move.  Dani is the most difficult in this regard.  She trusts Frank implicitly, but she's bright and is beginning to suspect Joe.  She sees that Frank is not conducting the investigation up to his usual standards, but chalks this up to Frank's turmoil over losing Katia (for more of whom, see below).  Frank, likely sensing that Dani is getting too close to what actually happened to McCann, sleeps with Dani.  The result is she tells him her suspicions about Joe, and likely she's a little less likely now to suspect Frank.   But how long that will last - especially with Internal Affairs pressing its investigation - remains to be seen.

Frank is indeed obsessed with Katia, and in one of the best sequences of the series last night, Joe gets to Katia before Frank arrives, and Joe kills her.   Katia's death will help Frank and Joe keep their secret. But if Frank realizes that Joe killed Katia, there's no telling what he'll do.

I'm thinking that in two-hour finale next week, Frank will implicate and kill Joe - in a way that will keep Dani and the IA agent in the dark.

At least, for this season.  And I'm hoping they'll be a second season in which this crafty story can further play out.

See also Low Winter Sun 1.1-2: High Hopes ... Low Winter Sun 1.3: Katia and the Bridge




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