I normally only post about TV shows or movies I like. And when I first read about this one I thought I'd like it. But both Netlfix and Wiki were misleading in there description of "Fortitude". It is not a crime drama or pyschological thriller, its a bad science ficton, horror movie dragged out over 12 episodes. Which is a shame because I was looking forward to the murder mystery in the small Arctic town that hasn't had a crime before. A major selling point was Christopher Eccleston, the first actor to play The Doctor in the new Doctor Who series having a role in it. Unfortunantly he doesn't survive the first episode, being brutaly murdered near the end.
I gave up on the series after only 1 episode because that episode was so badly written. Best (or worst) example:
A major character is a former military man now working with search and rescue. Despite his saving people's lives he has no redeaming characteristics. He's totatly indifferent to his son being ill and is actually hostile towards his wife for being concerned about the boy. During his first 10 seconds of on screen time with another woman he starts an affair with her. True, there supposed to have met before but thats not all that clear during this mercifully short scene. Then he has the nerve to get mad at his wife for going behind his back to ask the sheriff to arrange to have the boy air lifted to the mainland. Mother doesn't trust the local doctor. And she propably shouldn't.
Then the writers trying to destroy your sympathy for the wife suddenly have her run off to the bar to drown her sorrows in alcohol and bad music, leaving her son with a man who has shown zero interest in the boy up until now. As a result of this uncharacteristcly selfish act on the mother's part, the boy ends up with frost bite so bad he may lose his legs. This happens because mom isn't there when dad abandons his son to go have sex with the other woman. They boy mysteriously wakes up suddenly, opens a window and goes outside in the cold in just his underwear. Strangely when mom returns he's back in his bed and seems cured of his ailment, he even says he's hungry. But mom and dad are barely out of his room before he screams in pain. Suddenly showing some concern dad grabs the boy and presumably carries him to the car because the next scene is at the hospital wear a woman in medical carb chastises them for letting a child get such severe forst bite. And when mon yells at her husband "what the hell did you do? where were you?" His reply "Not now".
It goes down hill from there. The biologist played by Christopher Eccleston is found brutally murdered. And the man who found him is arrested by the sheriff who just magically appeared in the room even though it was clearly obvious the other man couldn't have done it since he had no blood on him, which is impossible if he gutted the dead man. Oh it was painfully obvious that the biologist was going to killed and that he was actually dead before they switched to the bad parenting and adultery. The strange noise he heard before he's next seen as a corpse was clearly his killer showing up.
From what I"ve read its apparently going to turn out that ancient bugs which were accidently thawed out from their long frozen slumber have mind control abilities and turn people into vicious killers. So glad I didn't stick around for that revelation.
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