Hinterland

Well the first series of Hinterland has finished - on a bit of a cliff-hanger it must be said, with the last programme raising all sorts of issues that didn't get sorted, so hopefully DI Matthias and his team will be back very soon.
I've blogged about this series before when I watched the Welsh-only version Y Gwyll via S4C clic last Autumn and wondered if it would feel any different watching the (mainly) English version.

Set in and around Aberystwyth, it's as dark and brooding as any Nordic Noir lover could wish for; the mountains and windswept marshes provide the perfect setting. I'd caught glimpses of the brooding landscapes before but had always been distracted by having to follow the subtitles. This time I could appreciate the photography and direction more but somehow it lost that special Welsh feel to it.
I was a bit surprised that the 2 hour-long programmes were reduced to 90 minutes, but perhaps this was only down to losing the advert breaks and second set of titles and credits; I didn't feel anything was missing from how I remember the plots panning out.
As I said, the whole series built up to a cliffhanger, plus there are personal issues surrounding Matthias that haven't been explored yet, so I'm hoping it will be back on our screens soon, whichever language it's in.