Low Winter Sun

Has anybody watched this?  The season finale was last night (on AMC).  It might have been the series finale, for that matter.  The show’s ratings were in the basement, and the reviews weren’t much better.

(Here are some links.)

Low Winter Sun is/was extremely dark, intense, brutal, and without a single likeable character.  I found it mesmerizing, hypnotic; apparently the viewing public didn’t.  Either that, or the program got smothered by Breaking Bad, combined with the remake of the sequel of the discussion of the behind-the-scenes activities that led to the interview with the Assistant Key Grip in the sequel to Breaking Bad XXXVIII…

Anyway, Low Winter Sun deals with the corruption of the Detroit Police Department.  Dirty cops, dirty supervisors who pretend not to notice all the police brutality, framings and whitewashes going on right under their noses, a gung ho Internal Affairs officer, informants, rival gangs — it’s got all the ingredients.

The consensus among the reviews — the few that I looked at — was that there was not enough character development, nobody was likeable or sympathetic in any way, and there were too many characters and too many subplots.  No argument there; it took me forever to figure out some of the subplots and how they related to the main story (sometimes they didn’t), who was who and who did what to who.

Low Winter Sun has the most kickass theme song I’ve heard in a long time.  It sounds like a bluesier earthier version of Tina Turner at her best.  It’s sung by Bettye LaVette, whom I hadn’t heard of before.  The entire soundtrack is excellent — mostly jazz and R&B.  For last night’s finale, the soundtrack took on a more punk/rock/metal sound.

It’s hard to tell if Low Winter Sun will be back for a second season or not.  The season finale laid the groundwork for a possible second season, but there was no cliffhanger.  The cable channels don’t seem to be as ratings-obsessed as the networks, so maybe the low ratings won’t prevent Low Winter Sun from coming back.

Then again, last night’s 2-hour finale was actually the final two episodes shown back to back, so maybe AMC was anxious to get this program off the air and make way for their next series — another Zombie program.  [yawn]