Something has to put a group of characters in a claustrophobic and extreme situation that keeps us as spectators in a tension almost comparable to that experienced by the protagonists. It is enough to enter the interior of a submarine on the high seas, or a ship lost somewhere in the arctic, and you already have a good base with which to hook.
Also putting these characters in extreme situations like these is an opportunity to explore humanity in its most primal aspects. The survival instinct, the total lack of respect for the rules of coexistence and solidarity, the proliferation of the most animal impulses. We can find all this in series like ‘the cold blood‘, one of the most powerful miniseries in recent years.
In the darkest and coldest of humanity
Almost like an unofficial continuation of ‘The Terror’ -and practically a better successor than the second season of ‘The Terror’-, the miniseries of Andrew Haighbased on a novel by Ian McGuiretakes us aboard a whaling expedition through the Arctic in the year 1859. And yes, you will have already been able to deduce that the boat ends up running aground where Christ lost the hat and froze to death.
Inside the ship, an English crew with profiles of all kinds. From a disgraced former surgeon (Jack O’Connell) who accepts the job of doctor out of sheer desperation to a harpooner (Colin Farrell) with a very murky past and dangerous tendencies that are close to criminal psychopathy, and of course they will soon be a problem. With those main actors, you already have a timeless classic humanist duel.
The series is loaded to the bars with a deep nihilism, which vitiates each of the six episodes that make it up. Good values are continuously challenged, and faith in humanity is continuously crushed against the icy ground in which they are forced to survive. Still, Andrew Haigh wonderfully manages to make all of this an experience that is as intense as it is entertaining to follow.
‘The frozen blood’: nihilism and survival
It does not pull great artifices, and the great points of conflict are duly measured and distributed in its different chapters. But if It has a great narration, which gives value to each episode and the interactions between really complex and dark characters. Haigh pull the right elements of survival cinemabut he is really interested in the human reflections that he extracts from these characters and their situation.
A) Yes, his psychological exploration is fascinating without losing interest in the thriller component, and without turning the characters into archetypes that are too basic. ‘The frozen blood’ is an unexpected jewel that flirts with the abyss that we all have insideand get one of the best series of 2021 on the way. And you can see it on Movistar +.