The Series Fans Call 'Perfect Breaking Bad Replacement' is Now on Prime
Ok, maybe Breaking Bad is irreplaceable. But if you liked it, you need to watch this show.
Summary
- Bad timing conspired against it.
- It's gritty, compelling, and a good example of its genre.
- Fans like it more than the critics.
The Golden Age of Modern TV
When it was released in 2013, Low Winter Sun came in for a lot of criticism. It was too moody; too surly; just another conflicted anti-hero.
Fair enough. But 10 years on, it's time to reconsider those comments in the light of what we now know. You see, 2013 not only saw the start of Low Winter Sun, it also saw the end of Breaking Bad, a show widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time.
That's stiff competition for any show. As if that didn't make life hard enough for Low Winter Sun, Boardwalk Empire was well into its stride at the time and only had a year to go before its finale.
And let's not forget that The Sopranos – the show that changed television forever – was still fresh in people's minds. TV audiences were spoiled. To have so much groundbreaking content in less than a decade was phenomenal. Shows like Low Winter Sun were often lost in the glow of this golden age.
What's it All About?
Low Winter Sun is an anti-hero show about two cops who flirt with crime in the name of revenge and taking down the bad guys.
It's a tense crime drama set in Detroit, where homicide detective Frank Agnew is a good guy who does bad things after his girlfriend is brutally murdered. In the same way that audiences were able to empathise with Walt White and forgive Tony Soprano, Low Winter Sun has a way of drawing people into a character that, at first glance, we shouldn't really like.
It's significant that it's based on a British show of the same name, as it uniquely combined the complexity of the aforementioned US shows with the grit of shows like Top Boy. But when it came, all this was glossed over by the fact that it wasn't a groundbreaking programme that took the world by storm.
What it was, was a solid show in a popular genre that has stood the test of time.
What did the critics actually say about it?
Check out Low Winter Sun at Rotten Tomatoes and you'll quickly see that it has divided opinion. Its critics score is just 41%, with comments such as '(it) lacks the lean snap of classic noir' and is is 'too caught up trying to be a Very Serious Television Drama'.
But not all the pros slated it. Among the negative comments were phrases such as 'viewers will be hooked early', 'well-cast and believable' and 'Low Winter Sun soars high'.
Viewers were far more complimentary, and the show has an audience rating of 60%. Of course, the only way to find out for yourself is to give it a go. With just one series of ten episodes, it's one of those shows that, if it grabs you, is easily bingeable and can be finished in a week.
If it doesn't grab you, you're under no obligation to see it through. But I recommend giving it a try. Ignore the negativity surrounding its release – at the time, we just didn't know how lucky we were.
Low Winter Sun is currently available to stream with a subscription on Prime, Vudu and Apple TV, but you'll need a US VPN.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes.