Skip to content
Episode 2 begins with Hildur giving her long-awaited speech to promote her new hotel – and Fortitude in general, to an expectant crowd – but she cites that fact that Fortitude is “the safest place on Earth” and then finds out that Stoddart’s been offed… so anyone expecting Eccleston to hang about for a whole series, as he just about managed in Doctor Who, sees that he can barely make one episode!
Meanwhile, Henry, who’s dying of liver cancer and should really be in a hospital, thinks it’s a good idea to start a fire in a bar and gets chucked out, but what were the contents of the mysterious letter he was trying to burn? Someone who is undergoing treatment is Liam, and it’s an experimental procedure where he’s placed inside a hyperbaric chamber, but in Dr Allerdyce’s (the never-endingly insanely hot Phoebe Nicholls) research centre, there are risks.
Dan concludes Stoddart can’t have been murdered by a bear. Or maybe it was a clever bear? You know, one that’s smarter than the average bear because he swiped my picnic basket! And more to the point, Allerdyce works out that he’s still alive! EEK! However, assuming the man is dead, Henry makes a call to drop Hildur’s sheriff in it by claiming that he murdered both Charlie and Billy Pettigrew… Oh, but then it works out okay because Charlie dies on the operating table.. so that part’s accidentally truthful.
Jules stumbles across the bad side of a research centre, which is that they also do research into how science can affect non-humans… yes, they perform animal experiments, and it’s not a pretty sight to see a pig outstretched in its own tube, attached to a zillion monitor wires like her own son.
Cop Ingrid (Mia Jexen) breaks into scientist Natalie Yelburton’s (Sienna Guillory) house, who’s seemingly done a runner and the cops need a scapegoat. Naturally, the failed lighting and blood on the floor leads her to believe some bad shit is going down. There’s an eerie hum from the chest freezer… is Natalie dead and in there? No, in fact, she’s not even home. Where can she be? Can she really be responsible for Charlie’s murder?
Someone who’s present, but in the doghouse is Vincent, and a lack of crime in Fortitude, to date, means a lack of lawyers, and while that would normally be a good thing, Vincent needs one. And speaking, instead, with cop Dan and governor Hildur doesn’t exactly constitute a fair jury.
Then, enter Stanley Tucci as DCI Eugene Morton, who comes over by plane making inconsequential chit-chat with Stoddart’s wife, Trish (Chipo Chung), about Lutefiske – a type of fish which used to be cooked in old lady’s urine before society saw sense and now ferments it in ammonia – not that he realises who he’s talking to at first, since, in the airport they collect their bags and he notices as she rips off the flight tag from her baggage and sticks it in the bin. Morton then goes over to it, picks it out of the recepticle, sees that the woman is Charlie’s widow and then casts a look in her direction, with a slightly sorrowful visage that says, “Did I forget to switch the oven off before I left the house?”
Once out of there and talking to the cops, he then reels off a long list of words, that indicates he’s there to investigate the murder on behalf the authorities from the mainland, yet why use five words when – what feels like – 100 will do. Who does he think he is – the new Russell Brand?
We learn that wind chimes out in Fortitude signify the same thing that pampas grass in the garden signifies back home – swingers live there! And Charlie had wind chimes on his house. Wow, amazing! Morton later gets to interview Trish and tells her that her husband was alive for an hour before they realised he was still alive and she, naturally, breaks down in tears.
With the domestic between Frank and Jules causing her to kick him out, he heads for the local motel, but the only room left… is Elena’s. This is turning into a bad soap opera!
At the end of the second episode, Morton deduces Charlie was killed as part of a ritualistic murder rather than a bear (clever or otherwise), and Jason has stayed in Fortitude, while Ronnie has left on the first bus out of Dodge, and panics at the first sign of a cop car.
It’s too early to say whether this will all make for a good series. I want to say yes as it has the ‘Nordic Noir’ twinge to it, but I take each TV series on its merits, and it was good to have two episodes back to back to set the scene. After that, it’s on weekly. However good or bad it gets, there’s plenty of stunning scenery which looks amazing watching in full HD on a 50″ TV.
It was welcome to see Stanley Tucci, but then again he’s just his same, self-satisfied and slightly sarcastic self in which he always behaves.
With the producers wanting to pile on the ‘Nordic Noir’ feeling, they make every other scene last about three hours, and the cast all look at each other in disdain while they moan… but that doesn’t make it the new Borgen or The Bridge. In fact, it feels rather like a dull soap opera at times, and like they’re dumbing it down and aiming for the market who wants to watch a Nordic thriller but without bothering with subtitles.
Fortitude is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, and the next episode is on Sky Atlantic on Thursday at 9pm.
Overall Score: 5/10
Director: Sam Miller
Producer: Matthew Bird
Screenplay: Simon Donald
Cast:
Dan Anderssen: Richard Dormer
DCI Morton: Stanley Tucci
Henry Tyson: Michael Gambon
Governor Hildur Odegard: Sofie Gråbøl
Professor Stoddart: Christopher Eccleston
Frank Sutter: Nicholas Pinnock
Jules Sutter: Jessica Raine
Elena Ledesma: Verónica Echegui
Jason Donnelly: Aaron McCusker
Ronnie Morgan: Johnny Harris
Natalie Yelburton: Sienna Guillory
Vincent Rattrey: Luke Treadaway
Doctor Allerdyce: Phoebe Nicholls
Markus Huseklepp: Darren Boyd
Eric Odegard: Björn Hlynur Haraldsson
Liam Sutter: Darwin Brokenbro
PC Ingrid: Mia Jexen
Carrie Morgan: Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips
Trish Stoddart: Chipo Chung
Shirley Allerdyce: Jessica Gunning
Petra: Alexandra Moen
Billy Pettigrew: Tam Dean Burn
Odegaard’s PA: Gudmundur Thorvaldsson
Hanna Donnelly: Lara Decaro
Ronnie’s Ex-Wife: Maya Barcot
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.