Hinterland: Y Gwyll (Season 1 Review)

Crimes always leave a trail. If not in evidences, in other sources such as suspects. In motives that might have been built up for decades.

Hinterland is a noir crime drama series set against the beautiful lands of rural Wales. It centers on DCI Tom Mathias (played by Richard Harrington), an intuitive and experienced crime solver who moved from London to lead the local crime investigation team. (He seems to have past issues. Yet to be revealed).

He is assisted by DI Mared Rhys (Mali Harries), a local who is very good in connecting with the populace when gathering information. There are also young DC Lloyd Ellis (Alex Harries) and DS Sian Owen (Hannah Daniel) who help with tracing suspects and evidences. I like to think that this little team learnt to work together better over the course of the first season. We can see the young investigators stepping up by the last episode. 

One episode runs about an hour and a half. The first season is packed into a manageable four-episode consumption. Each episode presents a unique crime to be solved. The first episode starts with a potential murder but the victim, an old lady, missing from location  

I like to watch how Mathias handles these cases and observe how the mysteries unfold. He is always interested to get to the bottom of a case, all while suspects might be withholding important information because of fear or ignorance. There's always something in a trail. An affair, a promise - a kept secret. Every suspect seems guilty during investigation, it's difficult to guess who's the real perpetrator until the end of an episode.

The last episode was when things started to get weird. A girl found dead in a kneeling position in the middle of a marsh. This is when I think Mathias' past started to catch up with him. It will be interesting to know what comes next.

Recommended if you're into crime investigations. Or drama. Or just the beautiful sceneries of Wales.