A star-studded TV series bound for cult classic status, with plenty of WTF moments, is Arctic thriller Fortitude – streaming on NEON. Adam Fresco pops on his snowboots and braves its bonkers world.
The word ‘fortitude’ refers to mental and emotional strength in facing adversity. Well, as a viewer be prepared to exercise maximum courage in watching a show that will test the strength of your suspension of disbelief to the max, and have you open-mouthed in drop-jawed awe at the bizarre directions in which its twisting (and downright twisted) narrative snakes.
Full of WTF moments, Fortitude has everything needed to make it a must-watch cult classic. It’s weird, wild, and highly rewatchable, featuring big stars and recognisable TV faces, a demented plot, crazed characters, and a narrative that is well-nigh impossible to second guess.
As an ardent film and television viewer one of the things I most cherish is surprise. Is it possible, after years of watching fictional shows, to genuinely be in the position of not knowing what’s going to happen next? Think about it. It’s such a rare occurrence. When it happens you want to shout about it from the rooftops, or at least tell your mates over a pint.
People remember where they were when JFK was assassinated, when Princess Diana died, 9/11—but the kind of tellyheads I hang out with also know where they were when Game of Thrones hit us with the Red Wedding episode. Or, how after years of watching Lost, waiting for all the disparate and head-scratching mysteries to coalesce, all we got was an ending about as satisfying as being told at the end of a particularly lengthy Agatha Christie murder mystery that the victim died a natural death. In other words, it’s not just surprise I’m seeking, but something that makes sense within the (admittedly often nonsensical) fictional world of the show.
So what is Fortitude? Somehow it manages to pull off a combination of John Carpenter horror The Thing, Scandinavian detective noir TV series The Bridge, and Black Mirror. It starts off like a melodrama, set in a snowy town full of clichéd characters—from an ambitious Mayor to a grizzled “I’m too old for this shit” cop. But before you can say: “Northern Exposure meets The X-Files”, it quickly diverts from anything remotely predictable, throwing in everything from sex-craved swingers and possibly mad scientists, to an angry polar bear, and even a woolly mammoth.
Created by Simon Donald (a writer on Scandi noir Wallander and submarine mini-series The Deep), the series is set in the fictional Arctic settlement of Fortitude, but was actually shot (beautifully) in Iceland. That the show’s producers, Sky Atlantic, spent big is made clear right from the opening, as Michael Gambon (yes, Dumbledore from the Harry Potter movies) hunts a polar bear in a frozen landscape. Gambon’s not the only recognisable face. There’s Sofie Gråbøl (star of Scandi noir series The Killing), former Doctor Who and The Leftovers star Christopher Eccleston, American character acting stalwart Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games and The Devil Wears Prada), and grizzled Irish actor Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones).
Journeying too deep into the plot would be to risk spoilers—suffice it to say, the cold wee town of Fortitude is a mining community that’s so remote it may as well be a colony on Mars. The townsfolk pass the long, dull, winter nights by drinking copiously at the saloon—chatting, arguing, fighting, and indulging in illicit sexual encounters. Anything to pass the time and keep out the cold. But what starts as a seemingly straightforward drama of characters thrown together in a bleak, frozen landscape, forced to form a community of sorts, slowly evolves into the sort of sci-fi, horror-hybrid, crime drama mystery that The X-Files used to do so well on occasion.
The show throws in local politics, dodgy politicians, plans to build a luxury ice hotel, and a mysterious, secretive research station, where the scientists are doing weird stuff with pigs. Yup, beneath the surface of the, at first glance, seemingly dull town of Fortitude, everyone hides a dark secret, and nobody is quite what they first appear to be.
The array of characters and their myriad accents represent an international community. Tucci plays a London police detective, flown in from the UK to assist Richard Dormer’s local sheriff in investigating a violent murder. Gråbøl plays the town’s governor, a politically savvy character, who may or may not be corrupt. Eccleston is a British scientist, leading research by the arctic biology department, and possibly involved in nefarious activities of a Frankenstein-y nature, whilst Gambon’s National Geographic-style wildlife photographer has a morbid secrets of his own.
None of this does the show justice, because to say too much more would be to ruin the sheer delight of being surprised by a show that’s brazenly unpredictable and unbelievably fun. If, like me, the crazy turns of wildly plotted movies like The Perfection had you giggling with glee at the delicious, horrific, inventive, and downright demented narrative twists, then Fortitude will likely be your bizarrely-flavoured cup of tea. For those faint of heart and stomach, be warned, there is some pretty gory and quite frankly bizarre body horror along the way, and anybody squeamish might not appreciate the dark humour often lurking beneath the surface.
Is the show purposefully funny, over the top, or too surreal for its own good? That’s for the viewer to judge. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s certainly not one of those “so bad it’s good” shows. Fortitude is too well made for that. From top-notch actors giving their all, to stunning location cinematography, and some pretty effective special effects, Fortitude seems to know what it is, even if at times you might not. Breathtakingly bizarre, often hilarious, and always entertaining, it’s a certified cult-status Arctic blast.
It’s hard to top the likes of a scene in which Fortitude’s long-suffering Sheriff Dan Anderson, asks, with a straight face: “What kind of ritualistic murder involves a potato peeler?” The answer lies only in Fortitude, but the question is anyone’s guess…
