User Reviews

I was really enjoying these two episodes, perhaps more so than the previous pair, until the very end which killed the mood. A real shame. In White Out, there was good bit time was devoted to necessary exposition. And the cast was a bit bigger. So The Cruelest Month was more streamlined and they could just focus on the two mysteries. As an aside, I still have no idea why this was called the cruelest month because that is April and this seemed to take place in September, maybe October.

I feel like I need to watch both stories again because I was a little confused if the abandoned building that had been the old residential school here, was also CeCe's house in White Out, which was also an old residential school. I thought CeCe's home was more in the town and this building was out in the woods and seems to have been abandoned for years. I feel like that info could have been made clearer.

By super strange coincidence, I had just rewatched an episode of Republic of Doyle the previous night which featured the actor who played Hayden. Spoiler - he was a criminal in that show as well. So the moment I saw him I said "well he's a con-man" (his role there). As the show went along and things didn't look good for Hayden, it made me smile more than anything. I didn't have a suspect after the first half myself, but as the second went along, I don't know if too many viewers will be too surprised when he is revealed.

I felt more emotionally connected to the side stories, especially when Bea's brother is found and they have the ceremony, which brought tears to my eyes. I'm also glad they toned Ruth down a bit this time and made her much more sympathetic, especially when the chick was buried. As for the investigation into Blue, I don't know if the police can be trusted with the evidence from the house, unfortunately.

But then I felt the ending with the bear was very poorly done. As another reviewer stated, there are no brown bears in Quebec. If they had made it a black bear, the ending would not have been so completely mental. I know they were likely continuing the magical realism used in White Out, so maybe you can fan-wank that is the reason it's a brown bear out of nowhere.

It was completely insane to force Hayden and Sophie to get out of the car with the bear standing there. If I was in the car, I would tell the police to just shoot me rather than get out and risk getting eaten. Those things are crazy fast and fearless. It's a long story but I was in a car in Alberta when we came very close to a mama bear and her 3 cubs and, man, it was fast and scary. Maybe if the director had included more of a look of communication between Gamache and the bear so we would know this was magic and they were safe?

I suppose we are the think this magical bear was connected to the Native people so it was stopping Hayden's escape? This to me hints that the filmmakers consider the First Nation people to be exotic and magical, which was a trope used by white Hollywood in decades past relating to many POC and is now considered really bad taste. The whole scene was unnecessary and poorly done. Because it was right at the end, the mood was impossible to be repaired. I will still keep watching the show, but now it is 0-2 for strange writing choices and I'm getting worried. Is there magical realism in the books?

I'm really enjoying this series and rate the first three episodes in the strong 7-8 range. Which is why I still can't believe what I just watched in episode four...a chase scene abruptly ended by a big fat grizzly bear just standing in the road! Good grief! The bear was so fat it was almost comical, and yet characters, safely ensconced in their car, were cringing in fear! By that point I was laughing, but at the same time I was incredulous at the ridiculousness of the scene, especially following the truly good quality of the show up to that point. I could go on, there are more incredulous moments in the bear scene, but you get the idea. The scene came off as totally contrived and was not up to the standard of quality of the show. This episode was a solid eight before the bear, but the bear scene dropped it to a three for me because it was that bad.