Review: Hinterland Season 2

Richard Harrington in Hinterland

Much of what I said about Hinterland in my review of season 1 remains true of season 2. Except in season 2, I desperately wanted to grab DCI Tom Mathias (Richard Harrington) by the collar and give him a good shake while shouting, “Get over your damn self!” in his face.

Obviously, I couldn’t shake sense into the man from where I was sitting, so I just had to watch and hope for his eventual enlightenment.

Season 2 includes one episode classified as a New Year’s Special. In that episode we see Tom Mathias leave his man cave and go back to work in the Aberystwyth, Wales police department. He returns in the middle of an arson case, which he takes command of from DI Mared Rhys (Mali Harries) who was already running the case quite well, thank you.

There are 4 additional episodes in season 2. As in season 1, each is a full 90 minutes, which leaves plenty of time for interesting crimes, interesting characters and suspects, and interesting interactions among all those characters. There’s also plenty of time to drive all over western Wales, from the ocean front to the mountain tops.

Mali Harries and Richard Harrington in Hinterland
Mali Harries as DI Rhys and Richard Harrington as DCI Mathias in Hinterland

Mathias and Rhys do most of the investigating in the field, while DC Lloyd Ellis (Alex Harries) and DS Sian Owens (Hannah Daniel) stay in the station. There are always exceptions to this, but that’s the general way they work. The exceptions are important, however.

We get to know the characters a little better in season 2. We learn some of Mathias’s story. He tells a woman he is trying to stop from jumping off a cliff about how he feels responsible for his daughter’s death. This was news to Rhys, who listened nearby.

Mathias’s wife Meg (Anamaria Marinca) comes up from London and tells him she’s taking their surviving daughter and going to Canada. She wants a divorce. He could have asked her to stay, asked her to move to Aberystwyth with him, but he doesn’t. She probably would have said yes. They clearly care about each other, but Mathias isn’t finished punishing himself – he terms his behavior “killing himself.” He’s 100% dedicated to being a tragic figure even though he has another child he’s ignoring and a wife who loves him.

I’m struck by the fact that amidst all his tragic frowning, Tom Mathias always has time to maintain a perfect haircut and a carefully trimmed beard.

Great hair aside, Mathias’s guilt leads him to make all sorts of emotional and unprofessional decisions on the job. The crimes he investigate push his buttons – lost children and absent fathers being dominant themes.

Mali Harries in Hinterland
Mared Rhys has some hidden feelings for Mathis, methinks.

Rhys defends Mathias, sticks her neck out for him time and again with the higher ups. But in private, she berates him for his unprofessional behavior. He lashes back and makes her cry. Rhys keeps her emotions in check while on the job; this is a revealing moment for her character. She’s the single mother of a teenager – anyone who’s been through that knows how stressful it is. Mathias strikes right in that festering wound. Sigh. (He does apologize later.)

There’s a mysterious undercurrent throughout season 2 as we wonder exactly what criminal act Chief Supt. Brian Prosser (Aneirin Hughes) is covering up. One of the cases reappears in numerous ways as an arc running through season 2 – Prosser’s secret has something to do with that.

One thing I consider an improvement over season 1 is that there is slightly more dialog between Mathias and his team. Of course, we’re talking Hinterland, so 3 sentences can amount to a significant dialog.

I didn’t remark on this regarding season 1, but the practice continued in season 2, so it’s earned a comment. The police in Wales do not carry guns. When a suspect runs, the cops can’t make them stop in their tracks by shoving a gun in their face. The bad guys must be chased down on foot. Richard Harrington has almost more scenes running full out after some fleeing suspect than he does scenes where he speaks. Okay – I’m exaggerating, but he does chase down and tackle a lot of people. There isn’t a criminal in Wales who can outrun Tom Mathias.

Season 2 ends with a blazing, head-banger of cliffhanger. We may be treated to another series of this noir thriller from Wales, based on the cliffhanger. I hope so.

There is very little music in the series. The cinematography is brilliant. Unusually framed shots characterize the photography. It’s moody and mysterious and dark. Several cinematographers worked on the series. I don’t know which episodes I’d like to single out as particularly interestingly or beautifully shot, so I’ll just give credit to all of them for a job well done.

The directors were all men, but some of the writers were women.

Watch the Trailer for the Hinterland Special

It’s hard to find trailers for season 2 in English. Here’s one for the New Years special.

The blog post by Mali Harries promoted in the trailer had a couple of quotable remarks.

I improvised the line “Why is it women do the work, men get promoted?” during a tonal meeting. I think often women crack on with the job, and aren’t always given the praise, or the pay they deserve. Mared, like myself, is a straight talker.

And,

The sparse dialogue in Hinterland definitely gives us more freedom to play as actors. I think that silence is a wonderful thing, it means that the atmosphere is driven by people’s innermost thoughts and not just the plot.

32 thoughts on “Review: Hinterland Season 2”

  1. Best show on television. So intense where every look means something. No trifling drivel here. Solid characters with real lives – difficult, flawed & painful but it makes for worthwhile watching. Best acting, deep stories with unexpected endings. Perhaps not for the feint of heart but excellent, smart, thoughtful television.

    1. Dorothy Lecky, P.E.I. Canada

      Couldn’t wait for it to come on Netflix in Canada. Excellent, excellent show all around. Just starting episode 4 and am hoping that season three gets picked up.

  2. Pingback: Review: Hinterland season 1 - Old Ain't Dead

  3. Well as I’ve seen them filming and know someone who’s in Series 3, I should jolly well hope there’s are 3rd series!

  4. christopher swaby

    what a wonderful show. character driven, which seems unusual for male led shows. i cant binge this one was it really requires full attention, so i am still not through season 2. i am excited that there will be a season 3.

    1. It isn’t a show you can binge, in my opinion. You have to sit with each episode for at least a day before watching another one. Not like Wynonna Earp that I just raced through in one weekend.

      1. Thank you Virginia for your “real” and entertaining commentary on Hinterland. I must admit, I had to laugh about the hair and beard comment, as due to C-19, I’ve not had a haircut since January 2020 – and look like I’ve been “through the wars” as I’ve heard Vera Stanhope comment 🙂
        Late to the party, but I am re-watching the show via Netflix (USA in California). Originally, I watched it on AcornTV, I believe, so was happy to see it available to me again, since I don’t have cable. I somehow missed the first season – don’t know how, but may have been timing due to loss of husband in late 2012 (brain cancer). I too have to take a day, or so, to fully digest these episodes. I have only the 3rd season left to view, so hanging on to that as a special treat. Its funny, I hadn’t thought about the show for a while, and then some Richard Harrington playing a scummy professor in the current season of Endeavour (I watch it on PBS), and thought… that’s the actor from Hinterland. And so we have it!

  5. Just starting season 2 (Canada)…. agree with you insightful comments. In contrast, check out Brokenridge from New Zealand, main character talk a lot, is pleasant to staff and the music is great. Looking forward to the rest of season 2 and hoping for a season 3.

  6. I’m very very fond of Mathias even though sometimes I think he does need a good shaking, because of this kind of self-proclaimed self-punishment he is trying to inflict upon himself.

  7. Teresa O'Halloran, Ireland

    I love Hinterland. And dare I say that i’m falling in love with Tom Mathias. Plus I binge watched both season 1 and season 2. Who new Wales could be so creepy and so Nordic! Thanks for your review.

  8. Can we just admit that Mathias is an absolutely dreadful policeman? All that bumbling around alone in the dark. Falling down. Loudly. And it’s as if his attempts to prevent the perps from suicide are actually calculated to push them. “It ends here”?? “The emptiness of losing a child”?? I’d have dropped the lighter and jumped off the cliff too. How many people will he kill?

    And who brings his wardrobe the be pressed? He’s turned out better than a New York corporate lawyer.

  9. It seems that Mathias must make more money than Rys. I have counted three or maybe four Canada Goose jackets on Mathias. (They cost a pretty penny). Rys has three jackets, two fuschia and one, not one a big name brand. As an aside to the wardrobe people, at one point in season 2 Rys runs up a stair case entering with her spring fuschia jacket. She emerges at the top with the winter parka.

    On a more substantive issue, I think that Prosser is really in the thick of things. I think he is involved in a coverup of the children’s home abuse scandal because he as as guilty as sin. i await season three.

      1. Patricia Murphy-Hupp

        We are really enjoying this series on Netflix but I do have a problem. It seems like they don’t “wrap up” the stories. In Season 2 Episode…who was the father of the baby that Mathias dug up and how did the child get abducted from the beach and given to the lady that had died and body kept by Daniel? I sometimes feel that the stories don’t make sense…but we’ll keep on watching.

      2. Just watched that episode this weekend. No answer provided to either question. (Of course, neither the long-dead infant nor the long-ago child kidnapping were part of the case Mathias and team were assigned.) If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the overprotective gamekeeper as the mystery father. Why else did he try so hard to keep his daughter away from the boy he might have thought was his son?

      3. Same questions as others have had about Season 2, Episode 3. What is the story about the child buried in the garden, how did Daniel disappear from the beach, and why did the angry gamekeeper man hate him so much?

  10. Very good review!! Good show!!
    True, however that Mathias keeps falling down and wardrobe details need to be tightened up.
    I was also wondering who was the father of the deceased baby and how did the kidnapped boy become Daniel….

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