Are you looking for snow? If it's no longer on our doorstep, sometimes it takes a little change of scenery to find it. Some Quebec series have incorporated winter into their plots, allowing us to enjoy it despite the additional challenges of filming. The Nordic countries tour all year round and it shows. Snow is a part of us and yet we rarely exploit it on the small screen. She often comes as a witness to a difficult, mysterious situation.
Harvest in winter
Photo provided by Picbois Productions
Did you know that some vegetables like the cold? This documentary by Amélie Dussault follows farmer and entrepreneur Jean-Martin Fortier and vegetable gardeners who took on the challenge of growing vegetables in greenhouses all winter without heating. Pioneers who risk changing the way we eat and consume in Quebec. The result is impressive. The green of the vegetables contrasts beautifully with the white of the snow.
► Available on telequebec.tv or on VOD
True Detective: Night Country
Photo provided by HBO
One of the most talked about shows right now is season 4 of True Detective. Know that each season is independent and deals with different investigators, different locations and different storylines. We are here in Alaska, in a small fictional town, Ennis, where eight men from a research station mysteriously disappear. Detectives Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) team up. Two strong minds in the hostile climate of the polar night.
► Available on Crave, with a new episode released every Sunday
Snow Piercer
Photo provided by Netflix
This post-apocalyptic series starring Jennifer Connelly is in its third season. It is an adaptation of the French comic strip “Le Transperceneige”. Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”) brought it to the big screen. We are 7 years after the world became a completely frozen surface. Survivors fled on a train. Thanks to engineers, it constantly travels around the world. People are divided according to their social class, creating a gap between the rich, who are treated with great care, and the poorest, who start a revolution.
► Available on Netflix
Blizzard Expedition
Photo provided by Evasion
In this icy reality show, eight adventurous contestants embark on a journey of survival at the center of the most dangerous polar cycle outside the Arctic. Given the extreme winter conditions, they have to cope with fatigue, hunger and cold.
► Monday 6 p.m. on Évasion
Ice Conqueror
Photo provided by Corus
This documentary series follows three teams of ice canoe enthusiasts. This extreme sport requires participants to walk on frozen ice floes and navigate an icy river. You can't be afraid of the cold and, above all, you have to maintain a team spirit where every member counts. The severity of the exertions and the self-transcendence make it an extraordinary winter spectacle.
► Thursday 11:30 p.m. in Historia
Ice Vikings: Extreme Fishing
Photo provided by Evasion
700 modern Vikings meet at Lake Winnipeg to fish. This commercial and wild fishing is dangerous. But the lure of profit motivates them to brave the cold and ice. Because the more fish are caught, the more money. It is a discipline that requires great mental and physical strength.
► Tuesday 9 p.m. on Évasion
Black sequence
Photo provided by Radio-Canada
François Létourneau and Jean-François Rivard take us into the adventures of two screenwriters (Létourneau and Vincent-Guillaume Otis) who are on the verge of burnout and are forced to write the sequel to a mediocre detective series with surprising success in order to meet real protagonists. Because in order to write their actions, they have to live them. Our writers will therefore find themselves in a happy mess. A delicious black comedy filmed in the harshness of winter.
► Available on HERE Tou.tv
cardinal
Photo provided by Bell Media
The seasons play an important role in this detective series based on the novels by Giles Blunt. The first season takes us to the harsh winter of a small fictional town in northern Ontario. Karine Vanasse and Billy Campbell play an investigator duo on the trail of a serial killer who primarily attacks children. Podz directs the thriller and shows us the extent of winter through aerial shots in pristine white. The snow also reinforces the restless nature of the series and the duality in which the characters develop.
► Available on Crave
After
Photo provided by Eric Myre
Karine Vanasse also shot the very touching drama Après in winter. It documents the everyday life of the residents of a small community in the Laurentians, where everyone knows everyone, after a terrible event that leaves no one indifferent. Winter heightens the general oppression as everyone wonders if they could have prevented the blow and acted differently. The snow makes the tragedy worse and further isolates the population.
► Available on HERE Tou.tv
The error
Photo provided by Eric Myre
The first season of this thriller is set in the North Coast mining community of Fermont, a town built within an impressive wall to shield it from the wind. Winter is harsh there. We feel it well. When a body is discovered in a ventilation duct in the wall, a detective is sent to the crime scene to investigate. A polar thriller. The second season continued in the same way, but this time in Old Quebec, where the ice of the St. Lawrence River breaks. A corpse appears. With the Château Frontenac as a backdrop, Quebec looks like a Nordic thriller under the snow. With Isabel Richer and Alexandre Landry.
► Available at Club Illico
Nordic
Photo provided by TV5
This series (filmed in 2018) offers an immersion in countries where snow and ice are a way of life. Mylène St-Sauveur travels from Siberia to Japan, from Yellowknife to Argentina, via Lapland, Turkey and Mongolia to meet people whose existence is shaped by the presence of cold. Fascinating human stories in mountainous areas.
► Friday 9 a.m. on TV5
Caught
Photo provided by Netflix
An Icelandic thriller set in the middle of a storm. After a Danish ferry arrives, a mutilated body is found in a village harbor. An investigation is launched, but reinforcements are slow to arrive as the blizzard increasingly isolates the population. Both the locals and the boat passengers become suspicious. But cut off from the rest of the world, they also become the murderer's prey. Note that season 3 is called “Entrapped.”
► Available on Netflix
The Valhalla Murders
Photo provided by Netflix
This other Icelandic series focuses on winter, a common trend in “Nordic thrillers.” An investigator is tasked with solving a double murder when a body is found in Reykjavik harbor and a second in a burglarized house. Several paths lead to a reformatory in Walhalla.
► Available on Netflix
To the lake
Photo provided by Netflix
The Russian series “To the Lake” about the predicted end of the world is set in snowy and practically deserted Moscow. A virulent virus is decimating the city. A group tries to survive without money, without electricity, without much food or gasoline. A series in which the mystery takes center stage.
► Available on Netflix