Somewhere between Tony Shalhoub Monk and the Coen Brothers’ Fargo (1996) is the new series streaming on Prime Video, Three Pines. Based on Louise Penny’s best-selling novel, fatal grace, the stories take place in the small town outside of Montreal, Quebec. The series features veterans of the big screen, Alfred Molina (Spider-Man: No Coming Home, Frida) as veteran detective Inspector Armand Gamache. Boasting the ability to see what others cannot see, Gamache has a knack for solving crimes that seem unsolvable. Molina’s turn as a no-nonsense poetry quote inspector is wonderful, as are most of the British-born American’s roles in a career spanning more than four decades, but that’s not what makes the memorable series.
It is the salt of the earth of the inhabitants of the small village of Trois Pins that makes the show unique. From the young assistant gung ho, agent Yvette Nichol (Sarah Booth), who isn’t afraid to show her admiration for Gamache, to an eccentric elderly woman named Ruth Zardo (Claire Coulter) who never parted with her pet duck, to Bea Mayer, owner of a respected but mysterious spiritual yoga center/indigenous art gallery (Cardinal Tantou), the eccentricities of the villagers juxtaposed with the laser-focused Gamache not only provide a little comic relief, but also provide some much-needed context to the sometimes macabre and melancholy subject matter surrounding four separate murders.
Establishing the Native Roots of Three Pines
Three Pines does an admirable job of creating a series of intelligent and complex mysteries while staying true to the culture of the indigenous peoples originating from the region of southern Quebec a few miles upstate New York just across the way from the border Tracey Cerf, a Mohawk filmmaker, was tapped to direct two of the episodes while serving as a consultant for the show which features a mix of transplants and indigenous people from the area. The character of Cardinal is terribly mercurial and one of many indigenous peoples depicted in the series. Gamache’s detective team also includes Isabelle Lacoste who is represented by Elle-Maija Tail Feathera a member of the Blood Tribe, Blackfoot Confederacy of the Kainai Nation. Tantu (dance with wolves, Fall Legends) has Cree and Métis heritage and is a Member of the Order of Canada, “for his contributions to the growth of the Aboriginal performing arts…and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theater Company. The show also has a common thread that weaves through the four two-episode tales that feature the disappearance of a young local Native woman named Blue Two-Rivers (Amber Lambe). She appears intermittently in Gamache’s nightmares as her inability to make up her mind about her disappearance haunts him throughout the show’s eight episodes. The cultural establishment of the people and country of Three Pines provides an authentic backdrop for the eccentric characters and bizarre murder mysteries.
The duck lady
There’s a litany of eccentric characters who inhabit Three Pines, but the most eccentric of them all is Canadian stage and film actress Clare Coulter (When the night falls, american gothic) and her turn as Ruth Zardo, better known as “the duck lady”. With her frizzy gray hair sticking out under a peach-colored bob, she walks around town with her pet duck and isn’t afraid to speak her mind to Inspector Gamache when it comes to possible suspects.
The eccentric poet has an unusual relationship with her pet duck, going so far as to bathe with him. When her precious feathered friend hatches an egg, Ruth provides the egg with a safe incubation area inside her own oven. She’s gruff and easily irritated, but there’s a certain sweetness to her soft spot for her quack sidekick, and shows that beneath her tough, hardened exterior lies a caring woman who may seem crazy, but in truth, is just tired of being let down by other humans. So his solution is to eliminate them from the equation and isolate himself alongside his brave but loyal fowl of a friend.
The wide-eyed young deputy
A bit more comedic relief in the otherwise brooding, ominous-toned murder mystery is wide-eyed, eager-to-please young local deputy Yvette Nichol. Desperate to make an impression with her crime-solving hero, Gamache, Nichol is very reminiscent of a character you might encounter in the classic Coen Brothers film. Fargo. She has a very familiar vibe about her that echoes the turn of the great Frances McDormand in the 1996 film. Her enthusiasm is only exceeded by her relative naivety and inexperience as she pulls out all the stops to help Gamache. and his team of detectives.
Although her inexperience can sometimes draw the Inspector’s ire, her brilliant vision is a welcome sidebar for the very serious detectives she works with. His puppy-like exuberance more than makes up for his lack of experience and missteps along the way. Booth, a Canadian actress who has starred in other hit shows like Star Trek: Discovery and SVU Law and Orderis a veteran of the small screen, but after racking up more than 25 TV and film credits over a decade-long career, she may have found a breakthrough role in Three Pines.
Support set lays the foundation
You might be tempted to tune into Three Pines for Alfred Molina’s strong hand as lead, but you’d be wrong to overlook the outstanding cast of supporting players who add both depth and new local flavor to what, at times, can feel like a crime novel. Their authenticity, their eccentricities and their fearlessness melt Three Pines and lift it above the tropish trappings of comparable murder mystery offerings both currently and over the years. If nothing else, salty veteran players like Cardinal’s Mayer, Coulter’s Zardo, and Young’s Nichol provide a formidable, solid foundation from which Molina and his band of hardened detectives can find their way into a series of mysteries that lead them around corners. the darkest. of the small French-Canadian town..