I find most of the Waking the Dead series extremely watchable (with a couple of major exceptions).
However, these two episodes concerning the Cold Case of a young girl's murder in 1945 are just magnificent. The plot / narrative is compelling and believable - not to mention deeply moving.
This is a story that transcends the actual story, reaching deeper and broader than the characters depicted. Alluding as it does to the on-going impact of brutality - how it doesn't just 'stop' after a certain number of years, or even after a certain number of generations. The contemporary link to September 11th via the Mossad agent is not only a meditation on justice / revenge but - even more tellingly (to me at least) a nod towards how not only are individuals in some way brutalised by the crimes committed against individuals (loved ones, parents, grandparents and so on ......) but also on entire contemporary nations. Attempts at Peace in the Middle East (the Mossad link is no accident) is imbued with the memory of World War 2 Genocide.
Also, 'Waking the Dead', like so many crime series of the past ten to fifteen years, utilises science (Grace the profiler and the series of actors playing the forensic scientist) as a form of language that is beyond question. These episodes are reminders of just how heinously wrong science can be. Those flashback scenes of the 'measuring' and demarcation of children through 'science' are made even more chilling and thought provoking through the elderly (contemporary) Abigail's work as a genetic researcher. The doctors / eugenicists in those death camps believed they were serving a higher purpose and were 'right.'
The most powerful explorations of the past, do not separate 'the past' from the present, but rather, encourage us all to look at the present - and question the 'beyond saying' certainties of our time. For a crime television programme to achieve this is remarkable.
Lest we forget ay.
Highly recommended.
However, these two episodes concerning the Cold Case of a young girl's murder in 1945 are just magnificent. The plot / narrative is compelling and believable - not to mention deeply moving.
This is a story that transcends the actual story, reaching deeper and broader than the characters depicted. Alluding as it does to the on-going impact of brutality - how it doesn't just 'stop' after a certain number of years, or even after a certain number of generations. The contemporary link to September 11th via the Mossad agent is not only a meditation on justice / revenge but - even more tellingly (to me at least) a nod towards how not only are individuals in some way brutalised by the crimes committed against individuals (loved ones, parents, grandparents and so on ......) but also on entire contemporary nations. Attempts at Peace in the Middle East (the Mossad link is no accident) is imbued with the memory of World War 2 Genocide.
Also, 'Waking the Dead', like so many crime series of the past ten to fifteen years, utilises science (Grace the profiler and the series of actors playing the forensic scientist) as a form of language that is beyond question. These episodes are reminders of just how heinously wrong science can be. Those flashback scenes of the 'measuring' and demarcation of children through 'science' are made even more chilling and thought provoking through the elderly (contemporary) Abigail's work as a genetic researcher. The doctors / eugenicists in those death camps believed they were serving a higher purpose and were 'right.'
The most powerful explorations of the past, do not separate 'the past' from the present, but rather, encourage us all to look at the present - and question the 'beyond saying' certainties of our time. For a crime television programme to achieve this is remarkable.
Lest we forget ay.
Highly recommended.
