Lloyd Ellis: "Nobody takes any notice of me, do they"

Just not enough attention to detail among viewers.

Hinterland is rich with detail of the interpersonal relations among Mathias, Rhys, Owens, and Ellis. But you have to watch. Put your phone down and watch. Much of the richness is non-verbal.

And (in my opinion) so very funny.

Educational TV

After watching season 2 episode 1 (mother and son burned in a house fire) half a dozen times, I noticed the word "Cwmglas" displayed like a company name. A few more times watching, and I heard DC Elis say the word. Hm.

I watched it yesterday and again today, and finally got what I think is the pronunciation of that word: "coom glas". The "w" is pronounced more or less like a double-u (surprise!) or like the double-o in "moon".

I have such trouble because the letter "w" is a vowel in Welsh (or so I read, back when I started watching Hinterland). But for me it's not a vowel. So if I can think of it as an "oo" sound, that will help.

// so "w" sounds like "oo" ...

So just now I googled hinterland blogs and down at the bottom of the list I found a link to alex harries sister and I said ooh, ooh and off I went. Ended up at Husband and wife nominated for Welsh Baftas. That's Mali Harries (DI Rhys) and Matthew Gravelle (Wyn Bratton from S1E3). And then there was a mention of the movie named Cwcw, a Welsh-language movie.

Cwcw, I said to myself... coo-coo.

Went to Google Translate:

Wow!

A glitch? or did DCI Mathias let DI Rhys drive his car

Season 2, Episode 5, starting about 1:11:20 into the episode:

Lloyd: "Sir."

Enter Mathias.

Lloyd: "We know Aaron called Ffion from the kiosk the night he was killed, here at 18:53. Ffion said she tried to call the number back a few minutes later.

Mathias: "But the number was engaged."

Lloyd: "Because Aaron made a second call at 18:56 -- to the boatyard."

Mathias and Rhys look at each other.

Next scene: Street scene. The beautiful Mathias Volvo is on the move. Mathias and Rhys are on their way to the hospital.

Next scene: Inside the car. Rhys is driving.

Three results

Best accent

From WalesOnline: The Welsh accent is officially lush (and that's according to genuine academic research).

I don't know what "lush" means in that context. But I do know that when I started watching Hinterland, the Welsh accent drew me in.

How is Hinterland different?

How is Hinterland different? What makes the show special?

Ray Donovan, now that's a good show. It is good mostly because of the particularly fascinating character after whom the show is named. He makes it a great story.

Hinterland doesn't offer that kind of story.

Or, maybe it does. But the particularly fascinating character in Hinterland is the hinterland itself, and its people. Not Mathias specifically; not Mathias and his team, though I love them all dearly. The fascinating character in Hinterland is Wales.

Time to come back. The past is the past, Tom. Two weeks. I need an answer.

Season two, episode one: The whole opening conversation is short enough to be the title of this blog post.

After the opening credits, two conversations equally sparse: with Elis, and with Rhys.

Awesome.

Words dilute meaning, but not on Hinterland.

He's inspecting. He's detecting. He's doing his job.

I thought there were four. I find only three. If there is a Number Four, when I find it I'll add a note to the end of this post.

Before I started Watching Hinterland the blog, I was watching Hinterland on Netflix. I found it intruding into my thoughts when I was writing for my Econ blog. Ended up writing three or four Hinterland-related posts. It was always my intention to round them up and make note of them here. Now, finally, I'm getting to it.

The first evidence that the show had intruded into taken over my life was The Exquisite Tragedies of Hinterland (26 March 2016):

Best part? The eyes. The eyes of DCI Mathias and the eyes of DI Mared Rhys. Mathias walks up to a crime scene, stops, and looks at everything. He's inspecting. He's detecting. He's doing his job. Then he walks into the crime scene and stops to inspect and detect some more.

Then there's a cute one on my "frivolous tales" blog: Learning Welsh (4 April 2016).

And then you can see me working Hinterland in to the econ topic of my Thank God for them billionaires, huh? (20 April 2016):

The show is set in Wales in the midst of poverty, desolation, and faces full of character... In our time, that's a model of the economy. That's one reason I like the show so much.

That same day I started this blog. Simple recognition of the fact that, inexplicably, the show had become a significant part of my life.

West Wales

Just now I stopped by an econ blog I often visit, Syll's blog. In What Brexit was all about Syll shows this map:

First on the list of poorest areas in northern Europe? West Wales.

//

Season one, episode one, Hinterland. New to the job, DCI Tom Mathias is called to investigate a murder even before meeting his team. The exchange between DCI Mathias and DC Ellis is an absolute classic. It defines the Ellis character. There are probably not a dozen brief moments in the first nine episodes that develop that character. Yet the show is worth watching, just for those moments.

To me, the murder investigation, solving the crime, if that's what you're interested in, go watch Columbo. Or Law and Order. Untangling the who-done-it in Hinterland is good, as good as any cop show, or better. But the rare, precious moments during which the personality of one of the main characters unfolds, it's moments like that that make the show irresistible.

Anyway, S1E1: Mathias meets his boss Brian Prosser, apparently for the first time. "You've met most of the team, then?" Prosser asks.

"A little sooner than expected," Mathias replies.

Concerning the murder investigation, Prosser says, "I hear you've already mobilized most of the police resources of West Wales. Do you have a body?"

"Not yet," Mathias says.

So anyway, West Wales.

The music

The West Wing, Season 6, Episode 2: Walking in the woods alone, Leo has a heart attack.

I didn't know it was on. I was in the other room and the music caught my ear. I got up to see.

Leo in the woods.

The music is sparse piano, like Hinterland. Not as sparse as Hinterland, but sparse.

Key facts are so clear to Tom Mathias

(Trying to say this without ruining the story for anyone who's not seen it already.)

Season one, episode two, near the end, the perpetrator has been identified but has escaped, and the task now is to find him.

Mathias, knowing where the perp must be, gets up and off he goes to get him. DI Rhys objects. In the brief moment it takes him to exit the scene, Mathias tells Rhys how he knows where the perp is. Rhys hesitates and Mathias is gone, just that quick. Now Rhys knows, and we know too.

Turns out Mathias was right, of course. He's the Jason Bourne of crime solving.

Detail in Hinterland

"Salem," says DI Mared Rhys, "by Sidney Vosper. The Devil's face is said to be hidden in the folds of the Welsh lady's shawl."

Source: Salem (Vosper painting) at Wikipedia

In the picture above, the woman in the shawl, the "main figure", is Siân Owen. In the picture below, the woman in the blue coat is Detective Sergeant Siân Owens. That can't be an accident.

Source: BBC One - Hinterland

For the record, the actress who plays DS Siân Owens is Hannah Daniel. The IMBd page on Hannah Daniel lists several roles where the actress is known as "Hannah Daniels".