(Opening sequence : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsKAJeUVOQc)
In the beginning, this drama explodes out of a black void
with the crash of arctic sunlight, and we are immediately shocked into an
awareness of the dualities of existence in the contradictory figure of Henry
battling a hostile environment and a difficult choice about whether to shoot
with his camera to preserve or shoot with his rifle to destroy. He faces a
conscious choice between two opposing possibilities. So the story begins with a
genesis common to all creation, whether it’s a myth or birth or a screenplay,
with a Light that ignites or inspires and the conflict of dramatic dualities
that follow; light from dark, earth from sky, Self from environment, right from
wrong, heart from head etc.
Fortitude is two
places, like many of those Wild West frontier towns named after a quality or
virtue (see “A Town Called Mercy”, Doctor Who, series 8).It is both a physical
and moral outpost on the edge of civilization and the known world, a landscape
of extremes where characters are pushed to the limits of their own nature,
within and without. “In this place things come at you from nowhere” says Elana
cryptically, “Monsters, You won’t see them til they have you...and then they
have gone back into the darkness, before you know it”.
Physically it’s an Arctic settlement of 700 multinational
miners and scientists, making the economic transition from mining which is in
decline to tourism in the form of a global business venture to build a glacial
hotel. Extremes of climate change have melted the perma frost to expose the
buried treasure of something unknown but old. It’s a microcosm of our own
condition of economic transition, climate change, extremism and lost treasure.
The landscape first
appears flat or one dimensional where
the accustomed divisions of earth and sky disappear into a white abstraction of
endless nothingness that disorientates, without form or feature as if before
Space or Time began, “an endless block of ice in the middle of nowhere”
(Hildur). Structures like houses or hills form out of the mist. Otherwise,
scenes are transfigured by eerie blue shadows or luminous pools of unnatural
amber lighting, so the petrol station is transformed by a lighting that is more
transcendent than functional. Falling snow or indoor lights seem otherworldly
and heightened by luminous effects not related to a known physical source.
Overall it creates a landscape that is both actual and numinous, physical and
metaphysical. An introductory shot of the town sign suggests a similar shot
from “Twin Peaks”, thus pairing both psychoscape dramas together by
association.
(the road in)
Natalie mysteriously describes Fortitude as “a place not
good or bad, but vivid, unsullied, wild”, meaning primordial or amoral. She
also describes it as “utopian”, an ideal place where no one dies or decays, law
abiding, without crime or poverty or unemployment or discord. It appears
“civilized”, named after one of the four cardinal virtues of Classical
Civilization, “Fortitude”. The others are Temperance, Justice, and Prudence,
all qualities defined by Marcus Aurelius in “Meditations” as essential for good
citizenship because they promote harmony, balance and unity.(Aurelius considers
the ideal Good man embraces change, “digging
within oneself”, unity and reunion, recognition of Soul and spirituality, responsibility,
right choice, and adherence to the “Greater Good”.)
However “eutopia” (good place) also puns on “outopia” (no place)
in the sense of nonexistent or impossible. Fortitude might appear ideal and
civilized with its high tech sophisticated township of apparently co-operative
multi nationals, but in reality it is falling apart and unstable with a glacier
literally moving beneath them, an economy in transition and people pulling in
opposite directions towards break down. The stuffed polar bear stands inside
the airport arrivals hall as a reminder that wild nature is preserved inside a
civilized exterior. This drama explores that tension as strength of character
is tested by the extremes of existence.
Something is disturbing the balance of Nature, including
human nature, as the original unity and order fragments into chaos and
disorder. This is evident in the perma frost melting out of season and in
animal behaviour showing signs of cannibalism. Reindeer are having multiple
still births and miscarriages with foetus that are deformed or androgynous. The
predatory polar bears are overly aggressive as they outnumber the human inhabitants.
Human behaviour is also losing balance. Research scientists
are conducting animal experiments beyond ethical guidelines and also
experimenting on humans without regulation (Liam).Many characters are not
getting enough sleep (Ingrid, Dan, Tricia) whilst others can’t wake up (Shirley,
Liam, Morgan, Alderdyce). Some are vomiting (Morton, Shirley, Dan).The Governor
has absolute power over the Law, the Police and Civil Governance. The orgiastic
mayhem of the growling grunge rock band, celebrating Winter Solstice like a
pagan Saturnalia, threatens order and civility.
Division is developing between people and within the same
person on many levels, manifest as sickness (Liam) or madness (Marcus) or
badness (Frank). Characters who were close together are separating, Jason and
Kieran, Dan and Henry, Frank and Dan, Jules and Frank, Hildur and Dan, Hildur
and Erich etc. Henry’s body cells are dividing uncontrollably into the
malignancy of terminal cancer, but he is also fragmenting as a person,
over-emotional with “public displays of rage, drunk and disorderly”, erratic,
shouting and swearing, shooting randomly, dangerously burning his letter in a crowded
room, superstitiously “believing mobiles mess with the soul”, irrationally
conducting primitive rituals about shamans and tupilaqs. He is literally “out
of his mind”, following instinct and superstition, like mad old Lear on the
blasted heath.
In contrast, the Governor, Hildur, is all head and reason,
control and manipulation, behaving like an automaton with no life outside her
work. “What a singularly powerful woman you are, who has discretionary power
over Life and Death. Say cheese”, sneers Henry as he traps her true likeness by
goading her into an emotional admission. In her omnipotent totalitarian
surveillance she wants everyone to “report back to her” exclusively and is
offended by Dan withholding information. She moves stiffly in clicking heels
like a robot with a monotone staccato voice, always composed. It’s she who
controls the mutinous crowd, restoring order and calm by asking them “to think”
about Alderdyce, but she doesn’t know how to engage in small talk at her silent
dinner party! Her balance is in jeopardy
because she “is in over her head” with rash investments in a business venture
that is risky. And her lack of emotional response has driven her partner,
Erich, to infidelity.
Erich is emotional and effusive, full of male bravado,
acting without thinking, swearing profusely, “I’m in charge. I put him in
hospital. Fuck off”, he brags, inflating himself. His inappropriate swearing
and mock heroic fight with Yuri, the Russian, is almost pantomime but provides
comic relief. Similarly, Yuri is Neanderthal man who can only scrap and
articulate one expletive, “motherfucker”. In the relationship between Morgan
and Carrie, the father is emotionally labile with depression where as the
daughter is cold and detached. She puts her hands clinically into the car
engine to find the wires that spark it into life, as Liam “put his hands inside
a man” to find its source of Life. Frank
and Jules pull in different directions with Frank becoming increasingly
“violent and emotionally unstable” whilst Jules ends up elated and finally unconscious.
In the relationship between Marcus and Shirley, Marcus appears cold, disturbed
and disassociated, while Shirley embodies loving kindness. The new arrival,
Terrance, the intellectual researcher, ironically gets a bump on the head in
the sauna to awaken his emotions! In all cases the extremes are pulling
characters apart.
While Hildur heads the town, it’s Dan who hearts it as the
instinctive, protective sheriff, warm and demonstrative, a very physical
presence. Under pressure his emotions take over so he is obsessed with Elana,
frenzied with Frank, intense with Jules, unreasonably jealous of Norton. “Keep
your head”, says Hildur as she leaves him to cope with the town unrest, and he
does his best to find the right words though his speech is a muddle compared to
hers; “....under the surface, in the darkness....what’s happened is
inexplicable. We need each other...to be strong together. There will be better
days”. It’s poignant and absurd, like a Becket play. Dan’s character is being
tested in his role of law enforcer, whether he is “the good man” Jules sees, or
the “bad sheriff” Elana sees, or both at different times. This division into
opposite extremes is most explicit in the relationship between Dan and Morton, reminiscent
of the Rust/ Cole dynamic in “True Detective”.
Dan is an emotional action hero, as his comic book name
implies (“Desperate Dan”) where as Morton is strangely deadpan and detached as
his name suggests (“death”).They begin by keeping apart, “working
independently”. Morton is the cynical, world weary, deductive, self controlled,
experienced professional, “good at his job”, where as Dan is the innocent
naive, instinctive, emotional, inexperienced “untested” amateur. “No one knows
if he is good or bad because he hasn’t been tested”, says Natalie. Dan “knows”
by subconscious instinct and always seems to be in the right place at the right
time, whereas Morton thinks things through consciously, carefully observing
facts as Dan “jumps to conclusions”. “Do
you know that for a fact?” Dan asks Morton, seeking help. What Dan considers
“focused”, Morton considers “dangerous”, from their different perspectives. Dan
blends easily into his environment with suitable clothing and easy going
movements, but the awkward quixotic Morton seems out of place and out of time
with his fancy outfits and 1950’s jazz, speaking in gnomic anecdotes, metaphors
and colloquial anachronisms, “okey-dokey/ keep your chin up/ chuffed to meet
you”, fumbling across the ice. Morton is a man “who likes the sound of his own
clever voice” where as Dan struggles to find the right words.
They have to learn to work together if they are to find
resolution. Morton has arrived to make sense of the situation with his
intelligence, “to interpret”, the “inevitable consequence” of Henrys emotional
appeal for help, but he needs Dan’s perspective to complete the picture. Their
first meeting in the cellar bar is awkward until they realise a connection, since
neither has “much of a life” outside the job. Their last meeting is out on the
glacier at the end of the road, having peeled back the layers, face to face,
psychologically naked. “Morton will die unless you save him”, says Henry. It’s
the second time Henry has made an emergency phone call to bring them together.
The first brought Morton to Dan, the second brings Dan to Morton. Dan’s eyes
open into a long lingering Serge Leone close up that shows “the window of his
soul” in its struggle to make the right decision. The mortal wound ironically
brings Morton to life, the anguish of “there is no justice here” and “I never
felt cold like this” before he dies knowing the truth about Pettigrew and Dan.
Barely alive, he plants a haunting thought in Dan’s head, “confess or you’ll
never find peace”. So they complete each other in a moment of unity.
Dan’s life is now consciously dedicated to an awareness of
this struggle to balance opposites, whether it’s the love he feels for a woman
that completes him as a man (Elana),or the integration of character that completes
him as a hero (sacrificing Pettigrew),
or the acceptance of Morton’s intelligence that completes him as a detective.
“I know you. You are inside me, part of me/ I feel complete/we are together/I
think about you all the time. You’re all I see, the darkness and daylight, all
the time”, he says to Elana and to himself. This Unity is Love is Good and the
best we can do as Humans.
The worst we can do is lose our humanity to become monsters
or animals or robots. So Morgan is “possessed, out of control”. Jason has “a
monster in his head”. He leaps out like an animal pouncing on Natalie and
Morgan. After his manic frenzy attacking Frank, Dan lurches like an animal into
the night, and his face twitches or snarls. Liam and Elana both twitch like
animals, sniffing the air, “such inhuman savagery for a 10year old kid”. Yuri
is bestial, not Homo sapiens but Neanderthal. Frank allows his instincts to
take over with Elana, neglecting his son. Shirley is changing shape from
over-eating, losing definition, becoming whalelike. Morgan appears like a one
armed silhouetted monster against the white snow. The dead body of Henry is
like a shapeless seal without limbs on the ice. Hildur and Morton have stilted
movements like robots, lacking emotional social lives. In the Finale Frank’s
face is hideously distorted by the window pane into a Francis Bacon face
mutation.
Human communication breaks down in moments that are beyond
speech. There is the absurd silent dinner party of Hildur, the surreal conversation
between Dan and Morton in the cellar bar or the “storm in a teacup” non-communication between Hildur and Morton, the ecstatic muffled orgiastic growls of the
hardcore grunge band (was that Lordi singing “Would you love a monster man?!), the
inability of Elana, Liam, Jason to speak as they morph into animals. A shadow
falls over them, sometimes literally by clever lighting that shows faces split
between light and darkness (especially Liam/Dan/Elana/Frank). “I have to accept
what’s inside Liam is evil”, says Jules, despite the fact he is also a child
afraid of the dark.
In these moments characters change consciousness, become
somnambulant and empty like ghosts or possessed, catatonic, entranced or elated
(Jules), unconscious like Jules or Liam or Elana, and ultimately dead like
Alderdyce, Stoddart, Pettigrew and Shirley. When Yuri rashly descends the hole in the ice alone, the
fall knocks him unconscious. “It’s not a hotel we need but a bigger morgue”,
Hildur realises. They change from one state to another. “You changed your
mind”, says Morton to Elana, who is aware of this danger, of “atoms that change
every 7 years to create a new identity”. Sweetly singing a lullaby to Carrie, she
is aware of something else in the room, her own dark shadow behind on the wall.
Characters also lose their human social inhibitions and have no need of
clothes. That is apparent in the sauna scene with the still socially restrained
newcomer Terence. Elana struggles to remove her clothes as the dark side takes
over before attacking Carrie. Liam, Jules and Jason dont seem to feel the cold anymore.
Characters become psychic energies instead of personalities, shifting and
changing from one thing to another. “Peeling off the layers, nothing is
certain, the circle is a line, everything is open”, says the title song. A
skilled taxidermist becomes an amateur shaman, Carrie’s rabbit is for “companionship
and a casserole”, a worm can induce “ecstasy and diarrhoea”, the same person
can be good and evil.
The dramatic climax comes in episode 7 where all rules are
broken, including the conventions about explicit violence on television! The
episode appears mundane until the final sequence of Shirley’s matricide which
is surreal and violent, a contrast that deliberately wakes up the audience
because explicit and because matricide is the ultimate taboo/atrocity, whatever
the century. Shirley is almost catatonic as she dissects the body entrails in a
moment of horror and madness. Afterwards she lumbers like a beached whale, losing
human form, ironically dying from her own heart attack.
This personal breakdown is mirrored by the social breakdown
of the community as both shatter under extreme pressure. “This week’s been
insane”, Hildur puns, and it’s right that she and Morton, who represent
rational governance, should be largely missing from the episode. Individuals
and community fragment and disintegrate into an episode that is surreal and
absurd. Though Alderdyce has been disembowelled she is unrealistically alive
and breathing, as it was for Stoddart and Pettigrew, “nothing in Stoddart’s
cavity chest/no pulse but he came back to life”. There is a surreal shot of a
child’s doll half buried in the snow and Morton appears like a silent
expressionist Nosferatu from Murnau, as Frank will later appear monstrous and surreal as a
faceless torturer in biker helmet. Dan muddles his speech until Hildur returns
to restore order, and only Jules manages to find her voice to speak sense, “people
are scared, you need to KNOW that”, she says above the restless,cacophonous crowd.
(gothic horror Morton as Nosferatu)
Amongst themselves and in themselves, these characters are
now as fragmented as the body parts Morton bined at Lockerbie on a previous job
with “not a whole person in any one of them”, he says cryptically. He is doing
the same job now as he tries to put things together to get a complete story.
That theme of being fragmented or complete/ whole runs through the drama; “we
dont have much of a life/is it avarice or psychosis? Split it 50:50/Time you
and Henry sorted out your differences; fix it/Tricia is in pieces/ there in
spirit if not in person/I’m 110%/we need each other to be together.” As stable
Consciousness breaks down it fragments into the surreal or absurd. This Division
is degeneration is Evil and the worst we can do as humans.
Whatever lies buried unseen and unknown now bursts to light on
many levels; the mammoth discovery, Hildur’s secret investments, Dan’s paternal
origin, aspects of Self suppressed in character, suspicions of murder, lost
souls. “There’s a buried treasure beneath the ice, you don’t know what’s down
there, a million quid’s worth and you can’t see it/ he found something
precious/something ancient came out of the ice and its going to cause a lot of
trouble/something we can sell/something marvellous, very old/an astonishing
discovery/help me go down to the treasure and bring it to the surface. What
treasure? You know”. A treasure retrieved is dangerous work that changes things.
It’s Consciousness that keeps us human by steering us safely
through the extremes of existence (light,dark/male,female/good,evil/order,chaos/invisible,visible/scientific/spiritual/civilized,wild
etc). Consciousness is about “knowing” and orientation. Only the human animal
knows itself as itself. “We have to wake Liam up” says Jules, “take great care,
be on your guard....you need to KNOW....how do you KNOW?....Liam doesnt look at
me like he KNOWS me anymore”. “Worst part of prison is waking up” says Elana,
“I came here for the light”. “The only thing that matters is the quality of the
light” says Morton. Being conscious is being alert, vigilant, awake, knowing, aware,
enlightened. The conscious life maintains a balance, yet, paradoxically, we
feel most alive in moments when we face extremes and lose consciousness in the
excess of madness (Henry), or overeating (Shirley), or aggression (Frank), or
detachment (Hildur), or foolhardy love (Dan/Erich) or loneliness (Pettigrew).
This process is fraught with danger and characters need each
other to survive. Brought to his senses by the absurd battle with Yuri, Erich
ends up aware of his love for Hildur and is able to articulate it at last, “let
me speak” he says, “the only thing I cared for is you and I betrayed you, my
only love”. Frank develops some insight after engaging in the extremes of
torture, “forgive me, my head, the way I felt about you caused all this pain”,
he tells Elana. Although Jason is “not himself”, his encounter with Hildur
restores enough sense to disclose Morgan’s whereabouts before shooting himself
into oblivion. Elana retains enough awareness to handcuff herself from herself
before degenerating into a beast that loses the human need for speech or
clothes. Marcus, the apparently detached, psychotic science teacher develops
human empathy after suffering the extreme cruelties of torture. The dramatic
impact of Erich’s truck headlights will move Hildur to emotional awareness.
(changing perspective: man as insignificant or giant)
He uses colour to keep us conscious too, especially the
deliberate use of Red. More than any other colour Red arouses, alerts, the life
principle of blood and passion, love and danger. It makes us conscious,
especially when it’s being used to stand out from monotone backgrounds of white
and black. Red is a recurring motif; in vivisection and murder gore, the jam that
sweetens or red safety snow jackets, the red of Hildurs desk ashtray, red room
blinds, red airline logo, red bear on town road sign, red safety dot on the
wing mirror of Dan’s car, red trucks, Liam’s red hat that contrasts with Carrie’s
red boots, etc. (Red, white and black are the three intertwining strands of Life,
guna, in The Upanishads).
This writer’s style reflects its content in a unified
vision, so stylistic features keep us conscious and also reflect the dualities
under scrutiny in plot pairings/correspondences/parallels. Characters pair in
unison or contrast. Music ranges from the extremes of grunge metal to country,
from improvised Soul/Jazz to the formalised electronics of the aptly named
“Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark”! Two
dolls signify contrast, one plastic and abandoned in the snow, the other a much
loved tribal tupilaq. Two parties show character change, the Solstice party and
the Miners Leaving Party. There are two rabbit companions, Carrie’s real one
and the imaginary Harvey in the Jimmy Stewart film. Two subjects are being
tested in cylinders in the research lab; a pig and Liam. Two murder weapons are
food utensils, a fork and potato peeler. There are two fire ceremonies of
purification, two emergency phone calls from Henry, one made rashly on the spur
of a moment, the other made after careful consideration. Dan’s two acts frame
the drama, his blind rage to sacrifice Pettigrew and his conscious sacrifice of
Elana. Erich and Yuri make the same foolhardy quest onto the glacier with
motives that contrast, one to make money, the other to make love.
However it’s Marcus who makes the core speech of the drama,
consciously posing psychological theories about the soul/psyche against
Natalie’s “best hypothesis” of a scientific materialism that finds no thing,
“whatever is inside/theres nothing there/they found nothing”. In fact, this “nothing” is everything, but
Natalie can’t see it from her scientific viewpoint. “Something inside is
keeping Alderdyce alive, but there’s nothing there”, she says, looking for
something tangible. Something is tearing the murder victims apart, “splitting
open, trying to get something out or in”. Morton talks about an “empty chest
cavity”, a reminder of The Upanishads reference to something “no one can see,
hidden in the space in the heart of a living being/smaller than an atom and
immense, beyond the realm of reason/ a treasure wrapped in mystery and
impenetrable depths/who lies awake within those who sleep/the radiant self
within”. Marcus recognises that Shirley has a soul in need of a funeral rite
and it seems only fair, given his name link to Marcus Aurelius whose mediations
are a conscious evaluation of what constitutes civilization, that he gets the
“preachy” speech about psychology and soul, choice and consequence, human
values. His Viking fire boat bears her soul to an invisible world, a state of
transition. When characters are reduced
to a non sentient “nothing”, there is still “something” unseen to do with “spirit”,
a mystery that defies materialism.
(Marcus prepares Shirley's soul)
The world of visible science can be precariously polarised
or balanced together with the world of invisible spirit
(religion/psychology/myth etc). So the demon possession, supernatural,
psychological, mythical or magical (tupilaq/pooka of Sami/Celtic traditions),
imaginary rabbit friend of James Stewart in “Harvey”, the mystery of the Love
that drives Dan and Erich, even this thriller of a writer’s imagination are all
part of an invisible world that exists as much as the rational world of
scientific enquiry and materialism that dominates the research centre. When
these two aspects of human nature are brought together it makes a unity as
explosive as the oxygen and hydrogen gases that combine in the lab. Otherwise
we are just the parts in Morton’s Lockerbie bin bags, or stuffed like the
lifelike but motionless animals of the taxidermist. (Ironic that the “real”
polar bear they used in production is actually a robot!)
The final episode is full of soul imagery; the ethereally
lit ice cave, the choral music, pieta and sacrifice enactments,(Dan holding
Carrie/ outstretched arms of Henry and Yuri/Pettigrew sacrificed on a pylon),
Elana praying at the praying statue, the Elemental opposites of Fire and Ice
(Ice preserves but fire destroys), the burning pyre of the mammoth pulled out
on a wooden palette with devotional statue behind reflecting the fire ceremony
of Shirley’s burning funeral boat pushed out by Marcus. Both ceremonies were
acts of purging and purification.
(pieta)In their male loneliness Pettigrew sought material sex but Dan seeks mystical love in the syzygy between him and Elana, “You are here inside me, part of me. I felt complete (in murder). I think about you all the time. You are all I see, the darkness and daylight, all the time”. “We are together, alone together”, she confirms. It describes a unity and integration deep in the mystical tradition and also in the depth analysis of modern psychologies. While the Russian finds a tangible treasure beneath the ice, Eric discovers a treasure that is the Love between him and Hildur, now brought to the surface and acknowledged. Eric expresses it, but Hildur wears it in the lozenge pattern of totality on her blouse, the same pattern known by the ancients who carved it into the entrance stone at Newgrange 4000 years ago as soul maps. There are treasures buried in the snow and also treasures buried in the psyche, and they are both valuable.
(patterns of totality,soul maps) (landscape paintings,cushion patterns, two directions)
Unity is also found for Henry and Morton on the glacier.
Henrys second emergency phone call is carefully considered, not impetuous as in
episode 1. Morton helps Henry see sense and acknowledge Dan as his treasured son.
So he dies complete, not fragmented. And in the end we discover that Morton did
in fact have a social life, treasured as a photograph hidden in his wallet
opposite the job card of “an American in the Met”. He dies complete on the ice
as a father and detective, this “accord between Oslo and London”, knowing the
truth about Pettigrew and completing his purpose.
It’s in Dan that we most measure this remarkable journey
from unknown chaos to balance and the conscious life. In flashback we see that
his first act was to sacrifice Pettigrew in a blind rage of revenge for the
violation of Elana whom he loves, his face contorted like an animal or monster.
It’s unspeakable horror, and he never does speak about it until he faces Morton
on the glacier. His last act is to save Carrie and sacrifice Elana, despite his
love for her and conscious of his agony. What is seen/known can be controlled.
What is unseen/unknown cannot be controlled. IT controls you. So he makes a conscious decision and right
choice, fully aware of its consequences to himself and others, thus qualifying
as a “good man” and a professional sheriff. His two actions frame the drama
that records his journey, and his face now has inward depths, the look of
bliss. It changes him. This conscious sacrifice is the heroic act that defines
him as the lead character to carry the drama on into its next stage.
Whatever the cause or
explanation of the problems in Fortitude, whether its insects or microbes or
supernatural interference or psychosis or obsession, the effect is the same;
characters lose their humanity and act like animals or monsters. Murder and rape
are part of this as behaviour becomes extreme and surreal; mad, bad or sick. In
pursuing one thing absolutely characters lose sight of the other, fail in
judgement and fall apart. It’s the flicker of Consciousness in the Human Spirit
that holds the balance, that same flicker in the close up of Dans eyes, windows
of his soul. “that spark you see in the eye is the immortal self, uniting,
shining”, say The Upanishads, “ know this world is threefold, yet it is also
One”. The three in one hidden structure
of Reality is body, mind AND soul, a recognition that brings resolution and
peace.
A world without soul is fractious and incomplete. “Know
thyself in proportion”, said the oracle at Delphi to those searching. Whether it’s called Soul or Psyche or Self or Consciousness,
this drama is ultimately a psychological thriller in that it charts the
recovery of that lost treasure of the human spirit/psyche on it’s perilous
journey towards fulfilment, because the real mystery of life is not about a
problem to solve but a Reality to experience. “Fortitude”, like “True
Detective” and “Twin Peaks” and “An Inspector Calls” (Priestly, 1945), belongs
to a group of Dramas that explore this mystery.
(http://janethylandandplainpaintings.blogspot.ie/2010/10/cave-paintings-in-words-and-pictures-1.html)
