''Low Winter Sun'' is an American
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...
television series that aired on
AMC from August 11 to October 6, 2013, for one season consisting of ten episodes. The series was developed by Chris Mundy and starred
Mark Strong
Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in '' Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in '' Sherlock Holmes'' ( ...
and
Lennie James
Lennie Michael James (born 11 October 1965) is a British actor, screenwriter, and playwright. His work includes playing Morgan Jones in the television series, '' The Walking Dead'' and in its spin-off, '' Fear the Walking Dead'', and starring ...
. It is based upon the 2006 British
two-part miniseries of the same name which also starred Strong in the same role. Filmed and set in Detroit, Michigan, the series follows detectives Frank Agnew and Joe Geddes after they murder a corrupt cop and attempt to cover it up, and explores organized crime in Detroit. The series received generally mixed reviews and AMC announced in December 2013 that it had canceled the series.
Cast
Main cast
*
Mark Strong
Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in '' Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in '' Sherlock Holmes'' ( ...
as Frank Agnew, a Detroit homicide detective who is strait-laced until he believes his girlfriend is brutally murdered
*
Lennie James
Lennie Michael James (born 11 October 1965) is a British actor, screenwriter, and playwright. His work includes playing Morgan Jones in the television series, '' The Walking Dead'' and in its spin-off, '' Fear the Walking Dead'', and starring ...
as Joe Geddes, a veteran Detroit homicide detective who appears to operate on both sides of the law
*
James Ransone
James Finley Ransone III (born June 2, 1979) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Ziggy Sobotka in the second season of the drama series ''The Wire'', United States Marine Corps Cpl. Josh Ray Person in the war drama mi ...
as Damon Callis, a ruthless crime lord destined to be Detroit's reigning mob boss
*
Sprague Grayden
Sprague Grayden (born July 21, 1980) is an American actress. She played schoolteacher Heather Lisinski in the television drama ''Jericho'', Karen Kawalski in ''John Doe'', first daughter Olivia Taylor in the television thriller '' 24'', and Kr ...
as Maya Callis, Damon's just-as-ruthless wife, who seeks to expand their drug and prostitution business
*
Athena Karkanis as Dani Kahlil, a Detroit homicide detective hoping to help Frank with his loss, but leery of his actions
*
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Ruben Santiago-Hudson (born Ruben Santiago Jr., November 24, 1956) is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 200 ...
as Charles Dawson, commander of Frank's precinct, who has survived a lot in his 25 years of service, but this recent corruption scandal could shake him
*
David Costabile
David Costabile (; born January 9, 1967) is an American actor. He is best known for his television work, having appeared in supporting roles in several television series such as '' Billions'', ''Breaking Bad'', ''Damages'', ''Flight of the Conch ...
as Simon Boyd, Detroit police detective and member of Internal Affairs
*
Billy Lush as Nick Paflas, a combat veteran looking to be Damon's second-in-command
Recurring cast
*
Alon Moni Aboutboul as Alexander Skelos
*
Erika Alexander
Erika Rose Alexander (born November 19, 1969) is an American actress, writer, producer, entrepreneur and activist best known for her roles as Pam Tucker on the NBC sitcom ''The Cosby Show'' (1990–1992), and Maxine Shaw on the FOX sitcom '' Li ...
as Louise "LC" Cullen
*
L. Scott Caldwell as Violet Geddes
*
Ron Cephas Jones as Reverend Lowdown
*
Trevor Long as Sean Foster
*
Michael McGrady as Brendan McCann
*
Mickey Sumner as Katia
*
Ryan Destiny as April Geddes
Production
In October 2011,
AMC began developing the series and ordered a
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...
in May 2012, with writer Chris Mundy serving as executive producer and
showrunner
A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...
for the series. In August 2012, it was confirmed that
Ernest Dickerson would direct the pilot;
filming for the pilot began in September 2012 in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
.
AMC ordered ''Low Winter Sun'' to series in December 2012 with a ten-episode order; the series returned to Detroit to film the remaining nine episodes, for which production began in spring 2013.
According to Mundy, the state of Michigan approved $7.5 million in
incentives
In general, incentives are anything that persuade a person to alter their behaviour. It is emphasised that incentives matter by the basic law of economists and the laws of behaviour, which state that higher incentives amount to greater levels of ...
for the series' production. ''Low Winter Sun'' was reported to create 245 jobs and spend approximately $26 million in the state.
Casting
James Ransone
James Finley Ransone III (born June 2, 1979) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Ziggy Sobotka in the second season of the drama series ''The Wire'', United States Marine Corps Cpl. Josh Ray Person in the war drama mi ...
and
Mark Strong
Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in '' Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in '' Sherlock Holmes'' ( ...
were cast in July 2012, with Ransone playing Damon Callis, a member of the Detroit
organized crime syndicate and Strong reprising his role as detective Frank Agnew, which he played in the original British miniseries.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Ruben Santiago-Hudson (born Ruben Santiago Jr., November 24, 1956) is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 200 ...
,
Athena Karkanis, and
Lennie James
Lennie Michael James (born 11 October 1965) is a British actor, screenwriter, and playwright. His work includes playing Morgan Jones in the television series, '' The Walking Dead'' and in its spin-off, '' Fear the Walking Dead'', and starring ...
were cast in August 2012, with Hudson playing Charles Dawson, the commander of Frank’s precinct, Karkanis playing detective Dani Kahlil, and James playing a cop named Joe Geddes. Also in August 2012,
Sprague Grayden
Sprague Grayden (born July 21, 1980) is an American actress. She played schoolteacher Heather Lisinski in the television drama ''Jericho'', Karen Kawalski in ''John Doe'', first daughter Olivia Taylor in the television thriller '' 24'', and Kr ...
and
David Costabile
David Costabile (; born January 9, 1967) is an American actor. He is best known for his television work, having appeared in supporting roles in several television series such as '' Billions'', ''Breaking Bad'', ''Damages'', ''Flight of the Conch ...
were cast, with Grayden playing Maya, Damon's wife, and Costabile playing Internal Affairs investigator Simon Boyd.
Erika Alexander
Erika Rose Alexander (born November 19, 1969) is an American actress, writer, producer, entrepreneur and activist best known for her roles as Pam Tucker on the NBC sitcom ''The Cosby Show'' (1990–1992), and Maxine Shaw on the FOX sitcom '' Li ...
was cast in September 2012, to play the recurring role of Louise "LC" Cullen, a cop in the precinct.
Episodes
Reception
On the review aggregator website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the first season has scored 59 out of 100, based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
gave the first season a 43% rating based on 30 reviews, with the critical consensus "Mark Strong makes for a compelling lead, but ''Low Winter Sun'' is too serious for its own good, sagging under the weight of its bleak, brooding tone."
Home media releases
The complete series was released on DVD in
region 1 on August 12, 2014, and on Blu-ray and DVD in region 2 on October 28, 2013, and in region 4 on December 4, 2013.
References
External links
*
{{AMC Shows
2010s American crime drama television series
2010s American police procedural television series
2013 American television series debuts
2013 American television series endings
AMC (TV channel) original programming
English-language television shows
Fictional portrayals of the Detroit Police Department
Serial drama television series
Television series by Endemol
American television series based on British television series
Television shows set in Detroit
Television series by Tiger Aspect Productions
American detective television series