''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 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 as Frank Agnew, a Detroit homicide detective who is strait-laced until he believes his girlfriend is brutally murdered *

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 Athena Karkanis (born September 7, 1981) is a Canadian television, film and voice actress. She is noted for her role as Grace Stone in the NBC/Netflix science fiction drama series '' Manifest''. Life and career Karkanis was born in Alberta and ...

as Dani Kahlil, a Detroit homicide detective hoping to help Frank with his loss, but leery of his actions * Ruben Santiago-Hudson 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 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 as Louise "LC" Cullen *

L. Scott Caldwell L. Scott Caldwell (born Laverne Scott; April 17, 1950) is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in '' The Fugitive'' (1993) and Rose on the television series '' Lost''. Early life Born the mi ...

as Violet Geddes *

Ron Cephas Jones Ron Cephas Jones (born January 8, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the drama series ''This Is Us'' (2016–2022), which earned him four consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning twice for Outstanding Guest ...

as Reverend Lowdown * Trevor Long as Sean Foster * Michael McGrady as Brendan McCann * Mickey Sumner as Katia *

Ryan Destiny Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an electo ...

as April Geddes

Production

In October 2011, AMC began developing the series and ordered a pilot 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 the ...

for the series. In August 2012, it was confirmed that

Ernest Dickerson Ernest Roscoe Dickerson (born June 25, 1951) is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television, and music videos. As a cinematographer, he is known for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee ever since they were c ...

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 t ...

. 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

and Mark Strong were cast in July 2012, with Ransone playing Damon Callis, a member of the Detroit

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

syndicate and Strong reprising his role as detective Frank Agnew, which he played in the original British miniseries. Ruben Santiago-Hudson,

, and

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,

and David Costabile were cast, with Grayden playing Maya, Damon's wife, and Costabile playing Internal Affairs investigator Simon Boyd. Erika Alexander 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