Louise Penny, in 17 years wrote 18 books about the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. This is even more impressive given that many of these crime novels were both popular and highly praised. Furthermore, he serves with the Sûreté du Québec or Quebec Police in which several of his works describe murders committed at Three Pines, a fictional village.
The series on Prime Video -Three Pines – has only eight episodes but goes off script big time from Louise’s Penny’s novel by intertwining various plots taken from different books which seem to be made of the same cloth but are actually separate patchworks. Those novels were peculiarly kind and generous with no sex or violence making this franchise a little unusual in crime dramas. In contrast to every Criminal Mind or Law and Order: SVU episode being as gruesome as ever, Three Pines reinterprets Penny’s stories through a much sadder and darker lens.
When Gamache arrives in the titular town for their first meeting after CC de Poitiers has been found dead; two episodes whose themes have been borrowed from Penny’s book (A Fatal Grace) sets on this investigation trail. De Poitiers died through electrocution during what was a very Canadian scene; an outdoor curling game on Boxing Day for the entire town to see. But certain small details point out that de Poitiers was not simply killed – she was murdered because all secretly hated her.
This is where the main diversion of Three Pines begins: slowly Gambay starts suspecting everyone around him: they all looked guilty for one reason or another – half-truths, secrecy, sometimes rudeness and inhospitality towards each other were common features among these people living together in a small community. The way those townsfolk were written by Penny makes them feel almost closer to Cicely, Alaska than that strange evil little Twin Peaks city most famous television show watchers know it as. In her books, Penny likes to make people nice, as she says. Accordingly, Gamache in these very books gives his colleagues and new recruits “I’m sorry. I was wrong. I need help. I don’t know.” This is what Penny had to say about that:
However, Three Pines is absolutely paranoid and abounding with obstruction of justice and hostility as observed by the writer herself in one of her posts on Facebook. “If you look closely at the character ‘Ruth,’ she describes Three Pines as a place where anyone who doesn’t belong will be expelled.” The intention was to change this line during rewriting process into the antithesis of everything that is related to these novels.
Three Pines takes place some twenty years after Penny began writing these novels and things have changed quite a bit worldwide since then. Recently Canada has been grappling with its history concerning mistreatment of Indigenous peoples particularly after it discovered numerous murdered ‘residential school’ children’s corpses in them hence leading to demands for an inquiry into what occurred there with 4,100 deaths or disappearances already recorded (though it could easily be many times greater). This series focuses on that issue while the indigenous lady who went missing becomes the continuous theme throughout every single one of them.
Three Pines, though it can be seen as a polite, snowy and kind Canada from Penny’s perspective is actually very different. While the stories in Three Pines often follow similar paths to those found in the novels, this does not hold true for its general atmosphere. Yet Inspector Gamache is unchanging in essence, thanks to Alfred Molina. In contrast to many of the detectives I watch on TV who are contractually obliged to be addicts or have anger management problems or a deep-seated trauma or some other form of anti-social behaviour, he offers audiences something quite different.
Even with his profoundly painful emotional baggage, however, Gamache proves himself distinct. Molina has always been a master at embodying warmth and empathy (even when playing villains like Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man series), as well as haunted and broken men (e.g., a lawyer in Promising Young Woman). Nothing changes here: even while projecting seriousness and authority he does not compromise his continual trust that goodness will prevail over evil. He’s more than just an antithesis to Three Pines’ somberness; he brilliantly captures Penny’s character even if the showrunners don’t always do him justice.
Although most of the time it comes out through small details , Gamache still feels so real enough . Louise Pennys books, on the other hand while having so many interesting characters exposed poorly in three pines . Rossif Sutherland does a solid job portraying Jean-Guy Beauvoir but akin to nearly everyone else in this show he just doesn’t have much going on for him Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ performance is subtle and nuanced as Isabelle Lacoste while Sarah Booth surprises as Yvette Nichol; she is not how Penny writes her- quietly hilarious, perhaps a bit crazy –which makes her such an exciting addition to what would otherwise be regular fare on this show.
The locals and indigenous actors try their best but are completely buried in the mix of Three Pines’ attempt to combine multiple books into one story. It feels like almost anyone on the show was given directions that read, “lie and make it obvious.” With only a few exceptions, almost everyone else in town is giving the same performance, and most of them do not arise from better trained actors who can deliver this awkward dialogue convincingly. However, Penny did an excellent job developing her mysteries; as she had planned all the stories with great care so many years ago.
Three Pines is an excellent mystery series provided one can endure its unpleasant moments of interaction and weak scripts because it has an amazing lead character that stands out from other police procedural environments, as well as focusing on Indigenous people’s background including residential schools which is a smart idea executed rather properly. Much of that is thanks to Penny’s original work, though credit should also be given to the cinematography, location scouting, and, on occasion directing. Although sitting through it may provoke eye rolls sometimes Three Pines with its wintry vastnesses remains beautiful when looked upon.
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