Filmed in Aberystwyth, North Wales, HINTERLAND is a police drama involving the customary characters in this sort of drama of the tough, maverick cop (Richard Harrington) and his Welsh-speaking female sidekick (Mali Harries), who resents the male cop for taking on the direction of the case, even though it is the work of Chief Supt. Prosser (Aneirin Hughes).
Ed Thomas's production unfolds incredibly slowly, with plenty of portentous shots of the rolling Welsh hills and the rural landscape festooned with decrepit farms and wild forests. This is clearly a part of Wales undergoing profound socio-economic changes with traditional ways of life being threatened by the forces of capitalism symbolized by Rhodri Davies (Hywel Morgan) who buys up a farm at an auction and wants to transform it into an extension of his highly profitable wood-chopping business.
The social elements of HINTERLAND are well illustrated, but the narrative moves so slowly that in the end we become slightly irritated with the drama as a whole. Director Thomas spends too much time focusing on meaningful close-ups of the protagonists' faces; it's clear they have their own personal problems to deal with, as well as solving a case.
The actual whodunit plot is pretty predictable involving a family at war; there are a few surprises about the respective members' past, but the dénouement is melodramatic in the extreme. Thomas brings in a cliff-hanger to persuade viewers to watch the second series of the drama, but for first-time viewers, this episode of HINTERLAND is a real turn-off.