In the first season, they immersed themselves so deeply in a submarine involved in the disappearance of a fishing vessel that they kept the name and the success pushed them to keep going. In the second, drones and computer hackers again drew on current events to create a plot that put their protagonists in danger. And now, with Russia as one of the greatest threats to international security as the backbone of the plot, in the style of the most classic Hollywood, inspectors Amy Silva and Kirsten Longacre return to propose a thriller with current politics as the backdrop.
Movistar Plus premieres today the third installment of Vigil, one of the British miniseries that, with greater accuracy, have managed to combine criminal investigation, current events, espionage and drama. And it does so in full, so that we can enjoy its six addictive episodes in which the characters played by Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie will again delve into a dangerous investigation.
And as we have seen in the two previous installments, standalone and also available on the platform, Silva and Longacre will have to overcome difficulties without their personal relationship being threatened.
International conflict on a small island
In this third season of Vigil, set in the Arctic, as its subtitle reveals, the protagonists are slow to arrive. Because the opening of the first episode focuses on narrating the events that will lead to their investigation. And it will not be an easy job that allows them to balance their personal and professional lives. The place chosen is Svalbard, an archipelago belonging to Norway where there is a research station and where British special forces work undercover.
Suranne Jones is the investigator Amy Silva in Vigil: Arctic Conspiracy.
In theory, this quiet place where hardly any crimes occur is a demilitarized zone. In practice, the members of the special forces who must escort a Chinese researcher to the place where a helicopter will pick her up are ambushed by Russian special forces. The outcome of this complicated and tense situation will be fatal: the next morning one of the Britons is found murdered and the Chinese scientist has disappeared.
In Scotland, Kirsten is about to return to her work after what happened in the second installment. Nervous about the challenge she faces, as she is about to set out to resume her professional routine, MI5 selects her as the chosen person to travel to Svalbard and discover how the British soldier died and who is responsible for his death. But it won’t be easy, because there she will encounter a hostile environment, a supposed collaboration by the Russian authorities and a scientific project that is connected to the political elites of her country.
Current Affairs Thriller
As proven in the previous installments, Vigil returns to fuse criminal investigation with political current events, offering the viewer the classic elements of the genre with the facts that surround us in our daily lives. And thus, as one of the characters says, it builds a narrative about “the world’s latest gold fever,” and we will be the border town.
Rose Leslie and Suranne Jones in a still from Vigil: Arctic Conspiracy.
Because the major players in this story—Russia, the EU and China—are joined by the rare minerals that can only be found in Arctic places, climate activists, and the fragility of international relations that can crack at the slightest crisis. And though this might not be the best of the three installments of the British production, it keeps the viewer interested thanks to its proximity to reality.
Six episodes that keep us glued to the screen and that are perfect for letting yourself be carried away on one of those afternoons, perhaps not as autumnal as we would like but that invite a moment of unwinding to be swept away by a British miniseries, a genre with a pedigree that always remains intriguing.
