With all this going on, each episode otherwise focuses on a single case, most of which are interwoven with the forest's magic in some way - and it's here that Black Spot really sets itself apart from other crime shows and becomes extraordinary, for two reasons:
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This is a difficult thing to articulate, but lots of crime shows fall into a trap of either having very elaborate clue-paths and motives for the detectives to solve, or completely abandon all logic to give you a Shock Reveal, because they want too badly to always surprise you.
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Black Spot, though, doesn't have this problem. Because the ongoing plot threads are so rich, the mysteries so compelling, the actual crimes themselves are plausible, with regular motivations - it's how they fit into the wider picture of Villefranche and its magic that intrigues.
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More than once, individual episodes borrow from familiar horror tropes - a cave search evokes The Descent in one; found footage suggests The Blair Witch Project in another - but this never feels stale even so; more like a self-aware homage.
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The only show I've ever seen like it - and which I also highly recommend - is a Swedish show called Jordskott, whose second season I haven't yet seen, but which is also a magic murder forest crime show that touches on industrial politics, child loss and old pagan magic.
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S1 of Black Spot is only eight episodes long, so you can burn through it in a day if you have the time and inclination, but I recommend drawing it out a little longer: it's one of those rare shows that's so good, you want to savour it.
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In conclusion, PLEASE WATCH BLACK SPOT I NEED MORE PEOPLE TO YELL ABOUT HOW AWESOME IT IS WITH ME.
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(Also, final sidebar: as someone who has written a book whose female protagonist loses two fingers early on, I was weirdly thrilled that Laurene also has this in her story.)
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End of conversation
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