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News on Canal+: the best detective series of the moment is winding down

What is it about?

In the small town of Calder Valley in Halifax, Yorkshire, Sergeant Catherine Cawood will soon be wearing her badge. He is seven months, weeks and three days away from retirement. But until then, he’ll have to live a daily life that’s still just as tough. Nothing is beyond Him; Especially not the worst when he is called to the scene of a macabre discovery, bones are found in a water tank under maintenance. The case promises to be even more complicated, as everything leads him back to the evil Tommy Lee Royce.

Happy Valley, TV series created by Sally Wainwright with Sarah Lancashire, James Norton, Siobhan Finneran, Rhys Connaught…

A poignant epilogue

After seven long years of waiting, we finally find the small town of Halifax for the third and final season of the wonderful Happy Valley, the BBC hit. Following her debut in 2014 by the incredible Sarah Lancashire, Sergeant Catherine Cawood is set to bow out and bring back the badge.

Bringing back a critically and publicly acclaimed series after a long hiatus always carries an element of risk. not to live up to expectations. The actors may be getting too old for their characters, the production team may be losing track and struggling to find authenticity for the series, or the creator – and in this case the creator – just wants to finish the story as soon as possible.

Luckily for us, Sally Wainwright – series creator, director and producer – has poured her heart and talent into this latest series. The third and final season of Happy Valley is not interesting. In addition to allowing its characters to come to a real conclusion and overcome a particularly painful period in their lives, the story – with its dramatic weight – lives up to expectations.

Sarah Lancashire as Catherine

So we pick up seven years after the previous season. A few months after her retirement, Sergeant Catherine Cawood was called to investigate a body found in a dry reservoir. The obvious connection to organized crime and political corruption is immediately apparent, and it all comes back to an unfortunately familiar face: Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton).

When one dives into the third season, one immediately notices that the wait, no matter how frustrating, was completely justified. Ryan (Rhys Kona), Catherine’s grandson, must be allowed to grow up and reach an age that will question everything.

Her arrival at the difficult age of adolescence allows Sally Wainwright to take the story to a difficult place and focus more specifically on her relationship with her father Tommy Lee Roy and the resulting tension between Catherine and her sister Claire (Siobhan Finneran).

Rhys Connor as Ryan

If there’s a major surprise this season, it’s Rhys Connor’s performance. It’s hard enough to find a child actor who can respond appropriately to such dark subject matter, but to find one who turns into an actor who can stand up to seasoned performers like Sarah Lancashire and James Norton is truly impressive.

And it must have been impressive, because this season is more Ryan’s story than anyone else’s. Of course, there are subplots that, even if they seem disconnected from the main plot, eventually form a coherent whole.

Among them is the issue of domestic violence in an exciting and somewhat quickly interrupted narrative arc. There’s also the Knezevich, a crime family we’ve already heard about in previous seasons, who make a grand entrance.

James Norton as Tom

But we won’t hide from you that the most interesting thing in this third season is the story between Katherine and Tommy, who are involved in the last battle for Ryan’s soul. A young man interested in getting to know his father must choose between building a relationship with the man who drove his mother to commit suicide, or supporting his grandmother, who devoted her life to protecting him.

Sally Wainwright has already said that Happy Valley is not a detective series for her. This is the story of a woman who has an extremely difficult life and she is a police officer. And when we look at this season 3, it becomes obvious. You can almost call the series a western. One where Catherine is a sheriff who has to protect her town from bandits and an evil gentleman in a big black hat.

We have rarely seen such a strong portrait of a woman. For his writing, the accuracy of his interpretation. But also for the choice of Sarah Lancashire, who takes the opposite view of a sexy policewoman who defeats her enemies with two shots of Krav Maga. Catherine is not an inspector in a suit. She is a woman in a field wearing a uniform and a yellow vest. He is 47 years old at the beginning of the series, and 56 at the end.

She looks her age, which she carries beautifully. It also calculates its curves. And that doesn’t stop him from chasing young men who won’t hesitate to punch him in the face. And he won’t hesitate to strike back. Undoubtedly, she portrays one of the most amazing and inspiring heroines on the small screen.

Happy Valley, Mondays at 9pm on Canal+, two episodes per night and available on MyCanal.

Source: Allocine

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