Danish mini-series "Equinox" runs in two timelines - the first takes place in 1999 when ten year old Astrid (played by Viola Martinsen in a standout performance) waves goodbye to her older sister Ida (Karoline Hamm) - who goes on a trip with her classmates to celebrate her graduation - and never sees her again. The whole class (or almost the whole class, as we subsequently find out - there are a few survivors) mysteriously disappears. In the second timeline -twenty years later - Astrid (now played by Danica Curcic) has a kid, an estranged husband and a job at a radio station as a host of some kind of a midnight mystery show. During one of her radio shows, Astrid answers a phone call live on the air from someone claiming to be Jakob Skipper - Ida's former classmate and ex-boyfriend - who gives a cryptic message about the disappearances from 1999, which triggers a flux of suppressed painful memories and sends her on a quest to find out what happened to her sister all those years ago. As Astrid starts investigating and uncovering more details, the narrative often switches back and forth between the two timelines.
There are some definite strong points to "Equinox" which make it an engaging watch. First of all, the short format of only 6 episodes works entirely in the show's favor, as the story doesn't get unnecessarily stretched in pointless subplots or muddled with excessive secondary character drama, which plague so many other series out there. Things are kept relatively simple (although there are possibly some questions left unanswered in the series conclusion) and for the most part dynamic. In short, "Equinox" doesn't continue longer than it needs to.
The story itself, while quite straightforward on the surface, juggles many elements - it has some Lovecraftian themes (a mysterious book/grimoire, which contains possibly deadly secrets and incantations), it has elements of pagan mythology (with a cult of a menacing godlike creature and rituals connected to the vernal and autumnal equinox and to the summer and winter solstice), it touches on psychic connection between siblings, dreams and hypnotism and at times one could even notice some fairytale references. It mixes them to a satisfying result and even though at times it may feel as though the series tend to go off the rails a bit, the way in which they are finally concluded actually makes sense, when you look back at the prior events - another thing which is sadly missing from many other mystery shows.
Character development is on point as well, but as already mentioned, not so expansive as to sacrifice the whole story in favor of it. We spend almost equal amount of time with Astrid as a kid and as a grown up: we see her as an innocent child, traumatized by her sister's disappearance, her horrific visions and dreams, seemingly unlocked by that emotional turmoil and the awfully misguided and potentially damaging attempts of her parents to deal with the tragedy, to the point where Astrid herself becomes a victim; we see her as an emotionally frail adult, who barely manages to function in her daily life and grows increasingly disconnected with reality and alienated from the people around her, as she struggles to find answers to a 20 year old mystery and at the same time prove that the visions, which have plagued her childhood may not have been a symptom of a mental sickness as others have let her believe. At the same time one could argue that Astrid's sister Ida is the second main character, as there are many lengthy scenes of flashbacks into her final days before the disappearance and I found her character and story equally, if not even more compelling. Her character ties in to one of the main themes of the series - the loss of innocence and the conflict of idealistic expectations and dreams of one's future versus the state of reality (many characters often muse on this theme, sometimes quite blatant (not 2 minutes into the first episode, Ida's best friend whispers in Astrid's ear: "Do you want to know a secret? Life is a big disappointment"). At the beginning Ida seems to have it all - the perfect home, parents and friends and endless options for a hopeful future ("You've got the world at your feet" - her father proclaims), but she soon finds out not everything is what it seems to be. I liked how the narrative of Ida being slowly transformed from the popular girl in school to a social outcast, rejected by her friends and misunderstood by her parents, parallels the way Astrid as an adult is slowly alienated from the people around her, because it seems to establish the bond between the two of them even more and makes us care about both of them.
There are however some problems with the story and mainly with Astrid's character. The script asks us to accept, that Astrid is so swept up in the pursuit of the truth, that she at one point seems to forget she has a kid. She apparently has missed her sister so much, that as the series progress, her being a mother ceases to matter to her, and the end of "Equinox" emphasizes it all that much more, because it fails to even address what happens to her child. It is as if it didn't exist at all.
Another possible shortcoming is the constant back and forth of past events versus present events. The choice of including numerous flashbacks and flashforwards in a film or series has proven to be notoriously difficult to handle in a way that doesn't harm the overall fluidness of the storytelling. So many films have failed at this, a recent example being 2019's adaptation of "Little Women" by Greta Gerwig. "Equinox" handles the time jumps in a mostly acceptable way - on the negative side there are times when the frequent shifts tend to get quite annoying, but on the plus side they never get confusing. In terms of flashbacks "less is more" though. They definitely could have reduced and removed some of them, or just stuck longer with one timeline before they switch to the other one.
One last thing that stops "Equinox" from being a truly outstanding show, is the fact that it gives some of its' secrets too soon - mid-episodes 3 and 4 really feel like the climax of the story (and a really good example of visual storytelling) and the remaining two episodes, while still holding a few surprises, don't quite reach that level of dynamics and suspense.
Overall, despite these shortcomings, I would definitely recommend "Equinox" for lovers of small-scale mystery shows with a supernatural twist. It's tight, relatively easy to follow and has an investing story and fairly well drawn characters that we care about. And the conclusion while not perfect is very competent and effective. Kudos to Denmark!
There are some definite strong points to "Equinox" which make it an engaging watch. First of all, the short format of only 6 episodes works entirely in the show's favor, as the story doesn't get unnecessarily stretched in pointless subplots or muddled with excessive secondary character drama, which plague so many other series out there. Things are kept relatively simple (although there are possibly some questions left unanswered in the series conclusion) and for the most part dynamic. In short, "Equinox" doesn't continue longer than it needs to.
The story itself, while quite straightforward on the surface, juggles many elements - it has some Lovecraftian themes (a mysterious book/grimoire, which contains possibly deadly secrets and incantations), it has elements of pagan mythology (with a cult of a menacing godlike creature and rituals connected to the vernal and autumnal equinox and to the summer and winter solstice), it touches on psychic connection between siblings, dreams and hypnotism and at times one could even notice some fairytale references. It mixes them to a satisfying result and even though at times it may feel as though the series tend to go off the rails a bit, the way in which they are finally concluded actually makes sense, when you look back at the prior events - another thing which is sadly missing from many other mystery shows.
Character development is on point as well, but as already mentioned, not so expansive as to sacrifice the whole story in favor of it. We spend almost equal amount of time with Astrid as a kid and as a grown up: we see her as an innocent child, traumatized by her sister's disappearance, her horrific visions and dreams, seemingly unlocked by that emotional turmoil and the awfully misguided and potentially damaging attempts of her parents to deal with the tragedy, to the point where Astrid herself becomes a victim; we see her as an emotionally frail adult, who barely manages to function in her daily life and grows increasingly disconnected with reality and alienated from the people around her, as she struggles to find answers to a 20 year old mystery and at the same time prove that the visions, which have plagued her childhood may not have been a symptom of a mental sickness as others have let her believe. At the same time one could argue that Astrid's sister Ida is the second main character, as there are many lengthy scenes of flashbacks into her final days before the disappearance and I found her character and story equally, if not even more compelling. Her character ties in to one of the main themes of the series - the loss of innocence and the conflict of idealistic expectations and dreams of one's future versus the state of reality (many characters often muse on this theme, sometimes quite blatant (not 2 minutes into the first episode, Ida's best friend whispers in Astrid's ear: "Do you want to know a secret? Life is a big disappointment"). At the beginning Ida seems to have it all - the perfect home, parents and friends and endless options for a hopeful future ("You've got the world at your feet" - her father proclaims), but she soon finds out not everything is what it seems to be. I liked how the narrative of Ida being slowly transformed from the popular girl in school to a social outcast, rejected by her friends and misunderstood by her parents, parallels the way Astrid as an adult is slowly alienated from the people around her, because it seems to establish the bond between the two of them even more and makes us care about both of them.
There are however some problems with the story and mainly with Astrid's character. The script asks us to accept, that Astrid is so swept up in the pursuit of the truth, that she at one point seems to forget she has a kid. She apparently has missed her sister so much, that as the series progress, her being a mother ceases to matter to her, and the end of "Equinox" emphasizes it all that much more, because it fails to even address what happens to her child. It is as if it didn't exist at all.
Another possible shortcoming is the constant back and forth of past events versus present events. The choice of including numerous flashbacks and flashforwards in a film or series has proven to be notoriously difficult to handle in a way that doesn't harm the overall fluidness of the storytelling. So many films have failed at this, a recent example being 2019's adaptation of "Little Women" by Greta Gerwig. "Equinox" handles the time jumps in a mostly acceptable way - on the negative side there are times when the frequent shifts tend to get quite annoying, but on the plus side they never get confusing. In terms of flashbacks "less is more" though. They definitely could have reduced and removed some of them, or just stuck longer with one timeline before they switch to the other one.
One last thing that stops "Equinox" from being a truly outstanding show, is the fact that it gives some of its' secrets too soon - mid-episodes 3 and 4 really feel like the climax of the story (and a really good example of visual storytelling) and the remaining two episodes, while still holding a few surprises, don't quite reach that level of dynamics and suspense.
Overall, despite these shortcomings, I would definitely recommend "Equinox" for lovers of small-scale mystery shows with a supernatural twist. It's tight, relatively easy to follow and has an investing story and fairly well drawn characters that we care about. And the conclusion while not perfect is very competent and effective. Kudos to Denmark!