Travis Fimmel returns for a second season of mystery in Aussie cop show Black Snow. The actor continues to be a formidable presence in this equally-as-enthralling sophomore investigation, writes David Michael Brown.
Black Snow: Season 2
The first season of dark unsettling mystery Black Snow was created by Lucas Taylor and directed by Matthew Saville (Felony) and Sian Davies (The Gloaming). It introduced us to cold case Detective Sergeant James Cormack, played by Travis Fimmel. The dark cop show, channelling the best of Scandi Noir via rural Australia, mixed emotional characterisation with a head-scratching whodunnit that shocked and provoked in equal measure. Think killer Danish thriller The Killing meets Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road.
The murder in question took place in 1994. The victim was seventeen-year-old Isabel Baker (Talijah Blackman-Corowa, who is director’s attachment on the new season). The heinous crime shocked the small town of Ashford and devastated the Australian South Sea Islander community. 25 years later, the opening of a time capsule unearths a secret that puts Cormack on the trail of the killer, littered with red herrings. Using a time capsule buried many years before that murder as the McGuffin is a brilliant central conceit. As the parallel stories unravel, we see how the shocking murder devastated lives at the time and how those affected are still looking for closure when the new clues are unearthed.
This equally-as-enthralling sophomore investigation, beautifully shot in Queensland’s Glasshouse Mountains, continues the format as the detective investigates another cold case. This time looking for clues to the whereabouts of a young woman who went missing in 2003.
Aussie actor Fimmel has continued to be a formidable presence on screen scene since his breakthrough roles as the eponymous king of the swingers in the 2003 television version of Tarzan and opposite Patrick Swayze in The Beast in 2009. It was as legendary 9th Century farmer turned fierce warmonger Ragnar “Lothbrok” Sigurdsson in Vikings that he found fame, however. Since then, he starred in Duncan Jones’ Warcraft, went to war in Kriv Stenders’ Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, joined Simon Baker, Bryan Brown and Phoebe Tonkin in the award-winning adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe, worked with Ridley Scott on Raised by Wolves and is presently streaming into our consciousness as Desmond Hart in Dune: Prophecy.
Despite the overseas success, Fimmel always enjoys returning home but still, the actor is under no illusion when comparing the US film and TV industry and the home-grown titles he has worked on. “I always say that you can’t out-action the Americans and you can’t out-budget them,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “We can only out-Australian them and so the more Australian the story is then the more unique we are. We’re always trying to be ourselves and not trying to impress other places and that’s what makes us unique. We should embrace it and enjoy it.”
Talking to the same publication, series creator Lucas Taylor, who wrote the character with Fimmel in mind, explained how the development of the character became a cumulative effort. “I feel like I gave birth to Cormack years ago on the page, but then Travis has raised him, and he has brought incredible dimension to this character and made it uniquely his own.” He continued, “we’ve worked closely together throughout scripting on where Cormack is going and particularly where he’s going personally and how those challenges manifest and how we can put him under pressure and how he responds to that pressure. Working with him on that is a joy because it’s such a rich collaboration.”
In the second season, that character development has given the actor plenty to work with. The world-weary Detective Sergeant is dealing not only with the stresses of a missing persons case, the results of which could destroy a small community at breaking point, but also searching for his estranged brother who ran away when they were both children, both who had to deal with an abusive father in their own way.
He is joined by a stellar cast including Megan Smart (Class of ‘07), Dan Spielman (The Newsreader), Kat Stewart (Offspring), Victoria Haralabidou (The Tourist) and breakout star Jana McKinnon as Zoe Jacobs, the young woman who disappeared from her own 21st birthday party in 2003. Always resplendent in the then latest band t-shirt, late-night DJ Zoe is achingly hip. She’s politically and ethically forthright and brushes people up the wrong way with her views, constantly clashing with her parents. McKinnon completely inhabits the role.
Born to Austrian and Australian parents, McKinnon spent time in both of her parents’ homelands, starting her acting career in Germany including roles in the Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo adaptation We Children from Bahnhof Zoo—previously adapted by Uli Edel in 1981 heavily featuring the music of David Bowie—and the perennial German police show Tatort while also making a name for herself in Aussie dramas like Bad Behaviour.
Fimmel also makes his directing debut, taking the reins on the final episode of season two, joining Sian Davies and Helena Brooks (Wellmania) as series directors. Having worked with the likes of Scott, Jones and Stenders, he has obviously been taking notes. It’s a big episode for him as an actor, let alone also standing behind the camera and he relishes the challenge. Not only does he bring his character’s narrative arc to a powerful conclusion, but he also makes the prospect of a third season of Black Snow all the more enticing.
