‘The Tunnel: Vengeance’ (Season 3) Review
When it comes to The Tunnel, the pairing of Karl Roebuck (Stephen Dillane) and Elise Wassermann (Clémence Poésy) is what makes the show stand out. This of course is in the similar way that the show it is based on, The Bridge, catches the audiences interest. Now with The Tunnel: Vengeance, the duo is back again, but will that spark between the two still be there?
When a stolen fishing boat is found adrift and on fire on the English Channel Karl and Elise are teamed together again. Believing that the missing cargo from the ship was trafficked missing children, they are soon on the trail of the Pied Piper. With connections to past cases, it soon freefalls into a disastrous end.
When it comes to The Tunnel, much like The Bridge, Elise (and in the case of The Bridge, Saga) are the stand out characters in the show. The emotionless way Elise handles the case isn’t about her not caring, but more about defending herself from the outside world. Then we have Karl of course who is all about emotion, and in many ways, acts as a crutch for Elise as she has to handle the social etiquette of being a detective.
To make things more interesting in The Tunnel: Vengeance this time we venture into the past of Elise, but not in a personal sense, but one of her past cases. Based on the fact that she got a case wrong and made somebody suffer, she shows emotion and actually looks to fix what went wrong. The fact that corruption within the police force is revealed in some way redeems her, but it all leads up to the conclusion.
This time, Karl is a little less connected emotionally, but we do see him have more family issues. In many ways this side of the story does feel a little disconnected from the story, but it does show that his life should be more with his family, and less in the police force. This all leads up to the finale of course, which I will say I’m not a fan of. Not that it isn’t good, but the problem is that it is putting a full stop the story, there is no going back. Unless they do of course, but I doubt it will work.
While I did enjoy The Tunnel: Vengeance for some of the episodes, I felt a little disconnected from the story. In some ways this is because the story has so much to do in only six episodes. There are elements from the past, building up the actual people Karl and Elise are hunting down, and the emotional issues that have to be set up. At times it did feel confusing as to how the elements connect to each other. Thankfully though by the last episodes the threads do finally come together.
While The Tunnel: Vengeance could have done with a little more focus, it still gets the job done. By the end of the final episode, you’ll be emotionally drained, and in some ways annoyed that it ended that way. It may not be the way we wanted things to go, but in the end, that doesn’t take away from the fact that The Tunnel: Vengeance stayed true to the characters of Elise and Karl, and gave fans the quality drama that they will have hoped for.
****½ 4.5/5
The Tunnel: Vengeance is available on DVD in the UK now.