The Frozen Dead is a French mysterythriller television series from channel M6, set in the French Pyrenees. The six-episode series is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Bernard Minier. The Frozen Dead premiered in France on M6 on 10 January 2017. It became available for streaming in Australia on SBS On Demand in August 2017, and released internationally on Netflix on 1 January 2018.
Plot
The story begins with the discovery of the headless corpse of a horse that belongs to wealthy businessmanEric Lombard, in the French Pyrenees town of Saint-Martin-de-Comminges. The case is then investigated by Commander Martin Servaz, assisted by local police Captain Irène Ziegler. When Servaz and Ziegler find the horse's head, they also find at the crime sceneDNA that is determined to be that of serial killer Julian Hirtmann. Hirtmann, however, is incarcerated at Warnier, a high-security psychiatric prison, where young psychiatrist Diane Berg is showing an unusual interest in him. The case is later found to be linked to the suicides of three teenage girls at a summer camp 15 years earlier.
The series was produced by Gaumont Télévision and co-produced by Metropole Television. Directed by Laurent Herbiet, it was created and written by Gérard Carré, Caroline Van Ruymbeke and Pascal Chaumeil, with a script from Hamid Hlioua and Laurent Herbiet based on the 2011 novel Glacé by Bernard Minier. Filming in the French Pyrenees started on 15 February 2016 and wrapped in early April. Among the locations used are the towns of Bagnères-de-Luchon and Garin, and the Peyragudesski resort. The image used in the title sequence was inspired by a painting by August Friedrich Schenck and represents the harshness of winter and the cruelty of predators towards their prey. The mysterious cloaked figure symbolizes Julian Hirtmann, the manipulative character in the series. The title sequence is accompanied by a children's choir rendition of the song "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails.
Release
The Frozen Dead premiered in France on 10 January 2017. Netflix acquired worldwide distributions rights in October 2017, and released the series on 1 January 2018.
Reception
Ratings
The debut on M6 was watched by a peak overnight audience of 4.85 million viewers, an audience share of 19.3%. It was the best premiere of a French drama on the channel since 2010. It averaged at 4.3 million over the first two episodes in the first week, and reached 5.1 million viewers over a seven-day period. However, the audience totals decreased in the subsequent weeks, falling to 2.8 million for the next two episodes the following week, and 2.7 million viewers for the final two episodes. It had an average audience of 3.28 million over the entire series, rising to 4 million in consolidated ratings with an average gain of 760,000 viewers per episode, the best 7 day catch up viewing figure for the channel since Quantico.
Awards and nominations
The Frozen Dead was an entry at the Festival de la Fiction TV de La Rochelle in September 2016, where it won the "Best Series" award.
