Condolences
Episode 2 of Post Mortem begins with detectives on the scene examining Arvid’s death. Reinert has his suspicions, claiming there’s been two deaths this week from one family. Well…technically one and a half anyway. aAs we see flashes to the past, it turns out Live did unintentionally kill Arvid by pushing him backwards down the stairs. The ensuing fall smashed an urn which cracked the man’s skull. Live awakens, still haunted by what’s happened the previous evening. She finds the tape recorder Arvid was listening to, and recognizes the voices as that of her Mother. At work, Live starts to lose control while drawing blood. She finds herself strangely hypnotized to the smell and taste of blood. Live’s eyes turn an emerald green in the mirror as it seems like we have a modern vampire on our hands. Odd meanwhile, shows up at the crime scene and has the unenviable task of trying to deal with his Father’s death. He’s understandably shaken, and after dropping his Father off at the morgue, tries to get back to work again. But how do you do that when a whole chunk of your life is gone? Well, Odd sits in Arvid’s office and finds numerous letters stuffed in the top of the desk. His Father was swimming in debt and now that’s passed to Odd. To make matters worse, he’s got two weeks before the place is closed. And if that wasn’t enough? Some kids graffiti a giant penis on the window. One glimmer of hope comes from a local businessman called Martin Jettland, who suggests Odd offer a discount to try and entice more customers to buy into his business. Arvid’s autopsy goes ahead but Brynjar, the man in charge of overseeing this, finds something inside the man’s chest. Hurriedly ringing Reinert and Judith, he confirms that Arvid’s ribs are broken. This reinforces that someone pushed him and it wasn’t a straightforward fall. That someone, of course, is Live. Reinert obviously doesn’t know this though and speaks to Live at the farm, promising to find the person responsible for all this. Live continues to act erratically, screaming at the dinner table and struggling to control her urges. Eventually she gives in to temptation and sneaks into the nursing home late at night. Creeping through the hallways, Live heads back in to see her patient, Mrs Gundersen, and takes a blood sample. This seems to do the trick as Live drinks in the messiest way imaginable. Blood is all over her lips, her mouth, her clothes and the floor. And that’s only made worse when Mrs Gundersen goes into cardiac arrest, prompting Live to try in vain to give CPR. The old lady has passed away though, and Live is trapped in the same room.
The Episode Review
Post Mortem returns with another quirky episode, but one that hasn’t quite got the balance right between its comedy and dramatic elements. As I said before, this is going to be an acquired taste and this episode only reinforces that. The modern spin on a vampire is a nice inclusion, although the rules surrounding blood-lusting is still very much the same. It’ll be interesting to see if the legends are changed or contorted in any way. This show definitely has some similarities to iZombie, especially the quirky set-up and modernization of certain elements, but it remains to be seen if this one can cook its elements into something wholly tasty or not.
