The award-winning Welsh noir crime thriller Hidden is back with a new season — another whydunit that is as dark, dreary, and disturbing as any whodunit.
Similar to the structure of Series 1, the new season of Hidden follows three connected storylines: a murder investigation, the personal lives of the lead detectives, and goings-on in the lives of the perpetrators, whose identities are revealed from the off. Unlike the first season, Series 2 features a trio of teens instead of a 40-ish male as the culprits.
Leading the cast of both seasons are Sian Reese-Williams (Emmerdale, Requiem) as the newly-promoted DCI Cadi John and Siôn Alun Davies (35 Diwrnod, Hinterland) as DS Owen Vaughan.
It’s been nine months since the end of the detectives’ hunt for Dylan Harris, whose shadow still looms large over towns in North Wales. While he can no longer harm anyone, there are others to take his place in committing heinous crimes.
And a trio of teens — Mia Owen (Annes Elwy, Little Women), Connor Pritchard (Steffan Cennydd, The Pembrokeshire Murders), and Lee Williams (Siôn Eifion, 35 Awr) — has done just that.
Their victim is Geraint Ellis, a former chemistry teacher found dead in his bathtub by two police officers after an anonymous caller directs them to his home on the Bron-y-Foel estate. According to the pathologist, Geraint was murdered weeks ago and had suffered greatly before he took his last breath. So begins Cadi and Owen’s latest homicide investigation, during which they discover who Geraint had complained about and why he had suddenly retired and ultimately withdrew from the world at large.
Just outside Blaenau Ffestiniog, Siôn Wells (Owain Gwynn, Bang) jogs daily, rain or no rain, through the mountains. He wants to work, but his reticence in discussing the three-year gap on his CV during interviews works against him in his job-hunting. However, thanks to petrol station owner Hefin Mathews (Bryn Fôn, A Mind to Kill) and his daughter Beca (newcomer Lois Elenid), Siôn has a place to stay and a new ad hoc gig helping Hefin with towing and the like. Good things come in small gestures.
In the meantime, Connor starts to exhibit signs of PTSD while Mia and Lee are passive-aggressive in their bullying. As for Cadi and Owen, she’s dealing with the aftermath of both her father’s death and her sister Elin’s (Nia Roberts, Bang) divorce, and he’s a new dad with a baby daughter he cherishes and a life partner he’s growing distant from.
Then another dead body is found and the detectives have another murder to investigate.
Disaffected youth come in all shapes and sizes, and in the second season of Hidden, they are in the forms of the violent Lee, whose role model appears to be his criminal older brother, and Mia, a psychopathic control freak whose neglectful mum is more concerned with pleasing her lover than taking care of her daughter. Unlike them, Connor has a loving and caring mother, and he isn’t so much angry and resentful as he is lost and desperate for a sense of belonging and fitting in after moving to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Regardless, given all that has happened, Connor is now as miserable and damaged as his so-called friends. And reflecting the bleakness of their stories is the cold, harsh environment of Snowdonia.
Shown in English and Welsh with English subtitles, the new season of Hidden features Lowri Izzard (Made in Wales), Garmon Rhys (35 Diwrnod), Victoria Pugh (Stella), Lisa Victoria (35 Awr), Ffion Dafis (Living a Lie), Mali Tudno Jones (15 Days), Sarah Tempest (Double Top), and Megan Llyn.
Hidden: Season 2 premiered in the US today, and all six episodes are available for streaming exclusively on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon Channels.
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