You'd be forgiven for never hearing about Pivot, a "disruptive" cable TV network that disrupted very little in its three-year lifespan. I only learned about it by way of channel-flipping in 2015, at which point I discovered a British TV series called Fortitude.

The Sky TV series is now two seasons deep in its home country, and Amazon Video recently picked it up to let the United States back into the show's icy, Arctic weirdness. Having already seen both seasons, I cannot urge you enough to let its bloody, disturbing stories, er, disrupt your TV-watching regimen.

Ancient ice capades

Fortitude is set in a small, fictional Norway-governed Arctic research/fishing town of the same name, and its cast includes Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Sofie Gråbøl (original The Killing), Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones), and many other fantastic actors. The first season's plot begins moving when a shady resident of Fortitude discovers an ancient mammoth corpse. He thinks he'll strike it rich by selling its remains, but the opportunist instead becomes a victim of a mysterious wave of deaths. Townspeople disagree about what's going on. Newer residents wonder if a psychopath is responsible. Others accuse a little boy of having inhuman strength. Members of the town's native population believe an ancient evil has been awoken.













The murder investigation is headed up by Sheriff Dan Anderson (Dormer), a skilled but emotionally crippled cop who creepily obsesses over the local barmaid, Elena. Eric Odegard (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), Anderson’s less-than-skilled deputy, is married to Fortitude’s governor, Odegard (Grabøl), and they are wrestling with a dissolving relationship.

The investigation spirals out of control as the violence and bizarre behavior intensifies, and Oslo sends uppity investigator DCI Morton (Tucci) to butt his nose in and bring swifter justice. One of the few locals Sheriff Anderson trusts is Henry (Gambon), a cranky old drunk who has been in the freeze way too long. Henry doesn’t trust outsider DCI Morton, and he begins to unravel the mystery with his own investigation.

The local researchers discover similarities in the corpses: infestation of their brains by parasitic fly larvae which are... metamorphosing (eww). The larvae were preserved inside of the aforementioned mammoth corpse, then started spreading from resident to resident. The hosts become murderously insane and force their infestations on others (cue gross fly-transfer horror scene).

Surely this premise is silly, scientifically unsound stuff, right? Not exactly. Wasps, flies, and other parasitic larvae have been proven to affect the minds of cats, dogs, and rodents, while protozoans such as Toxoplasma gondii have been linked to schizophrenic behavior in humans. Of course, whether fly larvae can remain preserved for thousands of years within a frozen mammoth corpse requires willing suspension of disbelief, a la Jurassic Park’s mosquito-in-amber premise.

Muscimol and cookies by the chimney

The second season brings not only more bizarre behavior but also a ridiculous number of quality cast members. Look at this list: Dennis Quaid, Ken Stott (Rebus), Robert Sheehan (Love/Hate), Parminder Nagra (Bend it Like Beckham, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones). When a TV series can attract this many known actors to film in the freeze of Iceland, that's probably a good sign.









Governor Odegard has lost the trust of Oslo and has been replaced by grumpy administrative idiot Munk (Stott), and it's his new charge to bring order to Fortitude. Sheriff Anderson has disappeared into the tundra for sad reasons, and the not-so-skilled Deputy Eric takes charge of the police. Though the flies seem to be eradicated, their effects on humans endure in a creepy lab run by evil pharma company employee Dr. Khatri (Nagra), who is experimenting on a comatose Elena.

Meanwhile, struggling fishing boat captain Michael Lennox (Quaid) plays his usual bright-eyed optimist with a tinge of darkness, as his wife Freya has been diagnosed with late stage ALS and he’s determined to find a cure. Michael not only replaced season 1’s Henry as the town busy-body; he’s also Governor Odegard’s ex, so that complicates the plot a bit.

Michael's relationship with his ill wife is a bit too melodramatic for my liking, but it doesn't get in the way of the series' continuing intrigue. For starters, the killings continue. The researchers are baffled since they eradicated the flies, the killings are now ten times more disgusting than before; they start with decapitation and get worse. The situation quickly spirals out of control, as the dead rise, the Russians loom, and the shamans show up with their own ideas. (All the while, everyone in town drinks and drinks and driiiinks.)

One of the concepts explained more in detail during this second season is the recreational drink muscimol and the concept of a Russian shaman drifting afoot to ‘exorcise’ a demon (the parasite’s effect on humans). This storyline seemed ridiculous to me until I researched muscimol and found that Russian shamans actually used it in their work to drive away demons in past centuries. If you’re wondering, it also has to do with Santa Claus.

Muscimol is a psychoactive agent found in the mushroom Amanita muscaria (aka “fly agaric,” red with white spots, Alice in Wonderland-esque). Ingesting this fungus can cause psychedelic, depressive, or sedative effects. Its “drink” incarnation on the TV series is, well, reindeer urine. As in, the hoofed creatures metabolize the mushroom in such a way that sends imbibers on a crazy trip—and possibly a cure for murderous insanity.

The legend of Santa Claus’ flying reindeer can also be traced back to muscimol and actual shamans from Siberia, where caribou (aka reindeer) have been known to lap up their friends’ urine, as did the shamans. All of the drinkers apparently went on their own joyous Christmas vision quests.

Keep a strong drink handy

Fortitude isn’t a show for the faint of heart. Prepare for murders, suicides, human sacrifices, and even self-mutilation. Has the town been overrun by an ancient evil? Just a parasitic effect? A cure for death?

There’s a quiet creepiness to the show. The delicate atmosphere of sound and subtle music—it keeps you guessing where the plot is going and how you should feel about each character. To be honest, I had to shield my eyes a few times, so I may have missed an important emotional detail or two amid the sprays of blood. But once I got the nerve to persist, I couldn't look away.

Fortitude's first season is currently available on Amazon Video in the United States (free for Prime members). Its second season will debut on Amazon Video on April 14. In the UK, the second season has just finished airing on Sky Atlantic, and it is not available to stream on Amazon Video.