| Genre: | Crime drama |
| Developer: | Chris Mundy |
| Based On: | Low Winter Sun by Simon Donald |
| Opentheme: | "Hustlin' in the Motor City" by Bettye LaVette |
| Composer: | Tyler Bates |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 10 |
| Location: | Detroit, Michigan |
| Runtime: | 43 minutes |
| Network: | AMC |
Low Winter Sun is an American crime drama television series that aired on AMC from August 11 to October 6, 2013, for one season consisting of ten episodes. The series was developed by Chris Mundy and starred Mark Strong and Lennie James. It is based upon the 2006 British two-part miniseries of the same name which also starred Strong in the same role.[1] Filmed and set in Detroit, Michigan, the series follows detectives Frank Agnew and Joe Geddes after they murder a corrupt cop and attempt to cover it up, and explores organized crime in Detroit. The series received generally mixed reviews and AMC announced in December 2013 that it had canceled the series.[2]
In October 2011, AMC began developing the series[3] and ordered a pilot in May 2012, with writer Chris Mundy serving as executive producer and showrunner for the series.[4] In August 2012, it was confirmed that Ernest Dickerson would direct the pilot;[5] filming for the pilot began in September 2012 in Detroit.[6] AMC ordered Low Winter Sun to series in December 2012 with a ten-episode order; the series returned to Detroit to film the remaining nine episodes,[7] for which production began in spring 2013.[6] According to Mundy, the state of Michigan approved $7.5 million in incentives for the series' production. Low Winter Sun was reported to create 245 jobs and spend approximately $26 million in the state.[8]
James Ransone and Mark Strong were cast in July 2012, with Ransone playing Damon Callis, a member of the Detroit organized crime syndicate and Strong reprising his role as detective Frank Agnew, which he played in the original British miniseries.[9] Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Athena Karkanis, and Lennie James were cast in August 2012, with Hudson playing Charles Dawson, the commander of Frank’s precinct, Karkanis playing detective Dani Kahlil, and James playing a cop named Joe Geddes.[10] [11] Also in August 2012, Sprague Grayden and David Costabile were cast, with Grayden playing Maya, Damon's wife, and Costabile playing Internal Affairs investigator Simon Boyd.[5] Erika Alexander was cast in September 2012, to play the recurring role of Louise "LC" Cullen, a cop in the precinct.[12]
On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season has scored 60 out of 100, based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 41% rating based on 32 reviews with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critical consensus is, "Mark Strong makes for a compelling lead, but Low Winter Sun is too serious for its own good, sagging under the weight of its bleak, brooding tone."[14]
In her review for Slate, Willa Paskin found the series derivative of shows such as The Wire, which had a similar setting and tone, and was part of a broader "copycat phase" in American television drama. She defined the issue as, "The easiest way to tell the difference between the good and the bad doppelgangers is to apply a modified-for-TV Turing test: Do the characters on screen resemble actual human beings? The hard-boiled, stressed out, depressed types on Low Winter Sun do not."[15] Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times described the series' tone and storyline as "deadly serious drama, but some of the early scenes are so overwrought that they are almost laughable" and also making comparisons to The Wire.[16] In a 2024 retrospective, Joe Reid of Primetimer was critical of the series and argued it marked a shift in then-trends in prestige television, for grim subject matter and morally grey protagonists, when it ended up underperforming.[17]
The complete series was released on DVD in region 1 on August 12, 2014,[18] and on Blu-ray and DVD in region 2 on October 28, 2013,[19] and in region 4 on December 4, 2013.[20]