I am absolutely loving this show. After discovering the show on Amazon Prime last week, I have basically watched Season 1 and 2 within the space of 2 weeks.

It's a cop show set in Montreal, and centers on 2 cops from the 19th division, in car 19-2. They don't really get along, one is a veteran with a very dubious moral compass, who got his previous partner shot, and the other a straight-as-they-come-boy-next-door from a rural police station, who did the right thing by arresting a close family member.

Each episode is very unique and stand alone, however, there is a season-long plot, but it's not part of every episode, and only comes up more regularly towards the end of season 1, and the beginning of season 2.

Season 2 starts of with an explosively emotional episode involving a school shooting, so viewers beware, and although it was fairly exhausting to watch, it was, in my humble opinion, filmed brilliantly.

What makes the show so special, is that the characters, like most human beings, are never just "good" or "bad", and while season 1 started with fairly generic caricatures for characters, they have all evolved over the season, they have grown, some becoming better, some worse, those you thought you hated you now see with new eyes, and those you thought you loved are starting to show feet of clay.

In other words, they are human, and like most human beings, they change, they grow. I find that cop shows have a tendency to show their characters as "set", with no growing left to do, with characters basically the same from the 1st episode to the last episode, something that usually grates on me, as it means that an annoying character will likely stay annoying throughout the life of the show.

I also enjoy the frequent banality of police work, the drunk guy on the side of the road, the homeless guy that should really be in a mental hospital, that sort of thing. Cops have to deal with this every day, but it's something most cop shows don't show, as it's considered too boring, yet 19-2 has found a way to mix the boring with the more exciting, allowing the viewer a more complete idea of what a day in the life of a copy is like.

I have read that they have renewed it for a 3rd Season, so I know I'm not the only person that feels this way.

Highly recommended.

I thought, at the beginning, it was pretty good. By the end of this 10 part series I was convinced that this is one of the best cop series' I have ever followed. All the dialogue is in English, although the setting is a police precinct in Montreal, a French speaking Canadian city. The fact that no French is spoken is neither here or there. What got me was the vast tapestry of the characters emotional integration with one another, from every conceivable ethnic, racial, and gender related angle, whether forced upon them by the job or via more natural evolvements on a social level. Woven into this rich tapestry is also the previous history and guilt of each individual's past, now testing their consciences as they endeavour to tackle a myriad of the city's anti-social, political, and criminal problems. The filming quality is excellent and the producers don't pull their punches, censorially, when depicting anything that is particularly gruesome. There are no 'goodies and baddies' here, just the brutality of reality to be waded through by cops who want to do the right thing but are no saints, where decisions are demanded to be made, some of which being not too dispassionate or wholesome. Having thoroughly been engrossed in episodes 1 to 9, episode 10 introduces a whole extra dimension of revelation to the stew to entice us into the next series. Luckily I already have series 2 of '19-2' to carry on with. I can only hope it's as good as the first one.

Eamonn

This Canadian series is extremely well directed with a talented cast. The episodes are gritty and raw. This series is very much not for the kiddies, or anyone who is faint of heart as there is a lot of graphic violence and sex depicted. Somewhere in the halls of television rulers, it has been decreed that all characters in a police series must have deep secrets, personal trauma and angst and this one is no exception. The difference is that it is integrated into the storyline well and as I said the direction is exceptional. There were several scenes during which subtle body language movements by the actors expressed a significant plot point. The last few episodes of year one got pretty heavy in the graphic sex department. Hopefully this doesn't mean plot ideas are running out for year two. Very well done indeed.

19-2 is an English-language remake of the French-Canadian show of the same name. Unlike the vast majority of remakes, the English version of 19-2 is on par with the original. It is filmed on location in Montréal; just don't be surprised when you find that everything in the show that is written (wanted posters, newspapers, etc.) is in French. Some of the cast reprise their roles from the original series.

19-2 focuses almost exclusively on Montréal patrol cops. So much so that you don’t see cases being brought to trial and there aren't any CSI-style forensics teams popping up to solve the crime of the week within 40 minutes and taking all of the credit.

Instead 19-2 is all about the day-to-day realities of police work in Montréal; turn up on the scene to deal with events such as missing persons, robberies, domestic disputes, keeping watch over dead junkies until the coroner arrives, maintaining public order and being on traffic duty. Naturally the cops’ private lives and work lives cannot always be separated and the conflict between the two drives much of the show.

There’s a second series (DVDs are out next month) and it has already been renewed for a third series.

19-2 is a superb new Canadian Police drama that you will thoroughly enjoy. The show focuses on Cops on the street in Montreal who are at the bottom of the proverbial "s*#t rolls down hill". The main focus is on veteran Cop Adrian Holmes who gets a new partner who has transferred in from the "Country" after Holmes partner is left in a vegetative state following a shootout. The layers of issues the different Cops in the Precinct deal with at work--and at home form the bulk of the show. This isn't like other Cop shows where a particular crime is followed & solved each episode. Rather, it follows the characters over the entire 'arc' of the whole first season and ends with a great set up for season 2. The show reminded me of "Brooklyn South" which was a Cop show that was written & produced by the Steven Bocchco who made "NYPD Blue". It ran just one season and is available on Amazon as well.

After spending two or three weeks in Montreal, I have fallen in love with Canada! I found the richness of culture of this bi-lingual enclave both fascinating and intriguing.

As soon as I saw the write-up for this show and its setting being Montreal, I had to order it immediately. The acting was the usual high standard that I have come to expect from Canadian films and series. The story lines were gripping and full of twists and turns.

The complex relationships and troubled emotional make-up of the protagonists added to the richness and depth of each episode; a real study of human nature. The disparity between the two male leads made for interesting viewing. Both heavily laden from different kinds of guilt attempt to get through each day as vest they can. It is interesting to see how these very differences are the same things that begin to draw them together. Worth every penny. Can't wait for season 2!

I do not pretend to know how real-life Montreal is, I was there like thirty years ago and never since (yet!)...... But I cannot shake the feeling this series is a cheap imitation of American series like "Chicago P.D." etc. There is so much copying, yet the Director cannot bring any of these to life...... There are episodes where you have a sickening abundence of fxxk, fxxk and fxxk, but there is no true necessity to all of it....... The series is not real bad, it is entertaining up to a certain point, but it would never be the equal of the great ones. Don't get me wrong, I watched UK, US, Canadian, French, Korean, HK and Japanese TV series, I know a good one when I see it. This just isn't it.

You won't find much better drama anywhere. It's not an absurd Hollywood/major network shoot-em-up fantasy sinking beneath the leaden weight of tired cliches and cop series tropes. What it is is a taut, brilliantly staged and acted tale of ordinary people trying to do a difficult job. What makes it especially gripping is the dysfunctional relationship between the two cops at the centre of it all. It's intense, moving (I doubt you'll find a better depiction of post-traumatic stress anywhere), and utterly gripping.

It was six episodes before I noticed some clunky dialogue. Six episodes! Most TV cop show can't go six seconds before forcing a character to say something unbelievable. That's how good this show is. Long may it run.