Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Mire ‘97’ on Netflix, the Welcome Return of a Grim and Gritty Polish Cop Drama

Polish Netflix series The Mire ’97 leaps forward about a decade-and-a-half after the early-1980s events of The Mire concluded. Some things changed in Poland during that time, most notably the rise of democracy in the wake of the fall of the communist Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. Slightly more to the point, the “great flood” of 1997 occurred, devastating large swaths of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic — and it’s precisely in the soggy aftermath that this gritty drama picks up, with first-season stars Dawid Ogrodnik and Andrzej Seweryn returning to reprise their roles.

THE MIRE ’97: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Hands work to assemble pins for World War II weaponry.

The Gist: FEBRUARY, 1945 — GERMAN LABOR CAMP. Polish prisoners. Nazi captors. One prisoner of war is accused of “sabotage” for forgetting to install the ignition charge in a mortar launcher, and is forced to stand naked in a stress position against a pole. Jump ahead to July, 1997 — the Polish town of Gryfino (presumably) is looking worse for wear. Residents toss flood-damaged furniture into the streets. Anna Jass (Magdalena Rozczka) drags herself out of her hotel bed and past the requisite empty booze bottles for another day as a plainclothes cop. Her co-worker, Mika (Lukasz Simlat) drives around and through the flood wreckage to the Gronty Forest (Crooked Forest) and slogs through the swamp in waders, past skeletons washed out of a WWII cemetery to a fresher corpse.

At the police station, Anna is in the midst of filing out a missing-persons report for a concerned mother when bad news comes across the radio: The mother’s 12-year-old son is the body in the forest. Meanwhile, at the Courier, Piotr Zarzycki (Ogrodnik) is named the new editor-in-chief. He’s been away for many years, but returns to the city and newspaper where he began his career (in the first season). And hey, surprise surprise, the publication is under new corporate ownership, and therefore under pressure to sell more papers lest it go under. Piotr suggests finding some “sensational” stories to goose readership; later, when he’s at home with his wife and daughter, we learn his goal is to revive the Courier from its moribund state and then move up the ladder.

We see Anna in her hotel with her breasts bound, suggesting she’s LGBTQ. The boy’s death is written off as an accidental drowning, but she investigates further after getting a tip from the Courier’s goofy horoscope writer. Of course, this means we get that staple of every TV cop-drama ever, the MORGUE VISIT with requisite oogy corpse close-ups. Piotr visits a rich man whose adult son has been abducted and held for ransom, offering to double his ad buy for the paper in exchange for daily updates on the kidnapping. He also gets some bad news about his former lover, who seems to have sent him a letter from beyond the grave; he visits his old pal and former reporter Wanycz (Seweryn), who may have something to do with the note, or at least knows something about it. Hmm.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Well, it rhymes with The Wire, and depicts the ink-stained newsroom wretches similar to that landmark series, whose influence can be felt in so many shows since. The Mire also shows shades of gritty procedurals like Luther and The Killing, with the swampy backwoods notes of Justified and True Detective.

Our Take: So far, so gloomy. The first ep of The Mire ’97 keenly and efficiently sets up physical, philosophical and political contexts of the setting, neatly intertwining such details into the is-it-murder-or-not plot. It sets the hook with character intros and catch-ups, establishing Piotr as a man with plans that may be hampered by his baggage, and Anna as the woman of mystery whose calm, collected demeanor surely masks some pain, because why else would she hit the bottle so hard? She seems to be on the cusp of upsetting long-held local power structures — there’s talk about how “bastards” in charge still make sure journalists and cops stay within established boundaries, despite the onset of democracy. It sure seems obvious that the kid’s death is more than accidental, and finding out what happened is bound to upset some applecarts. This is pretty gripping dramatic fodder, and if the six-episode season renders Anna as the cool-as-f— flawed protagonist she seems to be, it could make us look past a few genre cliches and get very involved in this story.

Sex and Skin: A male prisoner of war is forced to strip nude.

Parting Shot: A woman who hid in Wanycz’s apartment watches Piotr walk across the parking lot, then draws the curtains.

Sleeper Star: Series newcomer Rozczka shows plenty of potential in this debut episode — she’s likely playing the season’s most compelling character, the smart and wily outsider who can work beyond the subjective limitations of the locals.

Most Pilot-y Line: This exchange between Anna and a co-worker sums up The Mire concisely:

“Why so quiet around here?”

“Everyone’s gone to see a body.”

“Haven’t they seen one before?”

“This one’s fresh. A floater.”

“Just like Baywatch.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Some of the boilerplate stuff of similar procedurals is present, but The Mire ’97 is well-written and visually detailed — and some worthy LGBTQ representation doesn’t hurt, either.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Mire '97 on Netflix