You Think Life Is Mild North of the Border?

Any lingering illusion that Canada is a milder, blander version of the United States is dispelled by “Durham County,” a Canadian-made crime series that begins on Monday on the Ion network.

It takes a while to realize that this scary, well-made thriller was not made in America. “Durham County” has all the signposts of a Hollywood production: lush theme music and stark cinematography, a brooding homicide detective, barbaric rapes and murders, philanderers, sociopaths, yoga moms and alienated teenagers.

Network’s New Energy Source: The Dark

By ELIZABETH JENSEN

IT takes less than five minutes on the new drama series “Durham County” for two teenage schoolgirls to be seduced and sexually assaulted in a forest, all seen through the eyes of a peeping tom.

For the Ion broadcast network, little viewed and critically ignored, “Durham County” is a very loud statement of independence from its former incarnation as the Pax network, the home of wholesome family entertainment, some of it with a religious bent.

 **Read it here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/arts/television/06jens.html?scp=3&sq=durham%20county&st=cse