On the Great Ark Train, a brutal murder leaves the head of hospitality to enlist the services of the last homicide detective in the world to help solve it. The complication? That man is also a leading figure in the revolutionary movement that exists among the underclass of the Train.

As post-apocalyptic fiction ideas go, Snowpiercer – based on the French comic Le Transpercenaige – is an interesting one. As the Earth succumbs to the climate disaster we all knew was happening, a last desperate attempt is made to rebalance things which instead leaves the Earth a frozen wasteland. This prompts the creation of the Great Ark Train – one thousand and one carriages hooked to a perpetual motion engine which will travel the globe forever, and is intended for the most wealthy in society. This is complicated when some of the less fortunate force their way on the Train just as it is about to depart, and find themselves locked into the rearmost coaches, dubbed ‘the tail’ to scratch out a miserable living under the watchful eyes and ever-present bootheels of the Train security.

This is all relayed to us in excellent shorthand presentation within the first handful of minutes, leaving the show to get right down to the meat of the story – the conflicting narratives of an underclass determined to one day rise up and take the Train from their oppressors, the utterly inane ‘problems’ faced by the rich first class passengers, and the strange pressures facing the eclectic mixture of people making up its crew.

For the Tailers, it’s pretty much the story of every oppressed underclass in genre. They’re living on reduced rations, in squalor and darkness, yearning for better times and planning the revolution. Only, they’re actually planning the revolution, complete with detailed, painstaking homemade schematics of as much of the carriages in front of them as they know about, plus an arsenal of cobbled-together weapons. Andre Layton is one of the leaders of that group, urging a little more caution as others get impatient, and then his life gets abruptly turned sideways when the guards come for him, because Mr Wilford – the train’s unseen overlord – wants a murder solved, and Layton is the only detective on the Train (and most likely in the world).

At the top end of the train, it’s also very much as you would expect, all incredibly rich, unsympathetic people complaining about sauna decorum in lavish surroundings, having their every need and whim catered to. Where the show gets interesting is in the middle – the parts of the Train which exist between the opulence and the squalor, and where Layton must move as he investigates the brutal slaying which happens to mirror one several years previously that it would appear the wrong person may have been punished for.

Daveed Diggs as Layton and Jennifer Connolly as head of hospitality Melanie Cavill are each given plenty to get their teeth into – I hesitate to say Diggs gets to have fun because it isn’t that sort of role, but Connolly certainly seems to be having a blast as the enigmatic Cavill, who has a secret so obvious the script frankly may as well have had a floating neon sign follow her around announcing it from the opening scene. What’s clear is that despite the rest of the Train staff feeling nothing but contempt for the Tailers, Cavill has a certain fascination with them that rather sits at odds with her position.

It’s violent too – lots of gore in this opener and the promise of more to come, but that’s what happens when you have armed rebels and a system of authority which doles out brutal punishments at the end of the world. The real star though, is the Train itself, all gleaming and massive and full of all sorts of wonders (including its own internal monorail to travel the length of it below decks). It’s certainly promising a lot with this opener, but whether it can deliver on that promise remains to be seen.

Verdict: A stylish, if at times obvious, take on an interesting idea. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds over time. 8/10

Greg D. Smith