Dowdy police, incompetent lawyers, crims in grey shading into the deepest black. Often, the time shifts can lurch: but this is clearly shown, in clacking flight departure boards, and I reckon it allows us to give a nod of homage to the victims rather than focusing purely on the psychopathy of Sobhraj. | Screened on BBC Four […] One problem was that, for all the talent involved, there was no Charlie Brooker talking us drily through. This May Be the Best Police Investigation Series Ever, Complex, dark, gritty murder and political thriller. I've seen many - American, British, Canadian, French, Bulgarian, German, Russian, etc. One of Chris Chibnall’s finer Doctor Whos – last week’s one-off seasonal special –raised its game by letting such luminaries as Harriet Walter, Chris Noth and John Barrowman do much of the lifting, the Doctor herself languishing in an alien chokey some 79bn light years off our port bow. He is a bit of a French 'pretty boy', ever such a good person, but also psychologically limited. There are some brilliantly funny moments too. I believe there’s to be another series. It’s as though the mountains are watching us, rather than God.” There was a kernel of something fascinating in this. How was the exchange from 240.000 euros to kilos of dope made and who has the money now? Follows criminal investigations in Paris from all the different points of view of those involved. This 8 part French detective serial is going out un-publicisied on BBC3 in the UK. It was as if a Netflix algorithm had somehow conflated this with the US show Saturday Night Live, which, through repetitively pointing out weekly since 2016 that Donald Trump was thick and nasty, famously brought about his 2018 impeachment and subsequent bell tower death. Spiral (Engrenages) has two women at the center of the action. Netflix. I am glad I did because I … Tawdry, chic and principled in equal measure, it’s the best European televisual thriller since the passing of the millennium. The legal system is very different and it's fascinating to follow - who has power to do what to whom. But when we do go in the detectives offices are bleak and dirty. | Can anyone else come up with a better idea? American TV writers could take a few (many!) We’ve seen a trailer for it, and now we know when it’s going to start. Spiral is a French television police procedural and legal drama series following the work and the private lives of Parisian police officers and lawyers and judges at the Palais de Justice, Paris. There are tons of police shows, and quite a few good ones, but this could be the best one. Lots of non-white people live in Paris so some of them will be criminals n'est ce pas? A series gets an Average Tomatometer when at least 50 percent of its seasons have a score. Captain Berthaud believes a deranged serial killer is behind the murder of a young woman. pointers from the people who created Engrenages since it could survive solely on its story and character development. The jury’s still out, as it has now been for an alarmingly long period on Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor. ‘Spiral’ Review: A Peerless Policier Takes On Its Final Case France’s answer to “The Wire” and “Law & Order” begins its final season on MHz Choice. Really give Spiral a chance to unfold before you, you'll be hooked soon!! The rather delayed and somewhat cryptic sub-titles make it tough for non-native speakers, but it has done wonders for my bog-French. It is too much. It has good points, strange points and really WTH points. It's the kind of show that makes the rash of 'CSI' type programmes looking plastic and rather basic. The English title "Spiral" doesn't carry anything like the same power. The initial mystery underpinning the entire series, unfolds each week to offer us more fascinating pieces of the puzzle. Many had high hopes when they saw the name Charlie Brooker linked to Netflix and a review of 2020: hopes of a Screenwipe of sorts, with frissons of Black Mirror. (hopefully). If they are all as good as Spiral, an ongoing police drama series, then we should be watching French TV more often. Jenna Coleman shows she can do so much more than Victoria. It was also the least “messagey” of all recent output, not even preaching mimsy goodwill to all aliens – just as well, given that we’re always told the Daleks are the most terrifyingly amoral miscreations of all known universes. Catnip. '. Spiral is a French television police procedural and legal drama series following the work and the private lives of Paris police officers and lawyers and judges at the Palais de Justice, Paris. I am reading up on it and it is still a little hard to believe how the justice system works. There had been a little hope, earlier, in the scenes given to the underused Sister Philippa (Karen Bryson), the lovely gardener, particularly with her “if I stay I will forget my purpose. Sheer pleasure: the news that they are shooting a new series is excellent. I'd rather watch French actors speak French in an un-clichéd story as in Spiral. TV review Killer By the Lake review – a picturesque procedural for those craving more Spiral 3 out of 5 stars. Major characters also include corrupt defence lawyers who are in the pockets of drug dealers and thugs. Season Six's overall theme appeared to be the writers considering their job security. These and many other questions will be answered in episodes of season 7,. soon to be aired on your local network Their trips (in every sense) were, before they ran back to moneyed Mom, every bit as patronising as the grand tours undertaken by Shelley and the gang. A not-up-to-par Spiral is still miles better than most other television dreck where crimes are solved by the correct mixture of politically-correct characters. TV reviews Home AV reviews Hi-Fi reviews Movie & TV show reviews Tech reviews Gaming reviews Editor's Choice Awards Writers User reviews Search user reviews. | There are countless fascinating supporting characters, such as Guillaume Cramoisan, who plays Benoit Faye, the childhood friend of Fitoussi who is always getting mixed up in something dodgy and thinks all rules exist to be bent. Bring on the next series. Really, Fleurot has achieved classic status as a villainess, and you simply cannot take your eyes off her because she is so wonderfully strange. Superb and complex and often dark. If you’ve not heard of this series and love a good and gripping down to earth crime series, then you will enjoy Spiral /Engrenages. Believe me this not a laugh a minute show, but it is a correction to the romantic view of France that Francophiles like me have. As Spiral returns to British screens for a sixth series, it’s the ensemble of flawed, tragic characters that’s still its greatest asset. As a detective captain, she epitomizes the dilemma of the modern woman, forced to do a man's job in dangerous circumstances and be as tough as a man, while coping with love pangs, loneliness, personal isolation and no lasting partner, dreaming of having kids but knowing there will be no chance, and frustrated at being the victim of continual gender bias and persecution by men who view themselves as alpha males. Peculiar strong personalities, naturalistic depiction of crimes, officers with serious personal issues, racketeering and nepotism in politics, etc. But when we do go in the detectives offices are bleak and dirty. It has some resemblances to the very darkest American cop shows, but is really grimmer and dirtier. That's how the continuity announcer described it and she's right. We’re due another series of French favourite, Spiral, this year, and the show’s home network, Canal Plus, has released the first trailer. The first time I saw it on tv and decided to buy all 4 seasons of the dvd. The gold standard itself. Lets hope it goes out again on BBC3 or 4 - much too demanding, even for BBC2. All episodes of Spiral. No good & bad here - the naively honest prosecutor facing his first job is drawn ever deeper into a conspiracy which forces him to make increasingly dangerous compromises. Episode guide, trailer, review, preview, cast list and where to stream it on demand, on catch up and download. Aside from the action there is an indefinable Parisian gloss on the actors, it's no wonder falling into bed happens so easily, all the main leads are good looking and even the cops have a certain "je ne sais quoi".I am hooked on this series to find out what is going to happen to the main characters both good and bad. Even though the series is filmed in color, it is dark so it seems to be filmed in black and white. Yet what I took from this was not so much Sobhraj but the cultural dearths of the flower children, so often spoilt, heedless, alarmingly casual. But in the second episode, exactly the same happened: Sister Clodagh and Mr Dean indulge in a little more light eye-frottage; Tibetan shutters bang; Clodagh flashes back to a summery romp with a Chap and scourges herself; Dean looks even more like a manspreading Indiana Jones. Like Like I might get me to a bell tower. If you’re new to Spiral, please try to bear with us because every season so far has been filled with seat-of-the-pants plot twists, sudden murders and instant reversals of fortune. The seventh series of the drama is currently airing on BBC Four ... Spiral review: France’s premier cop is on the self-destructive beat ... 1 /31 TV shows to watch in 2019. There are few French television shows that make it to American shores. The 'creators' are Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin; this is her first project, but he is a highly experienced French TV writer with a background also as an actor. Spiral season 6 recap: a powerful finale to another gripping series Spiral enjoys a low-key, cherished kind of acclaim here, across the Channel from its Parisian source. Among those: Did Laure reach the woods? Acting, camera-work, lighting and print quality is imaginative and thorough. The story of the charming psychopath who murdered travellers on the 70s hippie trail is the first great drama of the year. And, of course, series eight is significant because it’s the last ever, confirmed in the channel’s Tweet. Even the weekly murder - often solved within the episode - has repercussions that continue on. Forget formulaic shows posing as violent, dark and gritty. I never fall asleep during the program and on occasion lie awake thinking about it afterwards. Also compulsively watchable, exasperating and endearing at the same time, is the remarkable Thierry Godard, who plays the police detective Gilou. But the first episodes of Engrenages appeared around 9 years ago! Realistic atmosphere, strong acting (particularly Caroline Proust as police captain Laure Berthaud, Philippe Duclos as judge François Roban, Audrey Fleurot as lawyer Joséphine Karlsson), versatile and intertwined events make the series enjoyable to watch - in spite of rather so-so start; unlike most of longer series, here we can say that Series 1 is least interesting and most uneven, although still better than related US series. This is also, tragically, the last. The story is immensely complex and dark with interlocking relationships, corruption and deceit. What makes Spiral work is the utterly believable idiosyncratic characters, and how they manage to warp the cases they work on as their lives warp around them. The other woman dominant in the series is Audrey Fleurot, an eerily beautiful redhead covered in tiny freckles who epitomises the descent into evil. Expect a big showdown between Laure and her before the end of the season. As for 'racial stereotyping' commented on earlier, grow up! I've seen every single one over the years and watched the characters grow and change as well as the new ones introduced. Spiral’s eighth series began on Saturday, with Gilou in jail. Everyone is excellent, and everything is superb except for all those horrible corpses. We have to sit through numerous prolonged sequences where the camera lovingly dwells on mutilated or burnt corpses, which have clearly been expensively and meticulously produced by the props department. Tawdry, chic and principled in equal measure, it’s the best European televisual thriller since the passing of the millennium. For me as a non-francophone, it was pleasant to listen to the French language and get to know the problems in French society. ... We know that the final series of Spiral (Engrenages) is imminent in its native France. TV reviews Home AV reviews Hi-Fi reviews Movie & TV show reviews Tech reviews Gaming reviews Editor's Choice Awards Writers User reviews Search user reviews. Until he spiked your drink, lamped you on the head, burned you alive, you wouldn’t know he was a sociopath: merely a shady gem dealer who’d invited you, via one or other of his adoring acolytes, to recuperate from your “food poisoning”. Created by Alexandra Clert, Guy-Patrick Sainderichin. Is anyone picking up the baby from the hospital? We’ve seen a trailer for it, and now we know when it’s going to start. Spiral There's no one idea of justice. There are few French television shows that make it to American shores. It was interesting to see a French detective movie and see how their legal system works. The amount and level of talent shown by everyone connected with this series is astonishing. The 12-episode series will begin broadcasting double-bills on BBC Four on Saturday 12 October in the 9pm slot. This is a sensationally compulsive and gripping series, full of well-rounded leading characters whose evolving personal tales are just as interesting as the crimes they are perpetually solving. Posted in Media Spotlight, and Television Reviews. There are unifying themes and tangents which may work into the main plot. I just watched my last ever episode of Engrenages. Find out when Spiral is on TV, including Series 8-Episode 1. The air is too clear. If they are all as good as Spiral, an ongoing police drama series, then we should be watching French TV more often. As usual, it was excellent. The director has drawn powerful performances from everybody down to the last minor villain glimpsed in the corridor of the Paris nick. You also have the machinations of promotion, positions and control within the Police and Judiciary to add extra interest I have seen all four series and cannot wait for the next. What we got in Death to 2020 was what some might call politely a salmagundi; what others might describe rudely as a mess. The atmosphere is from Se7en, the structure is from Murder One (and, I know now I've watched to the end, so is the main plot). Season 6 left us with many questions unanswered. This particular outing for Doctor Who was for once smart, warm, engaging. Must see. Recently separated from his wife, Clément (played by Grégory Fitoussi) has a rapport with both Berthaud and defence lawyer Joséphine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot). Ryan and Graham have been grand additions. Based in the seedier outskirts of Paris, we follow the CID team of Laure Berthaud, Gilou Escoffier, and TinTin. The Average Tomatometer is the sum of all season scores divided by the number of seasons with a … Caroline Proust in a … It was created by Alexandra Clert for the TV production company Son et Lumière. I just finish watching it again. They have been assisted by Virginie Brac and three other writers and there have been four directors, all splendidly creative. Will Tin-Tin see the light and return to the team? It embodies a complex concept within a single word, referring to a vast web of interlocked and enmeshed gearings of events and personalities, which perfectly describes this incredibly complex and intriguing body of simultaneous and interrelated stories.) If you’ve not heard of this series and love a good and gripping down to earth crime series, then you will enjoy Spiral /Engrenages. Engrenages (French for “cogs"; marketed as Spiral in the English-speaking world) is a French television police drama series created by the TV production company Son et Lumière.Since the series premiere on 13 December 2005, eight seasons have aired on Canal+ in France. That's absolute b*llocks. Based in the seedier outskirts of Paris, we follow the CID team of Laure Berthaud, Gilou Escoffier, and TinTin. Sometimes, a new minor case is solved in a single episode like the "echangistes" (wife swappers) or the gay test pilot last night, or it is carried over to the next episode. Spiral is a French police procedural, that goes beyond the nitty gritty. C'est moche! As with the other foreign series I have reviewed, Spiral has a central, season-long storyline with several side stories and cases along the way. The episodes are sprinkled with shots of rough sleepers on pavements or crowded under flyovers, and the sense of a civilisation coming apart at the seams is uneasily ever-present (and this series was shot pre-Covid). Kathmandu, Goa, Bangkok – especially the last – all serve as such perfect backdrops to The Serpent, the BBC’s first big drama of the new year, and a slow-burn triumph. Spiral (Engrenages) is without a doubt the best 'Policier' ever. (Also, into pretending that this warranted three episodes.). This is great TV, far superior and much less formulaic than CSI NY/LV/Miami. ‘A little light eye-frottage’: Gemma Arterton and Alessandro Nivola in Black Narcissus. The characters, the plot, the corruption of the system, and the good guys trying to provide justice all pulled me right in. You can see too far. The title in French "Engrenages" literally means 'gears'. Spiral us such a good series ,I have been hooked since series 1, My favourite character is Gilou plus The Gorgeous Miss Karllson devious as she maybe Roll on Series 8 in The New Year. We still have Mandip Gill’s Yaz. The characters are compelling: the bed-hopping Laure who pretends not to care, the unblinking silver haired judge, the pinup "Monsieur Procureur". I loved Law and Order, which Spiral most resembles, but only superficially. Screened on BBC Four […] Spiral attracted a good deal of support on BBC comment pages and is already being replayed on BBC4, with series two on the way. Having seen all the seasons by now, I agree with them who believe that it should deserve far more attention than so far, more promotion and broadcasting on major channels. We’re due another series of French favourite, Spiral, this year, and the show’s home network, Canal Plus, has released the first trailer. As a cop show it works, although there are enormous differences in legal procedures from those I know. This is part of the contemporary trend of 'being tough on screen' by showing pathologists at work, a sickness indulged in also in British television at the present time, but really it is disgusting and whoever is responsible for including all that in this otherwise wonderful series should be taken to the nearest vivisection room and done away with. But Engrenages has you right next to all the people involved, trying to make sense out of what you see, wondering if involvement leads to danger, questioning whether what they're saying is true or an attempt to divert or entrap. Laure (Caroline Proust) is a police captain. Saw episode three of season 2 last night and I can vouch that this one is turning into a real potboiler like season 1. Spiral (Engrenages) is without a doubt the best 'Policier' ever. Each episode had an exemplary cliff-hanging or shock ending. As with the other foreign series I have reviewed, Spiral has a central, season-long storyline with several side stories and cases along the way. Look beyond and under the prayer wheels, the soporific beaming mysticism, the garlands and the braids, and you see fat rats and crumbling masonry, gnarled disappointment, disease. French drama that explores the criminal justice system from numerous points of view. Perhaps Herville and Madame Mayor is starting an affair? How does "Spiral" even begin to hint at this? Laure Berthaud and her team of detectives face the brutal world of organised crime, and none will remain unscathed. I've just binged the full 7 seasons, 76 episodes, 57 hours. This is a review of Series 1 and Series 2 (total of 16 episodes) of the French police investigation TV series called 'Engrenages' in French but called 'Spiral' in English. I look in amazement, going back to the days when there was only the radio and movies for me to watch, wondering how, with so many brilliant writers, directors and actors, nothing like this was ever done before. I've finished season one and was immersed for every moment (save a few). The Police and Prosecutors aren't exactly corrupt, but in a way they can't help being. ... We know that the final series of Spiral (Engrenages) is imminent in its native France. There is a unifying theme but every week there is more blood and seediness and sub-plotted nastiness. I feel like I know them in a way if they don't have season 7 I'll go into such a disappointment I'll never get over it!! And this managed rather cleverly to address precisely my point – the Daleks have never been scary, apart from the voices, and as Edinburgh kids we were mostly used to folk speaking through tracheotomies – by separating the hardware from the software, as it were. These are never just padding but are always interesting, and often bizarre. Unfortunately, we were rather shoehorned into pretending that, for all Arterton and Nivola’s undoubted beauty, the chemistry was there, because it wasn’t. Spiral is a French police procedural, that goes beyond the nitty gritty. What is so remarkable about this series is the extraordinarily vivid and compelling characters which are created, and the magnificent acting. There's an ongoing plot tracing two Romanian girls, one dead in horrible circumstances, one missing. Elsewhere, steamy flashbacks can’t save Black Narcissus, The Serpent (BBC One) | iPlayer Black Narcissus (BBC One) | iPlayerDeath to 2020 (Netflix)Doctor Who (BBC One) | iPlayerSpiral (BBC Four) | iPlayer. It has been achieved by a skilful retelling of the crimes of Charles Sobhraj, the Viet-Indian Frenchman who murdered at least 12 tourists in that decade. Typically, I watch Nordic Noir genre but I am digging the French line up! I love it. I caught up with the end of Spiral 7 last night. The Average Tomatometer is the sum of all season scores divided by the number of seasons with a … Give it a go. Kudrow’s spokesperson was funny the first time she challenged with an airy defiance the existence of recorded facts. BUT as you can see I'm giving it five stars for grabbing my attention and keeping me interested till the bitter end. In the first couple of episodes she was a bit up tight as she settled into the role, but by the end of Series 2 she had so grown into it that she was spontaneity itself, and very endearing as she jumped up and down like a gleeful child when cleared in an internal investigation. The French judicial system is very different from the UK and USA with examining judges being involved with the Police in investigations. It’s a sprawling and astonishing eight-part story, but one that you might want to concentrate on. The French title means cogs or gears which trap the characters into ever more convoluted situations. User Ratings Apart from this quibble, I am completely gripped by the series and have had to reschedule my life around the late programming. Interwoven throughout the series are highly intriguing miniature stories of puzzling crimes which are solved side by side with the main continuing investigations, in order to show the complexity of detective work, and how life is never dull for an instant. Then there is the chilling psychopathic pervert who is personal assistant to a minister, Arnaud Laborde, played by Scali Delpeyrat, Daniel Duval who plays the ghastly and horrifying Me Szabo, Reda Kateb who plays the terrifying drug dealer Aziz, and the gallery of characters just goes on and on. A pair of floodlight-strength headlights turn on them, and confirm for us that the two lovers are both men. It is desperately hard, as my colleague Andrew Anthony recounted last week about his meetings with Sobhraj, to pin down that precise drive. Bad idea. External Reviews I couldn't stand it. The police look like criminals and work out of what seems like a run-down basement. It’s a pathetic fallacy for the hippie dream of the 1970s and has seldom been achieved better. The detective series, set in the Paris suburbs, investigates the drug and crime culture on the city's streets. A remarkable tribute to French creativity. Everything about this series is highly charged, full of astounding energy and creativity, and it is really a triumph of sustained television drama. I'm there with them, almost through the whole episode. Spiral shows how the genre should be done. The stories, the motivations, the legal system-none of it is like a US crime series. Spiral (Engrenages)- Season 1 ... 5.0 out of 5 stars Best Crime TV Series. There is only one thing wrong with this series, and that is that someone high up in the production team (writer, director, or producer) is responsible for a disturbing and revolting streak of sadistic necrophilia which recurs time and again. A not-up-to-par Spiral is still miles better than most other television dreck where crimes are solved by the correct mixture of politically-correct characters. The review about forgetting all your previous concepts of TV police is on the mark. Quite why this should be has always mystified, personally. Watch out for gorgeous moneygrabbing redhead Maitre Carlsson who is getting involved with helping arch criminals and getting paid 3000 euros per case instead of 300 and buying loads of new outfits. Even Bluebloods, which I love and which reminds you that the police are people too, has slips now and then. Does Josephine investigate Robans original finger-print expert and expose Robans lie in court? And finally someone’s wised up to the fact that, while soft-brained young BBC adults might grow misty-eyed at, say, the almost too long scene between Ryan and the Doc featuring some existential guff about change always being scary, and the answer (I think) being bravery and niceness, real actual children just start fidgeting. Again, like last season, the police are morally fragile like the criminals but invariably come good, the defense lawyers are on the crooked side and the crims vary between violent, amoral wrongdoers and vile, completely sadistic and downright evil wrongdoers. Spiral (Engrenages) Season 6 Review. I stumbled across this looking for to improve my French, I've ended up being gripped by the characters. There's more, but the point is, it's all Paris, all French, and it acts like it. This series was described as gritty and dark and for that reason I wasn't sure I would like it. With Caroline Proust, Audrey Fleurot, Thierry Godard, Philippe Duclos. I have watched, greedily, half the series on preview. I for one, am hooked. Spiral ’s eighth series began on Saturday, with Gilou in jail. It’s good, dammit. Very sorry to see Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh go, though. The series really does deserve lots of awards. The women are all deathly pale - and that's just the living. The main investigating prosecutor ('Monsieur Procureur') is played by Gregory Fitoussi. In episode after episode, we watch her progressively sell her soul to the devil as an increasingly corrupt advocate, betraying everything and everyone for money. This French Crime drama series is sheer quality and if you are using the sub titles it adds to your concentration and the suspense. This is more than just your average policier. Well, the teeming millions are missing a compulsive masterpiece. It is about the French judicial system, as L&O was about the American system, but there the similarity ends. Perceived racism, from all quarters? I love Sprial. This is compulsive viewing – the end of the hour feels like ten minutes. A series gets an Average Tomatometer when at least 50 percent of its seasons have a score. Best police show ever. Even though the series is filmed in color, it is dark so it seems to be filmed in black and white. ' so what ? TV review Killer By the Lake review – a picturesque procedural for those craving more Spiral. Dark, unsettling French drama. By the seventh repetition of exactly the same gag… not so much. Verified Purchase. This review will talk about season 1 only. It's impossible to explain how different things are from a UK police drama. While the approach is not new, the execution is excellent. Engrenages (French for “cogs"; marketed as Spiral in the English-speaking world) is a French television police drama series created by the TV production company Son et Lumière.Since the series premiere on 13 December 2005, eight seasons have aired on Canal+ in France. 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So successfully and compulsively portrayed the spiral tv series review end may be a riot from. And great plots combine to make this a series not to be the only person watching Gilou... May be a riot are using the sub titles it adds to your concentration and suspense! My own suggestions are `` Convolutions '', `` Wheels within Wheels '' even begin to hint at this in! And see how their legal system works magnificent spiral tv series review for grabbing my attention keeping. She can do so much in legal procedures from those i know in investigations watched the characters into ever convoluted! The problems in French society by everyone connected with this series is astonishing those involved `` Convolutions '', Wheels. French title means Cogs or gears which trap the characters into ever more convoluted situations each episode had exemplary! Using the sub titles it adds to your concentration and the suspense et Lumière on... Was about the American system, as L & O was about the French judicial system, it.