Die Zeugen

The far north of France has its universally appealing quirks, as the unlikely hit film Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, 2008) exploited to excellent comic effect. But can Le Nord serve as an effective setting for more serious drama, like that emanating from much farther north? This French mystery-thriller series gives a Gallic slant to all the tropes developed to such good effect in classic Nordic Noir: weird title song in fractured English, drone shots of landscapes under oppressive skies, obsessive female cop with personal issues, etc. Nearby Normandy was settled by the Vikings, after all.

There are good things here. Marie Dompnier as the young detective Sandra Winckler is very watchable: she alone gives the series its focus and makes one care about what happens. But the plot is far too elaborate even by recent Scandinavian standards and the holes in it gape far too wide. The device of giving no answer at all to straight questions becomes seriously overused, especially in relation to Paul Maisonneuve (Thierry Lhermitte), the aristocratic, stone-faced ex-police chief with an enigmatic past. You keep on wanting to yell, "Just answer the question!" at Paul. As for Sandra, you'll repeatedly find yourself shouting, "Call for backup on your cell phone!" and when this fails, "For heaven's sake just shoot him!"

The small Channel town of Le Tréport, at the foot of chalk cliffs, has a major role as a dismal, Gothic background for the convoluted goings on. Yet Le Tréport in reality is a charming place, certainly not one known for awful weather, demented clown-faced serial killers, and rabid wolves. It might have been better to use the Broadchurch method: a sunny seaside village with magnificent cliffs as a splendid foil to the dark undercurrents.

There will of course be another series of Witnesses, as certain plot elements need to be resolved. I suppose I'll watch it, but not with high expectations. There was only just enough in this series to make me persist with all six episodes, and it's really not a patch on The Killing or Broadchurch nor on the best French cop dramas like Spiral.

Despite the tendency to compare it to recent offerings like The Bridge and The Tunnel etc, really you should forget those and seek to approach this with a clean slate.

We're seeing it with a head start here in Australia, and episode 2 shows that the promise is there to live beyond the initial opening episode and what are always grand setups.

Whats truly astonishing to me is that for the lead actress, Marie Dompnier, this is the first outing for her in front of a camera (i understand she is a seasoned theatre actor). She is transfixing, not only for her appealing appearance (i already have a crush, but will move beyond the superficial hereon in!), but for making her confident female detective character utterly believable. Its something of a triumph right there. She looks as though she has been acting on film for some time. I hope to see more of her in the future.

As i said, im 2 episodes in and i cannot not follow through!

I've just finished watching this series following its run on Channel 4 in the UK, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It has bags of atmosphere, some fabulous and very intense acting, and a great central character in the stunning Marie Dompnier. Certainly an actress to watch.

In addition, considering its 6 hour running time and novelistic structure, not to mention 2 intertwined mysteries to keep the viewer guessing, it really jogs along at quite a clip, with as much intrigue and incident per episode as many mini-series have in their entire running times.

There were a few plotting issues that lose it one point out of 10, but otherwise I thought this was as gripping as anything I've seen on TV for a while.

Another IMDb reviewer (daggersineyes?) liked season 1, but urged readers vigorously to 'pass' on Season 2. But Season 2 started with a bus full of dead frozen people and a pretty amnesiac trying to reconnect with her family. Compelling?! Yeah, I should have listened to dagger. I also enjoyed Season 1 with its mysterious piles of bodies turning up, implicating a high official in murder. But Season 2 fell off the tracks after a few sessions. I can only imagine that the writers thought they were doing a 4-episode offering, but then we're told to expand it to 8----& they went "huh? We have identified the killer & his cohorts and possible motive'(the guy's a loony-tune... What else would explain it?)... Why would we need 4 more episodes?" Seriously, the writers should have just insisted on writing a new 4-parter instead of producing this drivel. It was as bad as those C-westerns of the early 40's with Nazi war criminals... And trucks! Typically, an 8-session season might be 3 story-lines (4+2+2) or whatever... Anything but a dragged-out bit of nonsense over an entire season.

I have seen 8-parters done in mystery series, but the scope was broader, of course. When you start with a bus full of dead people, you have to 'cut to the chase' fairly quickly . Oh well.. next time (I listen to 'dagger').

Not belittling the performances here, but the story was disgraceful! Not something the writers want on their resumés, I can assure you (O, you wrote t-h-a-t? That the one where 2 villains commit suicide? Always wondered what you guys were thinking ... We'll call you - don't call us..)

Series 1 is excellent. The female lead detective, Sandra Winckler, is outstanding as she strives to prove herself in a male-dominated profession. Also outstanding is Paul Maisonneuve, the retired detective, who comes back to work with Winckler on solving a series of puzzling crimes that involve corpses being dug up and displayed in model homes. The plot slowly unfolds and comes to a satisfying conclusion in the final two episodes of Season 1. Seasons 2 is longer and during the second half, the behavior of Sandra Winckler is so unprofessional and implausible that it seriously lowers the quality of the series. Season 1 gets a 9; season 2 a 5.