Engrenages - Im Fadenkreuz der Justiz

I just watched my last ever episode of Engrenages. No more, supposedly, will be made. I've seen every single one over the years and watched the characters grow and change as well as the new ones introduced.

It's showing a harsh reality of the underside of glamorous Paris. Corruption, poverty, slavery, immigrant crime, drugs, murder and robbery. Having used the word "reality", one mustn't go overboard. The series requires a hefty dose of acceptance of the absurd to be able to believe in the plot. Cops, judges and lawyers don't act like this in the real world. Some of the coincidences are contrived. However, the excellence of the acting and the overarching plot lines mean that one simply forgets about the inconsistencies and exaggerations.

Everyone has to have their favourite characters in the series and mine was Judge Roban. I missed him in the final season, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I don't think he would have put up with some of the shenanigans that the two new judges allowed.

Of course, without the character of Laure, there would be no series at all. It's hard to imagine another actress pulling this off throughout the seasons. And the disaster zone of Gilou simultaneously ruining and solving investigations.

The series could not have been about dry police procedure only and therefore opened out onto the private lives of the characters. Usually this is done in a cosmetic way to add some purported human interest, but here the personal meshed with the professional and drove the plots along in unforeseen ways.

The producers weren't afraid to kill popular major characters off either which was a definite plus. It added a frisson and new blood to the overall story. And neither were they frightened of losing sympathetic minor ones either that other series might have shied away from. These deaths weren't wasted as they were drivers of the plot and development itself.

All in all, a super series that kept the tension up for far longer than many others could have. So many are burnt out after two or three seasons but not Engrenages. I'm perfectly devastated that it's all come to an end.

This 8 part French detective serial is going out un-publicisied on BBC3 in the UK. It has some resemblances to the very darkest American cop shows, but is really grimmer and dirtier. There are unifying themes and tangents which may work into the main plot. It's impossible to explain how different things are from a UK police drama. The legal system is very different and it's fascinating to follow - who has power to do what to whom. The Police and Prosecutors aren't exactly corrupt, but in a way they can't help being. The police look like criminals and work out of what seems like a run-down basement. A brilliantly convoluted thriller, with all the fascination of a really alien legal system, Paris backdrop, washed out colours, general decay. Final episode on BBC next week, but you should be able to see it somewhere. I see from Amazon France that there's a second season.

I stumbled across this looking for to improve my French, I've ended up being gripped by the characters. There is a unifying theme but every week there is more blood and seediness and sub-plotted nastiness. It's enough to put one off Paris, however, you do get a vivid impression of reality as in "NYPD" and such work as Steve Bochco is famous for. The photographic effect is nearly monochrome, in keeping with the subject matter. 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 a cop show it works, although there are enormous differences in legal procedures from those I know. There is also a cynical view of the wielding of power, both judicial and political. 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.

Engrenages is a Paris-based police procedural making no concessions to the easy-viewing requirements which deaden its English speaking equivalents. Dowdy police, incompetent lawyers, crims in grey shading into the deepest black. Acting, camera-work, lighting and print quality is imaginative and thorough. Each episode had an exemplary cliff-hanging or shock ending. The rather delayed and somewhat cryptic sub-titles make it tough for non-native speakers, but it has done wonders for my bog-French. Sheer pleasure: the news that they are shooting a new series is excellent. Lets hope it goes out again on BBC3 or 4 - much too demanding, even for BBC2.

While the approach is not new, the execution is excellent.

Firstly the stories interweave and become more engrossing with their machinations, the "engrenages".

Secondly the pace is engaging so its impossible to foresee the next part, and that is because it's well written and intelligently for the viewer; not disguised by quick cuts to dazzle the eye but then frustrate by its tedium or obviousness.

Thirdly, the cast is right and well directed. Characters are alive with a range of human flaws. Maybe Albert Camus was the script editor overseeing the lines of each character's arc.

Unlike some police dramas this one doesn't pull its punches - quite literally - and for those of us all too bored with the US legal system, the presentation of the way the French one does its business, is another interesting aspect to the show.(Along with all the slang.) And finally, watching Caroline Proust and Audrey Fleurot (the former plays a strong brigade police captain; the latter plays a lawyer without morality) is the coup de grace.