Engrenages - Im Fadenkreuz der Justiz

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. ('Engrenages' does not actually mean 'spiral' but is not particularly translatable. 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.) 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. As is usual with French crime films and series, they struggle against the octopus of French political corruption on a continual basis, as they cope with crime after crime and try to do their jobs against all the obstacles artificially created by powerful 'high-ups' and stony-faced bureaucrats. What is so remarkable about this series is the extraordinarily vivid and compelling characters which are created, and the magnificent acting. It is not really accurate to describe this as a 'police' investigation series, because under the French system, judges, magistrates, and prosecutors work side by side with the detectives on a daily and hourly basis, and this is what makes this series so fascinating. Major characters also include corrupt defence lawyers who are in the pockets of drug dealers and thugs. 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. 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. 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. The main star of this series is the extraordinarily versatile and talented actress Caroline Proust. 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. 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. She is a delightful and sympathetic presence on the screen. The other woman dominant in the series is Audrey Fleurot, an eerily beautiful redhead covered in tiny freckles who epitomises the descent into evil. 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. Rarely has a reptile in human form been so successfully and compulsively portrayed. Really, Fleurot has achieved classic status as a villainess, and you simply cannot take your eyes off her because she is so wonderfully strange. My favourite character in the series is Judge Roban ('Monsieur Juge'), an investigating magistrate played by Philippe Duclos. He is quirky, eccentric, brilliant, intense, and a perfect joy to watch. The main investigating prosecutor ('Monsieur Procureur') is played by Gregory Fitoussi. He is a bit of a French 'pretty boy', ever such a good person, but also psychologically limited. Also compulsively watchable, exasperating and endearing at the same time, is the remarkable Thierry Godard, who plays the police detective Gilou. 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. 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. Many of the Arabs and Berbers in the stories are amazingly good as actors. There is never a dull moment for hour after hour, the tension never slackens for an instant, and Series 3 must be impatiently awaited by hordes of viewers, amongst which I number myself as a dedicated enthusiast. This series is really an incredible achievement. 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. They have been assisted by Virginie Brac and three other writers and there have been four directors, all splendidly creative. Everyone is excellent, and everything is superb except for all those horrible corpses. 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. These are never just padding but are always interesting, and often bizarre. Everything about this series is highly charged, full of astounding energy and creativity, and it is really a triumph of sustained television drama. The amount and level of talent shown by everyone connected with this series is astonishing. The series really does deserve lots of awards.

Series 1:

Magnifique! - gritty French police procedural buried on BBC4, each episode enmeshing you in a darker and darker world of crime, pain, and - as everywhere - a convoluted legal system that is best summed up by a brief exchange mid-series: "It's cruel." "It's only justice." With great performances and a coldly verité mise en scene, this holds its own among the best US & UK police/legal dramas. Oh, and need I say how refreshing it is to see a non-US drama on British screens? A large cast perform excellent dialogue, an engrossing single theme backed up by numerous sub plots, each one driving the characters forward as all the best drama should. The lead characters are attractive/repellent as required, but always interesting, without looking like an advert for a shampoo. In fact there's none of that slippery high-gloss (where every 'goodie' is always right, and never makes a mistake) that has marred some US series. Spiral attracted a good deal of support on BBC comment pages and is already being replayed on BBC4, with series two on the way. If it doesn't get a showing here there may be a riot.

Series 2:

Now season two is over - all too quickly - I'm left actually gasping for more. It's the kind of show that makes the rash of 'CSI' type programmes looking plastic and rather basic. Is it because I'm so cynical that this show suits my way of thinking about the world so well? That dark, messy, morally ambivalent universe they live in is recognisable even past the cultural differences, such as the astonishing blurring of the boundary between investigative police work and judgement – it's not so much uniquely French as uniquely modern. I recognise this world: you could find desperate council estates and desperate police departments just like it all over the less photogenic parts of London and the UK. And as for the relationships – they're as fleeting, unresolved and problematic as everybody's are.

I wasn't sure if they could top the tour-de-force complexity and classy storytelling of season one; and I'm not sure they did; but it doesn't matter - the quality is still so high, and the series-long story arc so engrossing, that you don't waste too much time comparing them. Some familiar faces, and some new characters, keep things ticking along nicely. My only criticism really is that the 'villains' (as if it were really possible to separate them from anybody else!) of season one were so nasty, so venal, so atrociously amoral, that it was always going to be difficult to find new villains that didn't make you wonder where the bad stuff was happening. This lot were kind of old school. The final episode did leave me slightly confused and was I think underwritten in the haste to get to the end. Isn't the crucial difficulty of policing - everywhere - precisely that no one ever does really have that last minute change of heart, so that les flics must tread their dirty path alone?

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.

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.

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.