Monsieur Spade

A show that had a lot of potential, even got off to a solid start, but the ending is hilariously bad.

At the beginning, we follow the elderly Sam Spade who has retired in France in a small rural town. Through a series of flashbacks, we find out how it happened.

The characters are generally not bad, but as the plot progressed, the writers couldn't resist without inserting modern clichés that are getting on everyone's nerves a little bit and starting to cause a complete counter effect.

One of the main villains, supposedly a monk who may or may not be, is hilarious. Ok, you don't like church, we get it, we see it in almost every new movie or series anyway, and it's already getting boring. When you see someone from the church on film, it is immediately clear that this person is almost certainly a villain. It's all become hilariously predictable.

The series had an excellent potential to give us a touch of good old entertainment and a good crime story with a bit of spy intrigue. Instead, we got another sermon, and this is especially evident in the last episode.

Speaking of the last episode, it's also the worst episode of the series, and it should be the exact opposite. The dialogues are terrible, and the sequence of events is catastrophically bad, and the direction is confusing, in some parts you can't see anything, and the action is hilarious. Yes, the action is completely unconvincing and laughable.

The addition of new characters at the last minute, who are there only to serve the scriptwriters to complete the plot and to satisfy the wishes of the producers, ruined the overall impression of the series even more. Not to mention how hilariously unrealistic it was. The resolution of everything in the end comes as a comedic effect because that's exactly what it is, a comedy.

The conversations between the characters at the end are so hilarious that they create the impression of a parody.

It's a pity, the show had potential, and it started solidly, the actors are not bad at all, but the script was worse from episode to episode, and the same with the direction. In the last episode, the main character, Samuel Spade, was reduced to a secondary character.

The last episode is so bad, that it completely destroyed the little that was good.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a complete waste of time.

I have strong contradictory feelings about this show. It starts off strong but it fizzles out terribly bad by the end.

Let me begin by saying that I am a big fan of both Owen and noir, so I walked in pretty pumped up. The first few episodes start strong: gorgeous cinematography, solid acting, a few well drawn out characters and all the cues from a proper noir old schooler (saxophone notes, cigarrette smoke, driving through a rainy night, etc). Love it so far!

But boy oh boy, does the plot get convoluted by the end! New, seemly random characters enter the scene out of the blue for no particular reason while adding absolutely nothing to the story (the CIA priest? The French intelligence officer? The algerian investigator? WTF is their purpose?!). On the other hand, the original characters' arcs pretty much slur on going nowhere (Jean Pierre? Teresa? Patrice?). Amidst all this, a text-book McGuffin (the algerian boy) is introduced to keep everybody running around aimlessly, driving the plot's attention away from what should be the center of gravity: Spade himself!

And, at last, the finale: the most bizarre and clumsy 20 minutes I have seen on TV in a long time: a buffonery of a shootout, followed by a Poirotesque whodunit scene that serves absolutely no other purpose than to explain to the perplexed audience WTF is going on and why, all of a sudden, all of the show's characters have all somehow landed at the same ending scene at the same precise moment. Ridiculous.

I know that this review has turned out more negative than I had intended. It is just my frustration showing: this show started off really great, ultimately missing its potential as episodes went by. Still, I would recommend it to noir aficionados - just accept that it'll roll downhill midway through.

PS: Owen makes a fantastic Spade. The entire show rests over his acting shoulders.

The first five episodes of this series wasn't bad and the story seemed destined to keep us in suspense. However, like any other series in the age of binge watching this one abruptly ends in the dumbest way. You know it's bad when everything is wrapped up in the last ten minutes. Clive Owen is really good as the witty, wisecracking, hard-nosed Sam Spade, but he is the story so allow him to be the story. The cast in the film are pretty good. The show is shot in France and the scenery is beautiful. You could say the scenery is also a character. Monsieur Spade is good, but needs more Sam Spade.cdm.

Monsieur Spade started off intriguing, with complex characters and an air of mystery befitting a Neo-noir detective drama. Clive Owen brought a gritty gravitas to the iconic role of Sam Spade, while the show explored his retirement in 1960s France with promising plot twists. However, it ultimately rushed the conclusion in a disappointing final episode full of tedious exposition dumping. The show failed to stick the landing after a strong setup, leaving an unsatisfying payoff for both the overarching mystery around a mysterious child as well as Spade's personal character arc. While the performances remained compelling throughout, the writing let down both the talented cast and the audience by the end.

Rating: 5.75 out of 10.

This is so beautifully shot it's surprising to watch. Even the first scene, as Spade looks at a house uphill and the cameraman shoots him from below, so we're also looking up at Spade...is a surreal experience. The location does help, but oh, this is pretty to watch. Usually, period pieces from eras OTHER than the 60s or 70s are better done, but this one is as it should be; again, it probably helps that it's set in France. I don't even like France, and I've been there several times, but this makes me want to give it another go, but to a rural locale next time. In one episode, we are so drawn in to the character development and plot arcs that, by far, the only annoying issue here is the weekly episode release. Owen gives a good performance, but it's an ensemble piece and they are ALL phenomenal - this impresses me bc I knew none of them, came for him, stayed for them. Though there is a nude scene that I will be re-watching a FEW times. Thank you to the writers, producer, director, cameramen, crew: the pool scene is a gift to the world.

As to the noir mystery element, I've read this style of literature and watched these types of films for decades - and just wow. Please, money-people in the studios: more of THIS.