BRI

I expected far more from this crime series; some kind of BRAQUO, remember this TV show from 2009 till 2016, and launched by Olivier Marchal; more or less the same kind of atmosphere, flying squads, tough policement in war against high scale gangsters. But here, nothing in common with Marchal's world. First dialogues, Olivier Marchal has his trademark mainly on dialogues. Here dialogues are smooth, no offensive at all. Ha ha ha, and the only character who could have something in common with Marchal is played by the "old timer" cop, played by Bruno Todescini, a borderline cop - pure Olivier Marchal trademark too - and his malehood relationship with the "old timer" hoodlum played by Vincent Elbaz, also in a genuine Olivier Marchal like character. But besides these two characters, do not expect to find anything close to BRAQUO. Many holes and strange unexplained things: for instance this mother whose son is an elite cop, ELITE COP, living with her in an apartment, and she doesn't even now that her son is a cop. I don't speak of the time schedule, which could be the same as a petty hoodlum, but to become a cop, you absolutely have a law degree, you suppose to have spent several years studying.... And this mother ignores her son has studied.... Rubbish....and the most of the most in this series is the fact that those elite cops are nearly all Arabs descent members, they all seem to have grown up in suburb ghettos.....OK, I admit that in this kind of cop squads, it may be useful to be "invisible" for tailing, following or surveillance purposes. It may be useful not to look like a cop, see what I mean...But here, it is really unrealistic; I repeat, to be a cop, elite or not, you need to study, get a law degree.... And imagine young men from ghettos studying till law degree? Ha ha ha No, more seriously, this series, is destined to the new generation, the post Olivier Marchal generation, the "ghetto" like generation audiences. It is supposed to be watched by a bulk of specific audiences, see what I mean? And that explains this unrealistic, awful casting.....And I will finish by saying that I would have never bet a dime to see Emmanuelle Devos wearing a bulletproof vest and playing in a gunfight scene trying to copy the terrific HEAT one.....Totally worth watching to believe it.

Overall quite disappointed, it could have been not bad at all despite an original script not very original, it's filmed like "Engrenages" or "Braquo", quite realistic with action scenes which, without being extraordinary are ok, but the real problem comes from the cast very average (to be nice).

Apart from Devos (we do not see her much) and Todeschini (not bad), the rest is average at best or even bad ..... even very bad. The main actor. Sofian Khammes is ok, just ok and the rest....ouch it hurts. The young actors are not at all believable, they over act a lot and for the most part play like crap, a real casting problem that spoils the whole series.

The palm going to a veteran, Elbaz, of a distressing nullity. I don't know what he wanted to play here, but it's worth Cotillard in the scene where she dies in Nolan's Batman .... it deserves a price considering how bad he acts.

In the end, a series that will not mark the annals following a failed casting.

People have compared this unfavourably with Braquo on the grounds that B. R. I. Is unbelievable and poorly acted. Well, perhaps they saw a different Braquo from the one that I did. The events in the earlier series are far less credible than this one. The acting in both was on a par with each other.

I have to say that seeing the beauteous Rabah Naît Oufella as the mixed-up Badri was something to look forward to each episode. But there were some themes that weren't developed such as the "is he or isn't he" about Julien and whether Socrate was hiding something too. It looked for a while as if Julien and Rayan might get it on and it seemed to me that Julien's anger with him was partly because he'd fallen for him.

Obviously there were plot holes as there usually are in this sort of series. I didn't mind as there was enough going on to divert attention elsewhere.

There were a couple of loose ends in the final episode but no real cliff hangers so I'm not sure there'll be a further season. I certainly wouldn't mind if there were to be one.