Jo

I was looking forward to some gritty French drama series, starring the incredibly talented Jean Reno. I understand that the series has to appeal internationally (and by that I mean Americans), but it's totally NOT French. Jean Reno is wasted and the plot is interesting in terms of story lines but the police-procedure is so contrived, and whilst it's not entirely predictable, it's full of leaps in investigation.

Reno plays it French but everyone else is either American or British and I don't get that. He's investigating random murders (being a homicide cop) but everyone is English! Everyone! Even if they spoke with cheesy French accents it would have made more sense. The producers missed a trick by making it too much like all the other investigative procedurals that are on US and UK TV at present - if the only thing different is that it's set against Parisian architecture, that's not a good enough reason to watch. The script is too staccato because the action is stilted due to the contrived leaps, and even Reno can't raise this show to above 5/10 for me. Tom Austen the sidekick is good, pretty and the flirty cop who gets all the ladies to open up with information - well cast - but I would like to see some reason why he's working in Paris and hear him attempting to speak French occasionally.

Only Reno's character St-Clair has a back-story, which makes the program too shallow. St-Clair's struggle with drink and drugs is only touched on, but perhaps it's early days in the series... there's not much story arc.

It needs to be more French. I'd love it then. Subtitles aren't such a bad thing!

I'm a big fan of Jean Reno, so I'm watching Jo. Not bad, not good. But will someone explain to me why a series filmed in France has everyone speaking with an American accent except Jean? I just don't get it...

Jean Reno is as great as usual. Most of the scripts were solid; a couple were excellent. This is labeled as a miniseries, but it ended like a first season of a sure-to-be-continued series... which it wasn't, as the Gods of Renewal chose to bestow their blessings upon other supplicants. The crimes providing the main theme for each episode were cleared, but significant interpersonal and character and plot threads running throughout were not. The result was ending on a sour note, diminishing my regard for what I'd been thoroughly enjoying for 7.5 of its 8 hours.

Luckily I had recorded 3 episodes of this before watching because I'm not sure I would have bothered watching any further episodes after the 1st one. There seems to be a tendency for new crime series to follow the Scandinavian style in series such as Borgen and I don't have a problem with this especially in Jo. As with all good detectives the main character is flawed, they wouldn't be so good at their job if they weren't I guess. The cast is great particularly Jean Reno and Tom Austen, the Morse and Lewis of Paris.

So why have I only given it 7 stars? Well, it's a slow-burner for a start. I've just seen episode 3 and am enjoying it more as the series progresses. However, I'm not invested in any of the main characters. Jo himself has a troubled past and a tumultuous relationship with his daughter who also has problems, but so far I don't really care. Secondly, this is a series set in France with mainly British actors, good British actors, and yet, they are all adopting American accents. I don't know why unless this is because the producers didn't think an American audience would understand the British accent. Ironically, of course, Jean Reno speaks with a thick French accent and he doesn't compromise that here. If there is to be another series please, please drop the fake American accents because it is needless and annoying and might be the thing that will make me and other, switch off.

What a waste of the superb talents of Jean Reno! The only actor permitted to speak with a French accent (well, he could hardly do any other) but its completely unfathomable why the rest of the cast - many of whom are English - are forced to speak with an America accent. Why? I can only assume it was done to improve the appeal to a US audience - but surely if they can understand Jean Reno, they can understand the likes of Sean Pertwee speaking in their own tongue?

My other complaint would be the deliberate wobbly-cam - something that always winds me up. Why do it? I'm pretty sure I don't move my head around when I'm trying to listen to someone.

There are some good stories here - one standout jewel is Episode 6 with a moving performance by Sam Waterston. Perhaps character backstories were expected to come into play in later series but it was predictably canned after its first season.

Overall - worth watching - but be prepared to get annoyed with it!