Panda

This French series is centred on two police officers; Lola, who is very much by-the-book and 'Panda' who is far from conventional. Following a shooting incident six years previously he walked away from his job and starting living like a long-haired beach bum. Crucially he never formerly resigned and events bring him back to police work. Each episode sees the unlikely duo investigating a new crime.

I thought this series was a lot of fun. It is light hearted and clearly everybody involved knows it isn't anything serious. Thankfully it manages to stay just the right side of being overly silly. Julien Doré and Ophélia Kolb have a great chemistry as Panda and Lola; the rest of the cast are solid too with all the main characters being rather fun. The cases investigated are entertaining; having one per episode feels right for a more comedic series. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of Euro-crime looking for something lighter than most of the grittier series that seem to be available. I'm certainly looking forward to the second season being available here.

These comments are based on watching the series in French with English subtitles.

Oh dear. I had a feeling this would be a massive fail in the first few minutes of watching. It took just twenty minutes to confirm. I clicked out and deleted the lot.

The series doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a crime caper, a comedy or a detective story? However it plays out, it's irritating in the extreme with fake shouting between "Panda" the hippy cop and realist detective Lola. Of course, the hippy is right every time and, despite being off the force for two years interferes in cases in the town as and when he wants.

It's not funny, it's excruciating. It's horrifically badly acted too. Give this a miss.

I loved the off-beat characters and unusual situations. After watching a few episodes, I'm willing to "suspend disbelief" and allow it to play out.

The protagonist (played by Dore) is a real misfit for the role the story drafts him into. His personality perfectly doesn't fit the personality of his partner, which leads to natural conflicts.

Not to be confused with a police procedural or a sit com.

Puts France in a whole new light. I've seen a lot of French murder mysteries. This isn't one of them, even though it incorporates murder mysteries.

There are other mysteries, too, which begin to unravel after the first episode. So, I recommend giving it a chance and judging after a few shows.

Panda is a fun, cosy mystery kind of show, with a light touch and an anti-cop cop, surfer dude kinda hero who is cool but funny and likable, along with his easygoing boss and uptight, female partner. The kind of light fair with a twist that I dig. It's really more cozy mystery than cop show. Panda goes into altered states sometimes when meditating to receive information while investigating. I like that aspect a lot. I'm looking forward to series two and hope there's a series three in the pipeline. I like the actor who plays Panda and hadn't seen him before. His partner I know from other shows. It's quirky and entertaining.

Don't take it too seriously, it's fun. It's well cast, the acting's really good and they all have great chemistry. Can't believe some people giving it such low scores, it's a light hearted whodunnit. The characters are all different but meld well and they have interesting pasts and present lives. I love the commissioner who sits there and kind of keeps them on track. I like the whole vibe; it's different, clever, fun and thoughtful.

Can't help myself but I am 'will they, won't they' with the two main characters.

Not that it really matters if they do or don't.

I look forward to it every week as know I am going to enjoy the story line and content and smile and have a giggle. I'm learning French so watching a lot of french tv series on Walter presents. I'm enjoying how different they all are.