The Sketch Artist (Portrait - Robot)

I checked this out on the PBS website, because it looked like a bit of a change from the copycat crime/mystery series populating PBS offerings these days.

I was right. From the very start, we learn that the four main characters are a fascinating little group of misfits, and the actors who portray them are wonderful too. Then add in the two or so other characters who are regulars on the show, and you have a full deck of entertainment.

So it's sort of immaterial what the investigations and crimes are, because the characters' personal lives are even more interesting. But the writers are good and have cooked up an imaginative slate of crime and mystery events, some of which regularly intersect with a mob boss and some which give the viewer a gasp of surprise and shock when they suddenly happen.

One other interesting thing is that the series takes place in Montreal, so the characters speak French (with easy-to-read subtitles), or rather a Franglais mix of weirdly accented Montreal French called 'Joual' mixed with English words, phrases, and sentences. It's pretty interesting in itself.

This French Canadian crime drama is set in Montreal and opens with Anthony Kamal starting his first day forking for a special unit of the local police. Here he meets his new boss, Maryse Ferron; veteran officer Bernard Dupin and sketch artist Eve Garance. Eve has the ability to 'read' people and coax them to reveal details they didn't realise they'd seen to come up with accurate likenesses of suspects and the crime scene. She is also bi-polar and haunted by the disappearance of her baby son many years previously. Other characters have their own problems too. Most cases last two episodes but there are elements that run through the series.

I've watched many series in French but I think this is the first French Canadian show I've watched. On the strength of this I wouldn't mind checking out a few more. The cases are interesting and our protagonists are varied and likeable. It also manages to provide some interesting surprises. Having two episode cases alongside longer running stories is effective; giving satisfaction each time one is solved while keeping one interested in the longer plot arcs. It does inevitably require some suspension of disbelief... I couldn't describe somebody I see every day in the detail witnesses recall following a glimpse some time ago. The cast does a solid job bringing their characters to life. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of subtitled crime dramas.

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

I love this series!

I do not know why I hope to see, I don't usually see series in French. I am one big fan of the crime series, investigation and judicial cases.

This series is very emotional, thrillish and tense, with many messages , from those to learn and think, and the characters are very interesting.

I hope for a next season.

By the end of series 2, I'm afraid I was bored with the characters, bored with their personal problems, which sometimes just swamped the crimes being investigated, and bored with the visual aesthetics. Some time ago, I ducked out of another Canadian series, 'The Coroner', after the last 20 minutes of the first episode attempted to make me interested in the private life of the central character. I can take a certain amount of this - it goes with the territory - but here the setup with the four central characters appears to have been strategically devised with this aspect in mind. I like crime dramas but I do not watch soap opears. Adieu a tous.

This is a very decent offering from French Canadian Television: well scripted, well directed, well acted, and contrary to the naysayers - it is believable! To address the comment that the senior police officer was too old and would be too unfit to carry out his duties: perhaps you missed the scene of his working out in their gym, monitoring his vitals and talking about how much longer the workouts needed to last?! In Canada, our officers have routine fitness training and assessments- so that critique is just ageist at best and wrong at worst!

As for Eve knowing how to retrieve "memories", might I suggest you educate yourselves: it's a well established and documented fact that the brain takes in all sorts of details, that may only be retrieved under certain circumstances and questions. Thus this "flaw" as some reviewers called it, is anything but! Just because it may challenge your current position or lack of knowledge, does not make something unbelievable!

To all those naysayers, I say NO! Educate yourself, and stop exhibiting the D-K effect in such startling force!

The show is believable, honest and very human - it portrays the good and the bad in each of us and address complex human behaviours as well as medical issues.

This is a show that is not to be missed!!

Well done Canada.