L'absente

A very well crafted mystery that takes it's time to tell it's story. For a change the main character is not a detective, and the one here has little impact on the story, and doesn't solve any mysteries. The main characters are a father who has lost his daughter and a young woman who might just have returned 11 years later.

It's fun to try and guess how and why the story develops in it's way, and be wrong at times and right at times.

The acting is superb, and the plot is complicated, and what some call slow is, for me, depth.

The end is contrived so that justice is served, and I would have preferred it to have ended in a more unsettling way, but "C'est La Filme."

This French series starts off with a sequence of apparently unconnected and disconnected scenes from which viewers are intended to make sense. There are the usual long periods of actors staring through windows, at one another and various objects . Nothing makes sense, including a scene where the mother slaps some guy in a hospital room. Little in the way of context is provided to provide background. The scenes are dark and dreary, and there is the usual histrionic behavior with a lot of shouting that passes for acting in French cinema! Walter Presents is the usual platform for failed European series. This series is no exception to that rule!

As this eight part French drama opens a young woman is seen running down a road. She is in an 'accident' and in hospital seems to have no memory of who she is or what happened. Flashing back eleven years we see a girl, Marina, shortly before she goes missing. Her mother is convinced that the young woman is in fact her daughter. Early tests suggest this is the case but her father is less certain. As things progress some questions are answered relatively early but more arise and the question of who did what to young Marina all those years ago remains till near the end.

I thought this was a solid series. The central mystery is intriguing and provides some interesting twists and turns before the conclusion. The Dunkirk location, and many night/twilight scenes help create a brooding atmosphere. The characters are good; as well as the central family, I particularly liked the leading police investigator, known as 'The Shark'... who is a heavily pregnant woman. The cast do a fine job bringing their characters to life. Overall an impressive little series that I'd recommend to fans of Euro-drama.

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

French subtitles.

Eight episodes was far too long.

It started off ok, but by episode 5 it was dragging and not really going anywhere.

Additional aspects of the storyline seemed to be introduced just to tease it out to 8 episodes.

The premise of the main storyline is so unlikely as to be unbelievable. It just couldn't happen, and the behaviour of some of the characters seemed to change so as to fit in with the plot.

Laurent just turned into a character as bad as the one he was hunting for, and in the end was just as bad. No excuses. A life is a life. His ex-wife, Helene was irritating throughout.

All said and done, would no family member realise that Marina wasn't cogent?

Within 15 minutes of the first episode of L'absente ( A Familiar Stranger) I was completed hooked. The story is of a young woman who appears with amnesia and is believed to be a child called Marina, who had gone missing 11 years before.

This series is addictive and I binged it all in one day without a moment of reprieve. There are twists and turns, and the story is so intense and haunting that you feel like you are there taking part, and wanting answers.

The cast is stellar. Salomé Dewaels as Marina/Alex is hauntingly beautiful in her role. Thibault de Montalembert as Laurent, the father of Marina is perfect in this role of a tortured father, longing for answers and seeking revenge.

I could not fault one single cast member. The all did their parts to a believable and brilliant degree.

Even the twists were done so well, there was no plot holes or cracks showing, which happens often in series that play on twists.

It is so well executed, you can not help but be engrossed from beginning to end.

I would highly recommend this series to anyone.