Guyane

Despite being a department of France, its clear that Guyane is terribly neglected, if this series is anything to go by. Even the capital looks run down and seedy and it's clear that there is grinding poverty more akin to that of a third world country. In this atmosphere, corruption flourishes. Neighbouring Suriname is portrayed as being even worse with the added disadvantage of being populated by a bunch of "crazies".

This is the backdrop to this story of a tale of illegal gold mining and the people involved in the trade. Life is cheap in the jungle for the criminal gangs who operate there enriching themselves to the detriment of the remaining indigenous people and of the environment.

Alongside the horrors of the mines, there are some human interest stories but not all are as believable as the scenes dealing with the extraction of the gold. I didn't believe that Claudio would have an affair with the person he did. I didn't warm to Serra's dual "marriage". Anita and Vincent was hard to swallow.

There were a couple of times when Vincent, in particular, acted in such a stupid way leading to disasters that I tutted with annoyance. And I didn't believe for a second the effect of the final gunshot of season two. That was completely out of character.

Despite all this, the two seasons were eminently watchable and I only took four days to see the lot. Overall, I'd recommend this.

Guyane is an excellent 2 season series that would have had a much wider audience if the producers had created subtitles for an non French speaking audience much sooner.

English sub titles only became available for the second series 2 years after release and even then they were low quality subs e.g. People read top to bottom not bottom to top.

Prior reviews criticizing the dislike of the characters are invalid because that is the subject matter, this is not a family soap opera it is a raw and gritty tale about the ruthless pursuit of gold and the lives ruined in the pursuit. If you cannot handle a dark tale then this is not one for you.

The acting was excellent for the main cast and for the most part cast and scenes looked convincing, particularly Vincent and Serra whom both looked as if they had not washed for weeks rather than your typical holly-wood makeup of well manicured actors.

A solid tale and a tragic end for some of the cast, in most instances the situations rang true except for the final episode when Serra did in the final scene which made no sense at all and was out of character for Serra as well as being inconsistent to what he was doing up until that point.

It seemed as if the writers just did not know how to end the series or how to resolve the conflict between Vincent and Serra so they tried to do something unexpected and ended up writing something completely stupid.

Overall a great series worthy of a Netflix release IF and only IF the producers fix the subtitles and provide a different ending one that makes sense for the characters and provides the viewers a more satisfying conclusion after investing time to watch the two seasons.

That's not the first French adventure drama that takes place in Guyana and speaks about gold searchers. The one I remind the most was 600 kg D'OR PUR, starring Clovis Cornillac. The overall scheme was not exactly the same, although the settings were similar. This one, as a TV show, lets more room to develop characters and situations. The story itself is not so exciting as the characters. Good characters study, with some awesome performances such as the Louis's one. Terrific as a gruesome cold blooded killer and very poignant in the same time, ambivalent at the most, as I love. His relationship with his boss's daughter - played by Olivier Rabourdin - is very, very interesting. And the scene between the two women, the Olivier Rabourdin's character's mistress (lover) and wife is unforgettable; those two women talking very peacefully about their man...Very unusual...The main lead, the young geologist, is weak, sometimes annoying, so predictable, common, lousy, but that's my own opinion. The actor is perfect, only his character is flat. That's not the same. He could have a very interesting character and his play very corny... I repeat, the Louis's role is awesome, with powerful scenes with him, as a ruthless and brutal henchman. Olivier Rabourdin had a very close role to this series in the movie WULU, which took place in Africa and where he was a drug traffic kingpin.

Some lines in this TV show reminded me several novels from Auguste Le Breton, crime adventure stories, especially the characters study and their place in the story.

Super believable story. Very well acted and the continuity is superb. Can't wait for the next season. Never thought I could like a foreign language program with subtitles as much I love this program.

Don't miss it. great outdoors locations. mix af drama,action,thrill watch in French wt subs. cheers.