La Promesse

This French series opens in December 1999; a storm is battering the area and eleven year old Charlotte Meyer is cycling along her forest road. After the chain comes off her bike somebody in a van offers her a lift... she isn't seen again. Detective Pierre Castaing is in charge of the case; he believes Serge Fouquet is responsible but he has an alibi and another man, Tony Andreï, has confessed. Cutting to the present day somebody tries to grab another young girl; she manages to escape and evidence once again points to Fouquet... this time the investigator is Pierre's daughter, Captain Sarah Castaing. Fouquet is arrested again but it soon emerges that another girl has been taken... the race is on to find her. As the series progresses we see Sarah's investigation intertwined with flashbacks of her father's attempts to solve the original case.

I really enjoyed this series; at only six episodes it doesn't drag, nor does it feel overly rushed. There is a good sense of tension; this is raised by the fact that the series makes no secret of the fact that the latest kidnapped girl is alive in captivity and we regularly see her. There are some obvious clichés, notable the leading investigator continuing after being taken off the case and also getting involved with a suspect. The ending was far from obvious; I had a few theories as to what happened but none came close to the truth. The cast is solid; with Sofia Essaïdi and Olivier Marchal impressing as Sarah and Pierre Castaing and Guy Lecluyse is suitably unpleasant as Fouquet. Overall a solid crime drama that kept me gripped till the end.

Unexpectedly good solidly-acted thriller.

Very impressed.

I did enjoy this series over all, it was engaging with good characters and was at times tense. I do agree with others that the ending was somewhat disappointing. But it was well acted and directed throughout and I will watch the next series.

Sofia Essaïdi and Elisa Ezzedine were both good as Sarah Castaing. Leslie Medina as Lilas Castaing was full of character and a little underused in the story. Olivier Marchal as Pierre Castaing was good until the last episode as others have said, but that was the writing, not his acting.

Influenced by the, in my opinion, relatively low rating (7.0/10 out of 116 ratings at Aug 28 2021), this series positively surprised me in quite a few matters: reasonable plot (not a whodunit but about the hunt on a horrible child kidnapper), as well as the acting. Very good camera work and direction and some fine music. Exiting and tensive till the end... A recommendation to everyone who likes a solid and firm thriller.

A good production and better than we seem to be able to produce in the UK these days.

I like the way the viewer was left to work things out before it became obvious towards the end of the first episode.

The structure continued well up until half way through the 6 episodes, then it lost its way.

The prime suspect suddenly was found guilty of another crime, although it was hardly mentioned, and disappeared from the story.

A lot of questions were not answered, or asked come to that (Lilas's criminal history as an adult for instance).

In the end the solution was all rather muddled, implausible and disappointing.