The Crimson Rivers

Not without faults but a seriously different series .The murders alone a worth the watch. There is a certain pattern the show follows but I like the fact it does not take 8 episodes to solve each case. Two per investigation. The characters are more than standard police and their antics add a little charm

'The Crimson Rivers' is a French detective series about a pair of police officers who specialize in investigating crimes with a religious, or occult, dimension. Little explanation is provided as to their mandate, while their methods involve disregarding correct procedure, being rude to their colleagues, explaining nothing to anyone, but, almost unfailingly, being right in the end. An accurate "police procedural" this is not, and neither is it filmed or written with particular artistry. And yet I liked the programme, as its gruff hero and heroine work their way through a succession of grim cases spread out over a grey-tinged France that feels rather different from the country in the tourist guides. They each have their own motivations for carrying out their mission; their behaviour at least partly explained by their view of their work as a necessary yet Sisyphean labour. In an age where we seem overwhelmed by clean Scandi-noir or gruesome serial killer stories, 'The Crimson Rivers' offers us a refreshingly different take.

The story is a well narrated crime story if bestseller author Jean-Christophe Grangé - who already wrote the book -Crimson River- which later became the movie with Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. The mood and the characters of this film are really close to the series. The rough detective and his young unexperienced colleague.

I saw so many cop series that most of them are really close to each other - this one is quite interesting as most of story is based around religious topics. Every episode is splitted in two parts, which I really liked.

I've rated as an eight not for the stories or the acting but because of the enjoyment it gave me. There was something definitely different about this set of two seasons of series.

{{ EDIT: I got my wish (expressed below) of seeing a third season. I wish I hadn't. I'm wondering if the scriptwriters were different or if the same ones just ran out of ideas. I've reduced the mark to a six. I worked out within 30 minutes whodunnit in episodes one to four. I couldn't work out the assassin in episodes five and six (the stories take up two episodes each as in the previous seasons) because the person's existence was only revealed twenty five minutes before the end. The plots are creaky and full of holes. It seems like a different programme to what was in the first two seasons. I'm not even sure if I am going to bother with the final two episodes. I've got better stuff to watch. }}

The two main cops, Pierre Niémans and his deputy Camille Delaunay, are part of a special unit based in Paris whose full function is never properly explained. It appears to have extraterritorial powers too. These two particular cops investigate killings all over the country that have a ritualistic aspect, often religiously inspired.

There are other consistent themes. The local cops are incompetent yokels, although some of them occasionally have a flash of intuition or are good at the PC Plod work. Niémans and Delaunay break rules to get results up to and including using violence and illegal methods. They are rude and don't tell the local gendarmes what's going on; they sometimes don't tell each other what's happening.

The murders are generally grotesque and need a detailed knowledge of history to be solved - our two cops spend a lot of time on research.

We learn a little of our heroes' backgrounds and demons, much more about those of Delaunay whose past plays a major part in one of the stories of the second season.

I've got to say that it's over the top, but the good direction and acting, as well as the stunning scenery and buildings make the overall stories more than watchable.

I'd like to see a third season.

This eight part French crime drama is made up of four separate cases, two episodes each. It is centred on Pierre Niémans and his deputy Camille Delaunay who work for a specialist unit that investigates the bizarrest of crimes. These include a huntsman who is killed according to the ancient traditions of the hunting family; a murder in a cult, deaths linked to a children's home and the murder of a monk who used to be a policeman. The fact that their cases can be anywhere in France, and in the first case partly over the border in Germany, means that apart from our two protagonists the stories will have different sets of characters.

I am aware that this series is based on a character that first appeared in a film of the same name but didn't feel it was a problem that I'd never seen the film. The first story does a solid job introducing us to our two leads. Olivier Marchal and Erika Sainte do fine jobs as Pierre and Camille making them interesting characters to watch. The cases are nicely varied and enjoyably strange. They provide a good number of suspects and motives to keep the viewer guessing. There is also a good sense of danger as each approaches its conclusion. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of crime dramas involving unusual cases.

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