Engrenages

This 8 part French detective serial is going out un-publicisied on BBC3 in the UK. It has some resemblances to the very darkest American cop shows, but is really grimmer and dirtier. There are unifying themes and tangents which may work into the main plot. It's impossible to explain how different things are from a UK police drama. The legal system is very different and it's fascinating to follow - who has power to do what to whom. The Police and Prosecutors aren't exactly corrupt, but in a way they can't help being. The police look like criminals and work out of what seems like a run-down basement. A brilliantly convoluted thriller, with all the fascination of a really alien legal system, Paris backdrop, washed out colours, general decay. Final episode on BBC next week, but you should be able to see it somewhere. I see from Amazon France that there's a second season.

Engrenages is a Paris-based police procedural making no concessions to the easy-viewing requirements which deaden its English speaking equivalents. Dowdy police, incompetent lawyers, crims in grey shading into the deepest black. Acting, camera-work, lighting and print quality is imaginative and thorough. Each episode had an exemplary cliff-hanging or shock ending. The rather delayed and somewhat cryptic sub-titles make it tough for non-native speakers, but it has done wonders for my bog-French. Sheer pleasure: the news that they are shooting a new series is excellent. Lets hope it goes out again on BBC3 or 4 - much too demanding, even for BBC2.

I stumbled across this looking for to improve my French, I've ended up being gripped by the characters. There is a unifying theme but every week there is more blood and seediness and sub-plotted nastiness. It's enough to put one off Paris, however, you do get a vivid impression of reality as in "NYPD" and such work as Steve Bochco is famous for. The photographic effect is nearly monochrome, in keeping with the subject matter. Believe me this not a laugh a minute show, but it is a correction to the romantic view of France that Francophiles like me have. As a cop show it works, although there are enormous differences in legal procedures from those I know. There is also a cynical view of the wielding of power, both judicial and political. Aside from the action there is an indefinable Parisian gloss on the actors, it's no wonder falling into bed happens so easily, all the main leads are good looking and even the cops have a certain "je ne sais quoi".I am hooked on this series to find out what is going to happen to the main characters both good and bad.

Saw episode three of season 2 last night and I can vouch that this one is turning into a real potboiler like season 1. The series works on the basis of one big plot line and a series of more minor ones which link together. Sometimes, a new minor case is solved in a single episode like the "echangistes" (wife swappers) or the gay test pilot last night, or it is carried over to the next episode. Again, like last season, the police are morally fragile like the criminals but invariably come good, the defense lawyers are on the crooked side and the crims vary between violent, amoral wrongdoers and vile, completely sadistic and downright evil wrongdoers. There are some brilliantly funny moments too. As for 'racial stereotyping' commented on earlier, grow up! That's absolute b*llocks. Lots of non-white people live in Paris so some of them will be criminals n'est ce pas? Watch out for gorgeous moneygrabbing redhead Maitre Carlsson who is getting involved with helping arch criminals and getting paid 3000 euros per case instead of 300 and buying loads of new outfits. Expect a big showdown between Laure and her before the end of the season. This is great TV, far superior and much less formulaic than CSI NY/LV/Miami. Give it a go. I for one, am hooked.

While the approach is not new, the execution is excellent.

Firstly the stories interweave and become more engrossing with their machinations, the "engrenages".

Secondly the pace is engaging so its impossible to foresee the next part, and that is because it's well written and intelligently for the viewer; not disguised by quick cuts to dazzle the eye but then frustrate by its tedium or obviousness.

Thirdly, the cast is right and well directed. Characters are alive with a range of human flaws. Maybe Albert Camus was the script editor overseeing the lines of each character's arc.

Unlike some police dramas this one doesn't pull its punches - quite literally - and for those of us all too bored with the US legal system, the presentation of the way the French one does its business, is another interesting aspect to the show.(Along with all the slang.) And finally, watching Caroline Proust and Audrey Fleurot (the former plays a strong brigade police captain; the latter plays a lawyer without morality) is the coup de grace.