La promesse

Unexpectedly good solidly-acted thriller.

Very impressed.

There are many improbable plot twists in French police thriller 'The Promise', but that's just par for the course. Even before things get silly, however, the basic conceit lost me, due to its essential laziness: a policewoman starts digging into crimes her father, also a cop, had previously investigated; and because she cares, she is also right (or at least, more right than anyone else) about everything and thus justified in doing absolutely nothing by the book. There's a good reason we expect our real detectives to be dispassionate, but the opposite state of affairs is so common in television series it's not only inaccurate, but cliched. For me, 'The Promise' never rises about its hackneyed premise.

I read a review comparing this to Spiral and began watching in high hopes. It becomes clear very quickly that this isn't going to attain that high standard. Spiral built up tension and sucked you in. This dissipates tension as unlikely actions and reactions increase in number, eventually rendering the whole thing rather laughable.

We did watch it to the end as our decision to cease came with only 1 episode left. We should have decided sooner!

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.

Really good series, nice and unexpected end! I think the story line with Sarah and her dad is really good.