लिएज़ॉन

Good thriller with Eva Green and Vincent Cassel are pitted against each other.

Tensions between the nations are shown as contemporary and story line is engaging.

The director (Stephen Hopkins) is able to maintain the momentum to keep the suspense alive.

Eva Green is beautiful as ever. She emotes well, where melodrama is required.

Vincent Cassel is getting old and it is very evident. Most of the other characters are well etched and their performance is up to the mark.

Story, even though not very unique, helps to maintain the tempo. Saw 4 episodes and good going guys. Attractive locales in rural areas of France and London add charm to the story.

I've watched all the episodes so far and as the plot is unfolding, I'm finding the series more enjoyable. I agree that the first couple episodes were off to a rocky start, but it's definitely getting more interesting now. I personally really enjoy these types of shows, and let's be honest, Apple TV shows beat most Netflix dramas nowadays in terms of production value and acting. I say give the show a chance, get past the first couple more cliche episodes and you may wind up liking it. I think the plot will only continue to unravel and surprise us as more characters reveal who they really are and what side they're playing.

I'm not going to brag about the bad or good reviews. I've watched season 1 in a couple of days and I enjoyed watching it. It's not that I will recommend and praise it. But it's not bad at all!

I've seen much French people complaining about subs (or it's absence of it). I'm a French native and I don't need English subs only for the Arabic parts. I actually enjoyed the fact Cassel and Green switched languages depending on whom they're talking to. It gave it an extra real feeling. And that should be more often the case.

Regarding the story, I feel it could have gain more thickness if there was a few more episode to develop some of the characters, mostly the one of Albert.

On the tech bases, yes there are a few hick-ups but that's often the case in series... Liaison is far from perfect, but if Apple keeps on investing in European productions, their level will rise up! And definitely, that will change us to some us superprods which offer nothing...

And on a personal note: using teardrop by massive attack is spot on! 👍

There seems no escaping the fact that this show is being wrecked by a script which is at times just woeful.

As an example, throughout the show we see some pretty sophisticated IT infrastructure and deployments, and yet on the Brit side, the guy basically in charge of the governments IT platform demonstrates less understanding than you would expect from an undergrad - and who says things that are just plain wrong on so many levels. Not good.

Then there's the hospital scene where the PA announces "Can any doctors go to room # (can't remember the room #) - I mean - it's a hospital, hospitals are full of doctors... do they need a brain surgeon or an oncologist?

Despite the frequent gaffes like these the actual story is a good one - and with some very sharp script writing it could have been an excellent one. Shame.

On the other hand, Liaison is almost saved by having a great cast, great locations, and some snappy cinematography, all of which convey a slick production - so it's actually a real shame that the script is so bad at times, because that just wrenches you out of absorption. And it's not just a dialogue problem, there's also an awkwardness to some of the plot exposition that has left me more than little confused at times.

So the real quandary here is how could something with so many promising and professional elements have been so badly mismanaged in the script development department?

So far the story is quite intriguing. Yes, it is a typical spy thriller, but if well done I think spy thrillers can be very entertaining even if they follow cliches and tropes (Jack Ryan does this very well). So far this series is a mix between "Jack Ryan" and "Slow Horses".

Vincent Cassel and Eva Green are great actors and they can make this a worthwhile watch even if the story is quite predictable so far and does rely on the typical cadence of spy thrillers.

If you watch it, I recommend not using the "English" audio setting as they decided to dub the French, Arab and Russian dialogue in this setting and it's horrible. If you select the "French (France)" audio setting you get English dialogue in English, French in french, Arab in Arab and Russian in Russian - just makes the international atmosphere much more authentic instead of dubbing everything to English.