19-2

Definitely one of the most gut-wrenching cop series out there. Every character is flawed, yet likable. The situations are almost always tense and the stress of being a police officer is very well expressed.

There was a one-year hiatus between season one and season two, due to a change in producers, but the quality of the series has not faltered one bit. The second season first episode (no spoilers here) will go down in history as being one the most frightening and shocking out there.

You can't help but like and relate to the lead characters, Benoît Chartier, played by Claude Legault, and Nick Beroff, played by Réal Bossé. Those of us familiar with Bossé have never seen him in such a dramatic role. One wonders where he channels all that angst from.

If you are fluent in French and looking for something that would be world famous if HBO produced it, look no further, 19-2 is it.

If you appreciate great writing, excellent acting and impeccable direction this is the series for you.

19-2 lures you in, grabs ahold of you and doesn't let you go until the end. You become engrossed in the day to day lives of these officers and their families and their stories.

And the acting is some of the best I've seen anywhere, truly superb!

While you travel with these officers on patrol, encountering some of the saddest, silliest, darkest, and scariest situations imaginable, you can't help but see and feel exactly what they are experiencing as they try to keep some semblance of order in such a messed up world. Their camaraderie as a team and as a family feels exquisitely real, and you can't help but feel it as well.

The storyline threading through all episodes of all 3 seasons is gripping and heartrending as it pulls and tears at the characters in life altering ways.

Just watch it - you'll see what I mean.

Unlike many I don't mind reading subtitles when the colloquialisms substitute for the French language as it evolved in Québec. This is a riveting and addictive series. The portrayal of the relationship between Berrof and his mother paints a classic picture of a dysfunctional middle class family of the region and one that seems to be repeated in old French-Canadian families right along the fur-trade route from Québec through Detroit and Sault St. Marie is much more common than one might suppose in kind if not in degree. The promiscuity between couples and open relationships is also more commonly visible in Montréal than elsewhere in Canada. The behaviour of the police in solving internal problems like the wife-abuser or the dealing with cops personal problems, alcoholism, and the tendency to sweep misdemeanors under the carpet is accurate. I am disappointed to have learned that it is being remade in English with a different cast. The language is one I am familiar with having spent some of my formative years in the city. Some of the local jargon I picked up during the show was quite funny and a lot of that nuance may be lost in translation in the "anglais" version, but I will try to keep an open mind. If it gets (typically) "sanitized" in order to appeal to the English Canadian audience, it will be a totally different series, and I may prefer to go on watching the Québec version if it was available.

All the performances here are topnotch but the real stars are director Daniel Grou's facile direction and cinematographer Claudine Sauvé's imaginative camera work. So many shows on Netflix have terrible cinematography, where camera operators lack the talent to keep subjects in the frame. Not so with Grou and Sauvé, who give this series a sense of you-are-there excitement. It's a thrilling ride, helped by solid storylines and sharp, incisive scripts. There's an underlying intelligence that permeates every scene. Some of the tracking shots are breathtaking.

It's not all perfect. The green-hued palette is overdone and gives everything a uniform sickly appearance. Also, one could argue the soap opera elements at times overwhelm the impetus of the plot but that would be griping because, unlike so many Hollywood shows, the romantic moments are usually intertwined with the plot.

If your looking for a cop show that is well crafted, well acted and well written. Then you found your perfect dream, this show is absolutely wonderful. The story progression & cinematography is superb. A far cry from those lame shows like SVU or Chicago PD, this is the type of show they want to be.

I can't believe I'm only stumbling onto it now, but more than happy to have been able to go back and watch all the seasons. The show's that good, something needed in the crime TV genre. I haven't felt this much realism or intriguing grit since NYPD Blue, and still I would come back to this one every time.

I'm seriously stoked to see what season 4 has in store, whatever it is, I'm sure it will be great! Once again if you're looking for something entertaining but yet, serious and well-crafted then this is it!