The year 2025 is off to a good start for me in terms of television series. 'Des gens bien' ('Good People'), a six-episode French-speaking Belgian mini-series, is a gem that begs to be discovered. Very few people seem to have seen it so far and in any case few have written about it, but what I watched is a comic detective series, a 'film noir' with a lot of color (pardon the metaphor), with characters who seem to be taken from everyday life, confirming the saying that in every person there can be a devil or an angel or sometimes both a devil and an angel. The comparison that immediately came to mind after I started watching it is the series 'Fargo' created by the Coen brothers, which continues the wonderful film of the same name. Here too, we are dealing with seemingly banal characters who are forced by bad luck or who are given the opportunity of a heist or scam that can change their lives. If they succeed, they would become rich or at least get out of debt, but then the film would not be so interesting. Everything bad that can happen to them does happen and even more. The heroes of the film are under permanent pressure, they grab every opportunity and do not hesitate to resort to any deed to get away with it. Which, of course, is not easy.
It is very difficult to write something about what happens in the film without committing the spoiler sin, because the surprises start from the first episod and continue without interruption. So I will mention in random order only a list of situations and characters that I hope will arouse interest. In this series, we are dealing with a spectacular car accident, with people disappearing and bodies appearing in the forest, with Belgian police and French gendarmes who are bored in their corners of the country, with young people who wait for the arrival of extraterrestrials and lure them with fires in the fields, with a church whose parishioners frequent a tanning salon, with evangelical believers who are guided by the letter of the Bible, with loving and adulterous wives, with abandoned girlfriends and with criminals released on parole, with drug addicts and relatives of the royal family. Everything takes place in a wooded area on the border between Belgium and France, countries connected by a two-way regional road on which important events in the story take place and separated where the border is by some rusty signs with stars in a circle in fewer numbers than they should be.
The narrative is fluent, but not linear. After the first episode, in which the event that triggers the story takes place, we return - for the next two episodes - to the past, to understand what determined the actions of the heroes. However, returning means a change of perspective on what we have seen so far. The cards are turned over again in episodes 4-6 and the surprises do not cease. Everything is told with an empathetic tone and approach, in such a way that none of the characters (maybe with one exception) can be truly disliked. In life and in films like this, there are no absolute bad guys, all are actually 'good guys'. The music composed or selected by Eloi Ragot contributes to the atmosphere, alternating comic and tense scenes, with many surprises in between. The entire cast is excellent, each of the actors enters or lives their role well, and I will only mention the names of the two actors who play the main roles - Lucas Meister and Bérangère Mc Neese. I had noticed the latter in the series 'HPI' for her expressive comedy potential, here she has a more dramatic role and plays it with elegance and passion. If you have the opportunity to see 'Des gens bien' don't miss it - it is both a captivating thriller and quality fun entertainment.
