Le Bureau - Sotto copertura

This is the best TV show I have seen to date. My friend from China email me and told me to check out Le Bureau. I had to subscribe to Sundance to start watching season 1. I was hooked and it just kept getting better and better.

I love watching British Spy series, but this French series is the best one I have ever seen. Even with my slow reading the subtitle. I know it has a disclaimer at the beginning of each show but this TV series is so believable it is scary.

When you know about the quality of the cast, the track record of the director/creator, and that the French intelligence services and former spooks contributed to the scenario, expectations run high for this series.

When you realise that it is embedded in reality and about the work of intelligence services, namely gathering and analysing information, for which the tools are brains, psychology, assets, emotions, manipulation, trading, disinformation, treachery, cyber war-fare, and other skillsets, that it's not glamorous, and that it's far less about big weapons than being able to put 2 and 2 together and making sense of constantly shifting sands and highly fluid situations, based upon which political and military decisions are made, then you know that you are onto a treat.

And, what a treat! Suspence, twists and turns, moving parts that don't always come together; all of this and plenty more are delivered, and keep you on the edge of your seat.

This is not James Bond or Jason Bourne, far from it. This is about the fastidious and ungrateful, yet highly dangerous and stressful jobs of those people evolving in the murky waters of the intelligence world. Not all saints, not all sinners, often both, and always faced with difficult decisions and their ensuing consequences, not the least guilt and sadness.

And, because intelligence officers and agents remain human after all, portraying their emotions and vulnerabilities so vividly by digging deep into their characters makes this series as real and raw as it gets.

P.S.: Watching it in its original version with subtitles in your language will take you one step closer to the action.

the plot, characters, scenes, stories, side stories are fantastic, realistic and believable. Nothing over the top and nothing underwhelming. only thing i wanted when it was finished was another season. most foreign language shows don't keep me in the zone (binge worthy) due to having to read subs, but i couldn't stop loading episode after episode. i did wish there was a little more action but totally unnecessary. don't hesitate to watch this, you won't be let down.

The reviews I've read here about Canal+'s 'Le Bureau Des Legendes' seem to cover it. I'd only add that its more nuanced non-sensationalist approach works better than many similar political-spy dramas I've seen recently. The apparently ordinary people working out of an office go about their everyday lives as extraordinary events unfold around them. Eric Rochant's series builds the tension gradually, which gives the big 'moments' greater impact. And at the heart of things is a beautiful love story, of course! Don't know how accurate 'Le Bureau' is as regards DGSE and the French intelligence network it portrays, but found it credible and gripping as a series. Still can't find it in myself to award it a '10' (think it would have to be in my native English so I could follow all the verbal stuff to do that), but I'm certainly looking forward to more of 'Le Bureau Des Legendes' (they're making a 4th season, right?).

Oh. My. Lord. This is good!! The happiness and joy I feel when series is so well done and acting of cast so totally flawless. Thank you France!!!