Capitaine Marleau

We await each years new season of La Capitaine , huddled round our tv in snowy Canada ,wearing our trapper hats just like her .

Whatever the superlative to iconoclastic is ...that's Captain Marleau. Her shambolic appearance and obvious lack of concern about it lulls her suspects into underestimating her , a la Peter Faulk in Colombo .. alas his trench coat did not convert to a sleeping bag!

As all tv detectives have a right to a distinctive vehicle , hers is a sometimes reluctant Land ranger. Marleau is a Land ranger herself , a roving one woman show picking up new sidekicks in each episode, with a few " experts/buddies" that she calls on. The shows must have a tourism board sponsorship , stunning scenery and locations across France.

I buy each years DVD and we watch them over Christmas ..sadly covid seems to have slowed production and we may be watching re runs .

This is a wonderfully hilarious, fast paced and fun mystery series. Captain Marleau will make you laugh out loud whilst she is tirelessly solving murder mysteries. Her confidence in her crime solving skills, social prowess, and highly charged bursts of femininity will keep you engaged and rooting for her to win the day, and she always does. It is a great way to spend an hour unravelling clues and enjoying regular plot twists alongside the amazing Captain Marleau!

This is the most unlikely and most eccentric police procedural. The mysteries of the murders though, are not the point of the series. For an audience needing the subtitles to follow the dialogue, pensman's review gives a good account. Marleau is a quirky, eccentric police captain, with an irreverent, yet empathetic demeanor. Under the deadpan jokes, she demonstrates an astute understanding of human nature, and that makes her going through suspects and clues enjoyable to watch. A French version of the UK classic series 'Midsomer Murders', if you like: going through the foibles of rural French upper-middle class, one murder at a time, with a few twists and turns on the way.It's good enough to watch on this account only. Et si vous parlez français, il y a un bonus! (And if you speak French, there's a free gift!) Well, you need to speak French and you need to be old enough to catch cultural references that broadly range from the 60's to the 90's. Corinne Masiero as the lead delivers deadpan observations and puns in a style that reminds me strongly of the succulent dialogues of Michel Audiard's body of work as a screen writer, extending from the 1950s to the 1980s. It's been a long time I laughed that much and that often watching a police procedural, not because the sleuthing is ridiculous but because it's delivered brilliantly. As pensman's review notes, Marleau will acknowledge she's no Columbo: if you understand her deadpan delivery, she's arguably funnier.

Capitaine Marleau is simply hilarious. She is a mile a minute and if you are not French you often miss all the subtleties of what she says. The writers are amazing and show they know French culture and history very well. Who else would connect the concept of « humanity » described by the priest in one of the episodes with Jean Jaurès French politician who created the newspaper L'Humanité? That allows her to connects things very fast, it fit her character to a T. I really love seeing the main character not looking like Marilyn Monroe! How refreshing and unique.

A series of a character , more than series of stories. A pure eccentric captain, surprising, amusing, efficient, sarcastic, ironic, hard worker, using cultural references in seductive and efficient manner. That makes Capitaine Marleau the series of Corinne Maiero and , in the first seasons, it is a precious virtue. In the last ones, the smell of mannerism becomes not real great. But, sure, a smart series, wise broken of cliches and a character fascinating in profound senses.