Baptiste

'Baptiste' was watched with high expectations when Season 1 was first advertised. Absolutely loved 'The Missing' for most of its run and one of the biggest reasons was the mesmerising acting of Tcheky Karyo. The cast was also a very talented one, and Season 2 was also watched with high expectations because of being generally very impressed by the first season. Certainly enough to make me want to continue. Am a fan too of this genre, so would watch anything in it.

Some viewers loved 'Baptiste', others hated it. Especially Season 2. Can personally see both sides, being someone who was and still is in retrospect very conflicted on her feelings of the series. While really liking Season 1, though not quite as much as any episode from 'The Missing', Season 2 in most aspects was a real disappointment and felt like a completely different series to what came before it. Was really struggling which rating to give 'Baptiste', with it being a series of two very different halves.

There are good things here. The two consistent best things in both seasons are the very atmospheric locations and Karyo knocking it out of the park once again as Baptiste, he has such a great ability of telling so much in such a charismatic yet moving way while saying and doing little and that is something very special in an actor that is not seen a lot these days this viewer feels.

Did think that Season 1 had a lot to admire. Outside of those two particularly great aspects, the photography was gritty and moody and loved the Scandanavian mystery thriller-like mood that was suspense laden. The music had presence while not overpowering. Other members of the cast performed very well, with chilling Alec Secareanu immediately standing out.

Against all those good things, in my view it was too obvious too soon about there being an inside job betrayal and did have an inkling who it was.

Regarding Season 2, other than Karyo and the locations, as well as some stylish photography, it was incredibly disappointing. The story is excessively convoluted nonsense, to the point of incoherence with so much left vague or completely skimmed over and the ridiculousness was insulting. It really could have done with slowing down and not trying to cram in so much, with the second half particularly feeling rushed and over-stuffed.

Writing also isn't as taut and can be soapy and there is a real lack of tension and suspense, because the viewer is continually struggling to comprehend what is going on. The acting is noticeably inferior to that in the first season, am someone who usually loves Fiona Shaw but despite some moving moments her acting mostly was overwrought.

Very conflicted overall and can see both sides of liked it and hated it. 5/10.

Baptiste is entertaining but the storyline is not convincing enough. As a dutch national I was exited that it is set in Amsterdam where i have worked for three years. But why have belgian actors playing the Dutch police? If you don't speak Dutch than you wont notice, but a belgian accent for dutch police officers in the city of Amsterdam is kind a funny. We have actors in Holland you know :-)

My score is 7 for the first series and 1 for the second.

Poor Tchéky Karyo. A superb actor, charming, charismatic and oh so watchable. But even his talent could not save the pigs ear of a second series. Unlike the first series the story line of the second was just awful. The screen son's acting appalling. The writers should never work again after churning out this drivel of a script.

I wanted to stop watching halfway through episode 5/6 but had come so far I may as well finish.

It's not up to me to tell you not to bother. It's up to you to find that out for yourself. You have been warned.

I loved both series "Missing". Excellently written plot with somone dissapearing at its core. But there is so much more to it always, not to mention new beautiful european filming locations. I hope these series will hold up to the promissing new start.

My Review -Baptiste Series 2

My Rating 7:5/10.

My Review -Baptiste Series 2

My Rating 7.5 /10

In Series 2 we find Juliien Baptiste a retired detective impressively played by Tcheky Karyo in much different circumstances and location than in series 1 .

Julien Baptiste character first came to life in the superb (2014-2012) Crime Thriller series " The Missing" about the abduction of a five year old child in Germany .

Keeley Hawks as Gemma Webster the mother of the child was a standout in that series as was Jessica Raine in Series One of Baptiste.

The Star turn in Series 2 of Baptiste is without a doubt Fiona Shaw ,a brilliant English Stage and Film character actress known for such varied roles as Aunt Petunia Dursley in Harry Potter, Father in The Avengers, Carolyn Martins in Killing Eve and recently in Ammonite as Elizabeth Philpot.

In Series 2 of Baptiste Fiona Shaw has a huge role as Emma Chambers the British Ambassador to Hungary . Emma suffers great personal loss when her daughter and husband are murdered. This series is set in Budapest Hungary when Julien Baptiste travels to Hungary to help the Emma Chambers, locate her two missing sons who disappear on a skiing holiday in the mountains The pressure is on to save Emma's two sons when a body is found and a terrorist cell enters the story headed by a mystery figure called Gomorrah. Who is Gomorrah and what does this terrorist cell have to do with Emma's missing sons and the death of her daughter and husband ?

An intriguing set of circumstances takes place leading the retired detective to reflect on the loss of his own daughter as a result of her drug addiction .

We see in flashback the state of Baptiste's marriage and the damage he has done to himself due to his long absence from home and his indifference to his wife mainly caused by his own grief and alcohol abuse.

I found the way the flashback and fast forward sequences in Series 2 take place in the middle of the action intrusive and confusing with so much going on and so many characters I would have preferred a more linear time frame but this seems to be the trend in many series lately I suppose the Director thinks it keeps the audience interested?

My other small criticism is that a man of Baptiste's age I guess at between 65 and 70 would have to be as fit as Keanu Reeves to achieve the sprinting speed and physical strength that Baptiste is required to achieve in Series 2 .

Considering that we see him shortly before all the action begins as a washed up drunk in dereliction a bit implausible to say the least Tcheky Karyo must have had a very fit stunt man.

I enjoyed this series with a few reservations but it's a worthy follow up to series one and worth seeing for an amazing performance from Fiona Shaw I hope she receives a BAFTA and Emmy nomination she really deserves one.