Laetitia

I am writing this because of a previous review mentioning the narration, and how irritating it was. When I started episode one, I experienced the same thing. However, for some reason, the accessibility options were set like the viewer was sight impaired. Once I played around with the settings, and had the audio in French with English subtitles, the viewing was normal, and I could get on with the show without the annoying narration. I hope this tip helps some other viewers. I had watched the staircase, which was excellent. This show also will no doubt be excellent.

This is written after watching 4 episodes as seen on HBO. I have nothing against foreign films with subtitles.... most of the time. But whoever did the subtitles for this needs to improve their job.... a lot. A person speaks and the subtitles end the millisecond that the person stops talking. So if they speak a very short phrase it is no problem. But here if a person speaks using multiple sentences the subtitle doesn't last long enough to read it. Even if the speaker takes a long pause before speaking again the subtitles don't remain on screen. In addition to this the subtitles are partly written over the film images no matter how bright the background and then continued below the film image in the very black letterbox area. This makes reading the subtitles and trying to keep up with this story nearly impossible. What the hell?

Next is the acting of the two father figures and also the crazy guy involved with the last known sightings of Laetitia. All three are so incredibly over the top with their performance that it is difficult to believe. Now if the real life people were actually llke this then I am out of line and apologize. But this is something I have noticed in French cinema before - over acting even by famous French movie stars. These three actors here in Laetitia act like they are in a very large theater trying to project to the last row. But this is film/video and screaming your head off and punching furniture and hyperventilating as though you've just finished running a marathon because a little girl asks for her mother just comes off badly and unreal. As for the girls portraying the sisters - all of them - from the very young to the older girls -they are all quite good in their roles. Too bad I couldn't appreciate this more because of the terrible subtitles and exaggerated acting.

The series was enjoyable and I was anxious to see what would happen. But, the end just fizzled, it left me with many questions and it felt rushed.

This limited series out of France really is a find! The acting is crippling in its detail...the young women who play the twins give gut wrenching portrayals in this true life horror story.

It's definitely a very good story. Raise important issues related to foster care homes, dynamics of twins, dilemma for social workers and the justice system difficult decisions about sex offenders on parole. However, the series is too long... Should have been 3 episodes, maximum 4 episodes.