Bête Noire

A Most difficult subject to watch but a must educational story for every parent of bullied teenagers or otherwise. This story leaves no stone left unturned. An intensive investigation by police and psychologist into the sociology and psychology of a high school mass murderer, his peers, his internet contacts and his family. The program is in French subtitled in English I had no trouble following the story line. Acting is as good as it gets.

Unsurprisingly a very sad show. It delves into how a school shooting affects the pertertrators family.

The acting was very well done. Interesting psychological aspects, emotional aspects, and a good way to understand how the things we do to others can affect them mentally.

How to understand the incomprehensible?

At a time when horrific school shootings are happening around the world, the questions are many and painful. Perhaps the biggest is; how could this happen?

This ambitious series attempts to find answers, provide insight and perhaps some clues as to how a young person enters a school and kills schoolmates.

The series is both about trying to get clarity on events surrounding a school shooting. This is followed up by an investigation that we become involved in. At the same time, the main emphasis here is to portray how the next of kin cope with such a crisis. The series chooses to focus on relatives of the perpetrator. The series brings out the inhuman stresses these people experience. The phases they go through. Hate from the outside world. Lack of support. How incredibly hard it is to accept that your child is a mass murderer. Here the series succeeds very well. The parents and sister's long road to regaining a life is portrayed very well.

I feel that the investigative track in the series is more or less like a thread, into which the rest of the action is interwoven.

The series could perhaps have been somewhat shorter, the plot more concise. But still, this is both a demanding and incredibly well-made drama series about a topic we all find very difficult to understand and take in.

Sophie Deraspe's BETE NOIRE is a brilliantly directed and acted exploration of why a social misfit undertakes mass murder in his high school in French Canada. This is both a police and psychiatric investigation told from the inside specifically through the eyes of the killer's family as well as other victims. The leads are particularly to be commended on their impressive performances always sensitively handled and never overblown. Ms Deraspe's stylish direction has obtained some of the best performances from her cast that you will ever see in a beautifully measured series. It is both emotional and intense to watch but very rewarding in so many ways. There is no other word for this but SUPERB. I came away with new insight into something so seemingly inexplicable. Much intelligence has gone into this work and it casts new light on what has been a significant modern social problem.