Commissaire Magellan

Season 1 of Magellan was extremely enjoyable. All the actors and plots worked out. Then the wonderful Nabil disappeared and was replaced by an ever complaining character at the end of season 1. Season 2 starts with 2 girls younger than in season 1! Since when this would make sense to anyone? And not only that, but their character is unpleasant. Is the writer different ? 10 stars for season 1, 4 stars for season 2

This series was enjoyable utnil the character Ludo came on board. What a loser, irritating and annoying. Aside from that character I enjoy the show with great scenery, good mysteries and very little violence. MHz is great for foreign programming which far surpasses anything in the US excepet Yellowstone.

The series has been enjoyable. However, I have been fast forwarding the scenes with the nephew Ludo. Most reviews on this character have not been positive. So why do the producers or whoever are the decision makers insist on including this character? It is a shame. The interludes with the original cast was entertaining. Is it is grinding at best. Who can we appeal to for a change and have Ludo move to Antarctica and live there happily ever after. And we can move on enjoying Saignac with Magellan and Selma. That will be appreciated by many of us.

We stumbled on this by accident - a program we were watching on France 3 rolled over into an episode, and we kept on watching.

Like Columbo, each episode stands alone, though there are certain recurring characters who provide a backdrop to the investigative action. Unlike Columbo, Simon Magellan has a home life, and in general this provides the light comic relief that offsets the drama of the murder investigation.

The relations and plot twists between the various possible suspects in each murder are as tortuous as anything Agatha Christie or Erle Stanley Gardner ever dreamed up, and the frenetic pace of unravelling the tangled web in the span of a 90 minute episode keeps the viewer constantly on the edge of the seat.

The characters are for the most part highly believable, and even the bit parts and extras do a sterling job of adding credibility, especially when some of the plot propositions come across as somewhat lame. In this context, I must make mention of one young actress, Florence Coste, who played a strong supporting role in the May 2018 episode "Un Amour De Jeunesse" ("Young Love"). The ability to cry really convincingly on camera is rare. The ability to act drunk believably is almost non-existent. Ms Coste handles both with such perfect understatement that I was quite awestruck.

If I had to single out one area where the series falls short, it is in the camera work and final editing. There are jumps in the picture, badly angled shots, and a heavy reliance on a series of canned aerial views of the town to indicate that Simon Magellan is moving from place to place. But this is not an art film, it is a mystery series, and we are content to forgive the poor post-productoin for the sake of some excellent acting and fun plot.

It isn't easy to find episodes to watch. France 3 runs them from time to time in batches on successive weekends of a few weeks, but not in episode sequence, and with long breaks between. MHz Choice has the first 8 episodes available with English subtitles that are too big and too high on the screen, and therefore interfere a lot with the action. It would be nice if the copyright owners would put the existing 32 episodes on a DVD boxed set and make them available on-line.

I am a fan of several different crime genres. This series is particularly entertaining because it takes you back and forth between the crime and the mystery and the ins and outs of Commissaire Magellan's family life. It is a wonderful balance between mystery and light humor. Nothing is over done or overly dramatic. This is a show you can watch with your family/teens/younger teens. There are gruesome or bloody moments, but always post-mortem and very temporary. The storyline is the focus, not the ability to shock an audience, which I find to be over the top, over done and erroneous. The characters are all likeable and believable. It is a nice break from the average crime/mystery show. The comedic relief is appreciated.