Les témoins

As a keen follower of mostly British and Scandinavian crime dramas, I try at times to broaden my horizon and find out what other nationalities/countries have come to offer. Thanks to the site here plus Wikipedia, it is now easy to look around and see what is going on elsewhere, together with brief synopsis and comments.

As I liked Braquo and Engrenages, then Les témoins met my eye as well - and caught my attention from the very first moments. The producers are apparently the admirers of Scandinavian film noir, but this was not annoying, on the contrary - the concept, camera-work, music score and mood were catchy to follow, and the story "started working" at once, making you ponder on and over what could and would really happen. Leading characters and actors were distinct (particularly Thierry Lhermitte as former police chief Paul Maisonneuve and Marie Dompnier as police lieutenant Sandra Winckler) and the plot had interesting twists and turns, full of mysticism, but without interventions from supernatural forces; plus the nature in North-Eastern France is very different from we are used to see in French films, accentuating the similarities with Western Scandinavia and Northern England and Scotland.

All in all, a good series, and the number of episodes (6) is just right to obtain a versatile, yet not protracted and not discursive crime series.

I've just finished watching this series following its run on Channel 4 in the UK, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It has bags of atmosphere, some fabulous and very intense acting, and a great central character in the stunning Marie Dompnier. Certainly an actress to watch.

In addition, considering its 6 hour running time and novelistic structure, not to mention 2 intertwined mysteries to keep the viewer guessing, it really jogs along at quite a clip, with as much intrigue and incident per episode as many mini-series have in their entire running times.

There were a few plotting issues that lose it one point out of 10, but otherwise I thought this was as gripping as anything I've seen on TV for a while.

Another IMDb reviewer (daggersineyes?) liked season 1, but urged readers vigorously to 'pass' on Season 2. But Season 2 started with a bus full of dead frozen people and a pretty amnesiac trying to reconnect with her family. Compelling?! Yeah, I should have listened to dagger. I also enjoyed Season 1 with its mysterious piles of bodies turning up, implicating a high official in murder. But Season 2 fell off the tracks after a few sessions. I can only imagine that the writers thought they were doing a 4-episode offering, but then we're told to expand it to 8----& they went "huh? We have identified the killer & his cohorts and possible motive'(the guy's a loony-tune... What else would explain it?)... Why would we need 4 more episodes?" Seriously, the writers should have just insisted on writing a new 4-parter instead of producing this drivel. It was as bad as those C-westerns of the early 40's with Nazi war criminals... And trucks! Typically, an 8-session season might be 3 story-lines (4+2+2) or whatever... Anything but a dragged-out bit of nonsense over an entire season.

I have seen 8-parters done in mystery series, but the scope was broader, of course. When you start with a bus full of dead people, you have to 'cut to the chase' fairly quickly . Oh well.. next time (I listen to 'dagger').

Not belittling the performances here, but the story was disgraceful! Not something the writers want on their resumés, I can assure you (O, you wrote t-h-a-t? That the one where 2 villains commit suicide? Always wondered what you guys were thinking ... We'll call you - don't call us..)

Scandi-noir brings with it a set of expectations which Witnesses duly delivers. Female cop with suppressed issues -- check; a wintry French coastal village dominated by Broadchurch style cliffs -- check; improbable crime scenes that darkly hint at a miscreant with a messed up mind -- check, and the usual cool colour palette of blues and greys -- check.

Genre conventions are not a bad thing, if used deftly, and Witnesses delivers. Marie Dompnier as the female lead investigator, Sandra Winckler, is impressive as the astute cop who exorcises her insomniac nights by obsessively cleaning her apartment. Thierry Lhermitte plays the former high-flying policeman haunted by family tragedy, and as Winkler's former instructor who is implicated in the bizarre crime, suppresses dark secrets about his past. The location shooting in Le Tréport, with its strange funicular railway which is used as a disturbing feature in the first episode, is inspired, and the photography is superb.

This review is based on viewing the introductory episode, which sometimes tends to be dramatically the most engaging with television mini-series, such as The Bridge and its British-French counterpart, The Tunnel, but marred in subsequent weeks by a lurid story trajectory. Hopefully Witnesses will exhibit a narrative restraint where trust is placed in mood and character development without forsaking the sense of unease that is so well established in the opening hour.

The far north of France has its universally appealing quirks, as the unlikely hit film Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, 2008) exploited to excellent comic effect. But can Le Nord serve as an effective setting for more serious drama, like that emanating from much farther north? This French mystery-thriller series gives a Gallic slant to all the tropes developed to such good effect in classic Nordic Noir: weird title song in fractured English, drone shots of landscapes under oppressive skies, obsessive female cop with personal issues, etc. Nearby Normandy was settled by the Vikings, after all.

There are good things here. Marie Dompnier as the young detective Sandra Winckler is very watchable: she alone gives the series its focus and makes one care about what happens. But the plot is far too elaborate even by recent Scandinavian standards and the holes in it gape far too wide. The device of giving no answer at all to straight questions becomes seriously overused, especially in relation to Paul Maisonneuve (Thierry Lhermitte), the aristocratic, stone-faced ex-police chief with an enigmatic past. You keep on wanting to yell, "Just answer the question!" at Paul. As for Sandra, you'll repeatedly find yourself shouting, "Call for backup on your cell phone!" and when this fails, "For heaven's sake just shoot him!"

The small Channel town of Le Tréport, at the foot of chalk cliffs, has a major role as a dismal, Gothic background for the convoluted goings on. Yet Le Tréport in reality is a charming place, certainly not one known for awful weather, demented clown-faced serial killers, and rabid wolves. It might have been better to use the Broadchurch method: a sunny seaside village with magnificent cliffs as a splendid foil to the dark undercurrents.

There will of course be another series of Witnesses, as certain plot elements need to be resolved. I suppose I'll watch it, but not with high expectations. There was only just enough in this series to make me persist with all six episodes, and it's really not a patch on The Killing or Broadchurch nor on the best French cop dramas like Spiral.