Baron noir

Very well done look inside the French political machine

Bluffing French political fiction. Everything is excellent. Scenario, acting, suspense, realism.The real political intrigues French are thinly veiled. But above all, the episodes pass without our attention is released. We are kept in suspense from the beginning to the end. And the second season is even stronger. Bravo, we ask for more!

/refers to Season 1/

Works based on political struggles and intrigues are always tricky as the proportion of fiction and non-fiction is not often clear and people within and beyond daily politics have inevitably different views and conceptions. Here, in Baron Noir, the "shadows and demons" of politics are revealed through left parties, with a certain involvement of trade unions and business organisations that are traditionally strong in France. Things, events, ideas and partnerships change fast, and the whole course of events is like based on proverbs and sayings, e.g. "desperate times call for desperate measures", "all's well that ends well", "process is more important than the result" - to name a few... Friends and allies come and go, people entangle themselves in the network of lies and injustice, and you ponder on and over how all this would end. Well, the end solution is not bright and clear, as Season 2 is already planned...

As for performances, they were rather intense and deep, the French spirit and attitudes fully included, but most of the cast, incl. Kad Merad was unfamiliar to me - although I have seen several French films and series in recent years. In my opinion, Niels Arestrup as Francis Laugier had too limited opportunities to show his talent; the president was limited time on screen and in unvaried surroundings and circumstances.

Well, Baron noir is not House of Cards to the full, but comparable to e.g. Borgen and Les hommes de l'ombre. A good watch - unless you are too involved in (leftist) politics somewhere...

PS Season 2 is more about political technology and apparently less interesting to those far from politics, but... And the creation of Season 3 is not excluded either.

PPS Season 3 is full of political technology so it definitely requires some previous knowledge and/or interest how the combinations-coalitions form in politics. Otherwise you might find it too difficult to follow the constant changing paths and methods.

Unless you're very familiar with the French politics the plot is difficult to follow except that apparently if someone needs to think about something they have to stare out of a window.

Nothing particularly exciting happens other than it seems that nobody can get along with anyone else.

My wife and I really enjoy this series! Phillippe reminds me of JR Ewing of Dallas; always plotting ahead and trying to steer things/people to his benefit. He's not the one you wish you were, but you sure wish you had his shrudeness sometimes. This is politics, and I am pretty sure that what happens in the series is not far from real life. Even in our Swedish, compared to this series, very calm political scene I am sure there is a lot of similarities. The Håkan Juholt "thing" a couple of years ago for example. I get good laughs and giggles from this!