La promesse

There are many improbable plot twists in French police thriller 'The Promise', but that's just par for the course. Even before things get silly, however, the basic conceit lost me, due to its essential laziness: a policewoman starts digging into crimes her father, also a cop, had previously investigated; and because she cares, she is also right (or at least, more right than anyone else) about everything and thus justified in doing absolutely nothing by the book. There's a good reason we expect our real detectives to be dispassionate, but the opposite state of affairs is so common in television series it's not only inaccurate, but cliched. For me, 'The Promise' never rises about its hackneyed premise.

A good production and better than we seem to be able to produce in the UK these days.

I like the way the viewer was left to work things out before it became obvious towards the end of the first episode.

The structure continued well up until half way through the 6 episodes, then it lost its way.

The prime suspect suddenly was found guilty of another crime, although it was hardly mentioned, and disappeared from the story.

A lot of questions were not answered, or asked come to that (Lilas's criminal history as an adult for instance).

In the end the solution was all rather muddled, implausible and disappointing.

I did enjoy this series over all, it was engaging with good characters and was at times tense. I do agree with others that the ending was somewhat disappointing. But it was well acted and directed throughout and I will watch the next series.

Sofia Essaïdi and Elisa Ezzedine were both good as Sarah Castaing. Leslie Medina as Lilas Castaing was full of character and a little underused in the story. Olivier Marchal as Pierre Castaing was good until the last episode as others have said, but that was the writing, not his acting.

Had me hooked until the final episode then everything collapsed. What a huge letdown. Could have been a classic but oh dear. So much promise until the finale. Could have been so much better.

Influenced by the, in my opinion, relatively low rating (7.0/10 out of 116 ratings at Aug 28 2021), this series positively surprised me in quite a few matters: reasonable plot (not a whodunit but about the hunt on a horrible child kidnapper), as well as the acting. Very good camera work and direction and some fine music. Exiting and tensive till the end... A recommendation to everyone who likes a solid and firm thriller.