Virage Nord

Virage Nord (or Match Day as it's called on Tubi) wasn't a bad series. One plus was it only lasted three episodes. If it'd been a 10-episode affair, it would've been intolerable. Why? More attention was spent on the emotional relationships of various characters, as well as the intricacies of football itself, than the actual mystery of the youth killing.

As someone who is not a fan of football, I confess the series' constant and detailed references to it was, how should I say, uninteresting. Sorry. The tension between characters was well-developed, though, and made for good cinema.

In regard to Virage Nord being related to Nordic noir, visually it was - sweeping landscapes, bluish-green atmospheres, twists and subplots all over the place. I think, in the end, YMMV as to how captivating a series it is. As a three-episode watch, it wasn't that bad. Any longer and it would've been a no go.

As recent decade has seen a flourishing of Nordic crime series in the world, many other countries have taken off or emanated from their elements and approach - some with bigger success, others with less. In my opinion, landscape and atmosphere are crucial, thus good results come with Northern part of Europe. Including North-Eastern France and some Belgium, where Virage Nord "starts working".

The benchmark is versatile and the pace is similar to Nordic series, but the main topic (football and its intrigues) and often uneven flashbacks create desultory course of events at times, and the use of rather unknown performers did not provide me a profound experience. Nevertheless, it is a good miniseries, excelling many US ones, for example, and those fond of non-Mediterreanean France get a pleasant overview of the French contribution in the thriller area, but for me, it is not in my top of French police series.