Unité 42

This is one of the best crime series I've seen in a long time. The plots keep you pinned to the screen, the pacing and film score are perfectly in synch, and the characters are multi-dimensional, sometime flawed but always human. You care about them. Patrick Ridremont is excellent as the widowed cop trying to do his demanding job and also raise his three small children. Any parent watching him can emphasize. The family situation adds heart and emotional depth to this compelling series. I can only hope that it will be renewed.

I am on the third episode, and I feel I should be enjoying this more than I am. It has so much going for it. Patrick Ridremont was terrific in En Immersion and La Foret and is good again here; and sometimes it is welcome to have an anthology series, which I sometimes like to watch after watching 8 or 10 episode serials with a demanding, continuous story arc. It has good, edgy storylines; it has well-written dialogue (I have enough French to be able to understand a lot of it in the original with subtitles helping me along with the rest). The problem, for me, is with the editing. During Episode 1, I replayed a 10-minute segment I had just watched, and the longest any single shot was held was 6 seconds - most of the cuts came much more quickly than that. There is therefore a relentlessly manic quality in the way the final product is put together. I think this is possibly intended to mirror in some way the contemporary, unstable, high-tech, high-speed world that the investigators work in, but, for me, it makes it quite hard to watch and retain concentration

The ratings here are too low, I'm guessing because a lot of people don't like subtitles and want dubbing. But this is a fine series, well written, produced, and acted-and serious viewers want to hear the language and the actors' voices. My reservation is that in crime procedurals the victims are so often women, and they never seem to have a security system, dog, or at least mace. It's just maddening. And why are pictures of naked women on the walls where they eat. I get that they're special ops in a basement, but come on. But, despite rather stupid production gaffes, this is a good show with a lot of strengths and surprising moments of tenderness.

Recommended.

This reminded me of shows from the 70s, 80s or 90s. Each episode is an individual case which is solved in the end and then you start again in the next episode. Despite good performances and decent dialogue it's all a little to neat and formulaic. Saying that, it is watchable and requires no commitment from the viewer so you can watch a single episode and walk away without feeling that you're missing something.

Unite 42 is a Belgian production. The detective team is of a cyber-crime flavor and the "42" in the title is in reference to "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

You never know when you start a series if you'll like it or not. I've recently turned off some shows after a few minutes, but this one caught my interest and I ended up enjoying it.

I always watch international productions like this in the original audio with subtitles. Subtitles don't bother me at all. I understand some people hate them.

Once again we have a single parent detective (in this case, its a dude) as the main character. The kids are not quite as annoying as they are in some other series (I'm looking at you, Deadwind). I thought this actor was very good.

Another major character is the female tech wizard and she is truly the epitome of annoying.

But overall, I really got to enjoy the characters. The plots -- well, they were sort of silly and so much just magically happens without the characters doing much if any real police work that you have to chuckle. One basically needs to suspend disbelief.

Also... if you are technically inclined, you'll find yourself rolling your eyes quite a bit. The writers do try but... much of just too far-fetched to believe.

This reminds me a bit of a French show called "The Detectives" -- its sort of semi-comedic cop show and very different from the heavy, depressing Scandinavian shows and the angst-ridden Brit series.

There was thing about this production that I really liked and thought kind of unique: there are these shots where the victims, while still alive, look right at the camera. They only last a few seconds but.. they are incredibly poignant. It's like a reminder that while this ia a procedural, that somewhere back in the distance the story is about a person whose life ended. I found it just heartwrenching.

So... this is okay. I'm glad I watched it and was sad when I realized I'd just finished the last episode. I find myself hoping there will be more.