La forêt

This is a slow burner of a police procedural. But it's a pleasant surprise that this series is more than this.

The viewer has to be patient at the slow pace as Capt. Decker (Samuel Labarthe) and Virginie Musso pursue leads cautiously in the village that will lead to the killer.

Films, sometimes, have a viewers' pet peeve. In this film, one such character exists. And this is Virginie. There's no back story of Maya and Virginie that justifies why Virginie is so hysterical and frantic about the disappearance of Maya. It's understandable that mothers will react this way but her portrayal as the grieving, disconsolate mother is not convincing; it comes across as contrived.

This is also Eve Mendel's story. We root for her as she helps the police in their investigation, and when an important information about her past surfaces. The viewer hopes that her story will really have a happy ending.

Cinematography is splendid. The panoramic views of the wide expanse of the Ardennes are great. The locale (Montfaucon) is a quaint little town with a lovely river.

It was worth watching but not really super captivating. There were a number of good characters and interesting subplots, but Virginia - who is pretty much the main character - is the worst police officer in history and in any realistic scenario would have been thrown off the case and probably out of the force by her new boss within the first day.

I binge watched it so definitely keeps you engaged. The Broadchurch inspiration is telling unfortunately the writing is nowhere near it and the police captain is no David Tenant. The good part is some solid acting by the cast, excellent locations and the initial episodes do create the aura of mystery. The worst part is the characterisation of the cops. Literally every bit of evidence and finding is found by the French teacher Eve. The actress who played the lady cop was very good but the character deplorable. She always look dishevelled, in India you would get fired if you turned up that way. Every bit of evidence is shared with everyone in the village by her, doesn't listen to her boss, acts irrationally most of the time, messes up critical evidence, lets go of a key witness and worst part sits on a missing girl's case claiming its a prank. And her all out drive when its her own daughter is sickening, no objectivity as a cop. The captain cop plays really dull, the only bright characters are Eve , her father, Oceane's father and Oceane. And the motive for the murders ,after watching close to 6 hours doesn't get even 6 secs.You are left wondering why..

Occasionally, I like "mini-binge watching netflix" with my wife on the weekend. One of my gripes about most series is that they start strong but eventually the story line degenerates into a typical soap opera, the premise is lost, the series drags on and on, and the conclusion(if they ever get to one) is unsatisfactory.

That does NOT happen in the little gem.

This series is short enough that you can get the satisfaction of finishing it over a weekend. The story is really good with enough layers to keep things interesting, the acting/character development is great, and the very final scene/conclusion is good.

It's dubbed, (french language movie) but after one episode, you won't even notice it.

Well done.

I thought this was really well done. Every one of the 6 episodes contained some kind of revelation and cliffhanger that kept me going onto the next one. I binged watched this series in about 3 days and really enjoyed it. Interesting characters and a plot that kept you guessing. Highly recommended.