Les Ombres Rouges

Came across this on Sky as part of their "Walter Presents" foreign subtitled TV series. Really wish I hadn't. Contrived, ridiculous, nonsensical storyline. Combined with a poor, lazy script and bad acting from all concerned this proved to be a complete waste of time. Scenery was quite nice.

After suffering through Riviera, I then detoxed myself with solid nordic noir, then tartan noir and happily happened upon Les Ombres Rouges. Loved it, truly great characters, solid acting, terrific cinematography (not that I can really tell, but I hate those jumping cameras, and at last was able to enjoy the show without a migraine attack). Good script, well performed by the cast and of course I adore the French accents and language. Don't understand the negative reviews, perhaps Anglo Saxon dyspepsia, but as a Scot, I just loved this series!

This is your typical French soap opera, complete with the usual cast of characters. After the first 2 episodes you realize that it has all the elements of a poorly produced French series, and the usual terrible acting where actors shout a lot and try to pass that off as good acting. Hopefully, there will be no more seasons as it was extremely difficult to even get through this one. Overall, a total and complete waste of time and surprising to see that Sundance even endorses it as an original series.

Although the French are known for their culture, fashion and elegance, they are also good at portraying the seedy side of life. The Red Shadows follows the narrative of a young girl Clara's abduction twenty-five years before and the quest of her now police officer sister to discover what happened to her and if she is still alive. The setting is the Cote d'Azur where the wealthy and the grimy underworld exist side by side with the rest of society, who are just trying to get on with their lives.

The pace over the six episodes is brisk and the acting is of a high standard. There are aspects of the plot that seem contrived and hard to believe, but sometimes to achieve the enjoyable you have to fudge the narrative to bring it all together.

There was one question left unanswered in the story of Clara but maybe there will be a follow-up series in which it is answered. I hope so.

In 2018, Fench television gave us 'Red Wedding', about the complex history of dark deeds including murder commited by a wealthy family living on the French riveria and starring, among others, Lannick Gantry. A year later, we got 'Red Shadows', about which one can say the exact same things. If anything, the plot of 'Red Shadows' is even less convincing, starting with the premise that the lead detective investigating the initial case is motivated because she's personally involved (and indeed, even became a policewoman so one day she could solve it!). The series keeps us guessing about everyone's motives, but it's hard to feel involved as the body count keeps rising. One feels there must be a stylish, clever thriller to be made in this setting, but both these series are by-the-numbers efforts - and so similar, I accidentally reviewed them the wrong one without noticing before I watched the other one!