Cannes Confidential

I wanted to like this so badly. Love Jamie Bamber, beautiful scenery on the French Riviera, heists, capers... what could go wrong? Well..... apparently a lot. Start with a lead actress with zero charisma and acting ability, then take yourself too seriously and remove all of the fun and romance and intrigue and make it weird and dark with everyone pissed off all the time. Whoever was in charge here missed the boat completely and should really have taken a cue from shows like The Mallorca Files or Candace Renoir. It's a shame really to waste so much potential. Get a different lead actress and revamp.

First off, if this was supposed to be a spoof and the female lead was intentionally acting horribly, I apologize and the rest of the public should have a peak. However, if this was in any way suppose to be serious TV, someone should be fired immediately. Perhaps if they are French speakers, they should've spoke French and put in some sub titles. No value was added with their speaking English, which they certainly spoke well but that was what they clearly were focused on, speaking that is, and not acting. What an absolute abomination and worse, waste of a beautiful back drop. For a travel brochure, its great, for entertainment; well we made through 11 minutes before we gave up. Even Jamie Bamber, a fine English actor, could not save it.

But (as you may have guessed), I didn't. Let me explain why.

This is classic detective-fun-glorious scenery-not to take seriously crime series. Main actors are very attractive and obviously the french scenery is very beautiful.

If it didn't take itself seriously and had a bit of comidic tone it might have worked better, for example the Mallorca Files are excellent series.

Here though, the main female protagonist is way too young to be a lieutenant, she is always overdressed for the occation (ie arriving at the crime scene with high heel boots like she is going to a party) and she is also mainly being pissed of about everything. Last but not least, she cannot act.

Bamber is ok, he seems charming , not over the top but the writers have him restrained in terms of his part as a counterweight to the Lucie Lucas importance to the series.

It might have been an entertaining series but the characters are dull, the crime story not interesting enough and the final product is more of a miss than a hit.

The show had potential but suffers from a serious problem with the writing and acting. The dialog is wooden and doesn't ring true. The female lead detective isn't likeable or interesting. Rather than being irascible but somewhat charming she is just unpleasant. She is not a credible actor - or at least not in English. Often I could not understand her - shows like Death in Paradise have successfully integrated French speaking actors into the series by making sure they are understandable to an English speaking audience. Her female associate simply mumbles and is faced with trying to deliver cliche ridden lines. It is fortunate that we can't hear her most of the time.

I have only suffered through episode 1 - I am not sure that I can face Episode 2. The production values are excellent and of course the scenery is wonderful. It must have been expensive to film there. Too bad they didn't spend some of that money on writers and a decent co-star to match Jamie Bamber.

We wanted to like it. But a little too woke with actresses that can't act, who lack any femininity, and spend all the time fist fighting and kick boxing the men (the bad guys). Beautiful scenery on the French Riviera. That's it. The lead actress has zero charisma. The other actress hates everyone and takes the fun out of everything. There's no pleasantness in this shows. No sexy undercurrents. They tried to make a Mallorca Files but missed in every aspect. The Mallorca Files is the way it should have been done. Recast the whole thing with characters that have effervescence and panache. And don't have every episode end with ladies duking it out, and badly I might say.