Mister Spade

It's 1955 rural France. Sam Spade (Clive Owen) is searching for Philippe Saint Andre, the father of his charge, a girl named Teresa. He's been hired by Teresa's late mother who is his former lover and had stolen a large sum of money. He faces many obstacles with the disappeared Philippe. He places Teresa with the nuns at a local orphanage. It's 8 years later and Teresa is turning 18. She is set to receive the large sum from a trust and her thieving father is rumored to have returned. One night, Sam finds the girls locked in their room, Teresa missing, and the nuns brutally murdered.

The story is a bit of a mess. It starts great but ends muddled. I don't like the McGuffin boy. He is really just an object rather than a living breathing character. The girl is a much better subject. It is almost a comedy when they get to the final sit-down and calling out all the characters. I really like Clive Owen doing his Sam Spade. It's impossible to get away from Bogie but this is a fun interpretation. Stay for Clive.

I have strong contradictory feelings about this show. It starts off strong but it fizzles out terribly bad by the end.

Let me begin by saying that I am a big fan of both Owen and noir, so I walked in pretty pumped up. The first few episodes start strong: gorgeous cinematography, solid acting, a few well drawn out characters and all the cues from a proper noir old schooler (saxophone notes, cigarrette smoke, driving through a rainy night, etc). Love it so far!

But boy oh boy, does the plot get convoluted by the end! New, seemly random characters enter the scene out of the blue for no particular reason while adding absolutely nothing to the story (the CIA priest? The French intelligence officer? The algerian investigator? WTF is their purpose?!). On the other hand, the original characters' arcs pretty much slur on going nowhere (Jean Pierre? Teresa? Patrice?). Amidst all this, a text-book McGuffin (the algerian boy) is introduced to keep everybody running around aimlessly, driving the plot's attention away from what should be the center of gravity: Spade himself!

And, at last, the finale: the most bizarre and clumsy 20 minutes I have seen on TV in a long time: a buffonery of a shootout, followed by a Poirotesque whodunit scene that serves absolutely no other purpose than to explain to the perplexed audience WTF is going on and why, all of a sudden, all of the show's characters have all somehow landed at the same ending scene at the same precise moment. Ridiculous.

I know that this review has turned out more negative than I had intended. It is just my frustration showing: this show started off really great, ultimately missing its potential as episodes went by. Still, I would recommend it to noir aficionados - just accept that it'll roll downhill midway through.

PS: Owen makes a fantastic Spade. The entire show rests over his acting shoulders.

I wanted Clive Owen to channel Bogart without imitating him. I wanted to feel both post WWII France as well as one struggling in Algeria and SE Asia. I wanted that France to be intense and atmosheric. I wanted characters that I cared about. I wanted film noir in color.

I got everything I wanted and this is everything I hoped it would be.

I think too that all this may play against the ultimate popularity of this series. Some will see Owen as half of Bogart, lacking depth, perhaps, and missing the slow burn that Bogie brought to the screen. Others, sadly, may have never seen Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade and wonder why they aren't seeing a more recognizable Clive Owen.

Either way you look at it, if you watched episode one this clearly interests you, and good, bad, or indifferent we all owe it to modern noir to see it through if we ever want to see anyone continue to pursue the genre. And yes, I loved Perry Mason also, and watched every episode of an all too short run.

The show has some great things going for it - beautiful setting and cinematography, great rendition of an older Sam Spade by Clive Owen, some interesting supporting characters (and their respective actors). Most importantly it has a achieved a great mix between its Southern France atmosphere and its noir story roots.

What isn't so good is the convoluted plot - new agents and sides are introduced constantly, throughout all the episodes. I guess as a way to add more mystery rather than create it with a more tight and better written plot. To the point where it leads to quite unsatisfactory ending where too many sides rush to battle it in the smallest of places in an already too small for them French village. It's already ridiculous, and even another sloppy deus ex machina is needed for the story to reach some conclusion.

I still give it a 7/10 rating, because its premise and main characters were satisfying and still carry greater potential for further seasons. But only with better writing than this, because current season is enjoyable only if you turn a blind eye for all the unnecessary plot convolutions, and enjoy the good parts instead.

The first five episodes of this series wasn't bad and the story seemed destined to keep us in suspense. However, like any other series in the age of binge watching this one abruptly ends in the dumbest way. You know it's bad when everything is wrapped up in the last ten minutes. Clive Owen is really good as the witty, wisecracking, hard-nosed Sam Spade, but he is the story so allow him to be the story. The cast in the film are pretty good. The show is shot in France and the scenery is beautiful. You could say the scenery is also a character. Monsieur Spade is good, but needs more Sam Spade.cdm.