Master Crimes

Worth a viewing.

Cute police procedural. Sometimes predictable. Often charming. On parle assez vite en français ici. The English subtitles are adequate.

Both the professor and lead detective are strong-willed females which is nice when they collaborate.

The students are like a Greek chorus adding background on criminology and help the viewer follow what the professor is thinking. Plus they bring some humor to the show.

This show is similar to other police procedurals (NCIS, Professor T etc) but with a Gallic flare. I like how the professor like Sherlock Holmes seems to figure it all out long before the police or her students.

Well worth a viewing.

Not too bad, good scenarios, likeable characters if a little innerving and generally nice filming and filmed in the Yvelines, where I live, so I recognized some places.

But I want to further comment on a fact that I found shocking in S02E04...

From the beginning, I like the fact that the main characters, Louise Arbus, drives a true vintage Volkswagen Beetle. I also do. So I took this as a pleasing signature.

Then in S02E04... Her Beetle is broken, so she has to be towed by a tractor. But what shocked me was that they filmed the scene like if the Beetle's engine were on front, with front panel open, smoke coming from the front, people looking into the luggage compartment and faking looking at an engine. Ridiculous...

Please be serious ! A Beetle's engine is at the rear, everyone knows that... This single scene utterly destroyed my suspension of disbelief...

Interesting series but I find Muriel Tobin's character to be overacted and very controlling if others. She plays a know-it-all who is demeaning to others in order to elevate herself . Makes it unattractive. The student characters and the ME are well conceived and well- acted. If they replaced her or toned her character down it might improve the series.

I watched the first two episodes which dealt with one set of crimes and their solving. I decided that ploughing further on would be a total waste of time. Dependable actors such as Muriel Robin and Anne Le Nen were wasted here, particularly Robin. She was being directed to play a character under extreme tension and anger and the only way she could do this was by jutting her jaw, clenching her teeth, squaring her shoulders and reminding people of how disagreeable she is.

The other cast members portraying student criminologists were just as bad, all having to act as a particular distinct stereotype of various types of personalities.

Leaden humour dragged the action down while the background music was horrendously inappropriate. Ludicrous peeks into everyone's private lives showed "series by numbers" - boxes were ticked off to portray a set number of character traits. The actual crimes were solved by coincidence not incisiveness.

I couldn't bear the thought of more so I gave up completely. Utterly not recommended.

This show is so funky, so full of holes, but typical of many of the French murder mysteries that I enjoy on MHZ, thus the 7 points, not less.(some ex. Astrid, Murder in...,,The art of crime, Family Cases, Magallan, and my favorite, Mongeville)

Many of these shows will not let a plain murder mystery get in the way of doing things the "french way." Eating, 24/7, wine, high heels, professor abusing/taking advantage of students. Not holding guns correctly, etc. Has never stopped a French director from telling a French murder mystery.

Sometimes these shows drive me nuts, this show more than others. But As long as they continue to be "tongue in cheek, full of French charm and humor, and I get to practice my high school french, I"ll give them high ratings. At least they are not as mind numbing boring as a Hallmark murder mystery.