Series 4: State of Terror

[David T. Cole]

Your Series 4 topic.

[seamusk]

I just finished season 4. Another great season. I rarely anticipate twists. I kind of prefer to keep myself in the dark. But in a rare moment of foresight I realized around episode 10 Sami was a goner. Just the whole love triangle set up I guess. I don't know. I didn't even mind that much though I liked him. And he did finally stand up for Laure to the boss who clearly sucked and was supposed to.

 

The revolutionaries/immigrant rights theme really intrigued me. You see american police shows try to cover protest groups and they almost always have zero idea. You either get the ridiculously resourceful types that you find on 24, or some stupid portrayal of naivety (basically a narrative driven by the writers own naivety or prejudices). Oh and they always have a single leader. We saw the leadership thing here but in a more realistic sense. I've been in a number of movements and the weird dynamic between the radical left non-violent folks and Thomas' group was striking. The level of violence that Thomas' group was willing to go is extremely rare in American leftist groups but the dynamic between the main radicals (who protested and sued and squatted) and the fringe radicals was really well done. The posting of the pics online was stupid, but the assault on the squat was just as stupid and I was torn between our protagonists and the squat mates. In real life I would have rooted for the squat mates the whole way (except for Thomas's group). 

 

This season, I felt like Pierre and Roban were completely isolated from Laure's team which I didn't love. But the storylines were all mostly good so it wasn't totally boring. I like the scenes in the projects. Remind me a fair bit of the Wire. And I like that on this show, while i'm sure it's not perfect, the police work mostly makes good sense. And nobody is a ridiculous super hacker who can somehow do things that aren't even possible on laptop computers. Just saying. This is great television.

[meisje]

On 5/26/2015 at 9:44 AM, seamusk said:

I just finished season 4. Another great season. I rarely anticipate twists. I kind of prefer to keep myself in the dark. But in a rare moment of foresight I realized around episode 10 Sami was a goner. Just the whole love triangle set up I guess. I don't know. I didn't even mind that much though I liked him. And he did finally stand up for Laure to the boss who clearly sucked and was supposed to.

 

The revolutionaries/immigrant rights theme really intrigued me. You see american police shows try to cover protest groups and they almost always have zero idea. You either get the ridiculously resourceful types that you find on 24, or some stupid portrayal of naivety (basically a narrative driven by the writers own naivety or prejudices). Oh and they always have a single leader. We saw the leadership thing here but in a more realistic sense. I've been in a number of movements and the weird dynamic between the radical left non-violent folks and Thomas' group was striking. The level of violence that Thomas' group was willing to go is extremely rare in American leftist groups but the dynamic between the main radicals (who protested and sued and squatted) and the fringe radicals was really well done. The posting of the pics online was stupid, but the assault on the squat was just as stupid and I was torn between our protagonists and the squat mates. In real life I would have rooted for the squat mates the whole way (except for Thomas's group). 

 

This season, I felt like Pierre and Roban were completely isolated from Laure's team which I didn't love. But the storylines were all mostly good so it wasn't totally boring. I like the scenes in the projects. Remind me a fair bit of the Wire. And I like that on this show, while i'm sure it's not perfect, the police work mostly makes good sense. And nobody is a ridiculous super hacker who can somehow do things that aren't even possible on laptop computers. Just saying. This is great television.

Poor Samy (and the viewers), RIP his hotness... I was quite surprised to see him return since it appeared that his existence had just been dropped, and I figured the show was mostly wiping the slate clean at the end of each season without much exposition. I cringed though when Laure realized he was dead, because now we're going to have a whole new set of personal issues stemming from the fact that she never said "yes" to him and he died while she waited out her decision. A little too dramatic for my taste. And poor Tintin this season. I liked that he received more screen time, but didn't like the story that he was unfit for duty because he was suffering some lingering ptsd or taking medication. He did beat the guy in the back of the car the one time, though I didn't have a great amount of sympathy for someone who'd just spent a few days torturing and eventually killing someone in the woods). It was sloppy writing that Tintin was compromising the team though, even on his worst day he did far less damage than Gilou on one of his many "bad" days. And since when is the team so put out because an ambulance had to be called -- these are the very same people who beat an epileptic into a grand seizure and then proceeded to beat him in the hospital and after he was released?!

ITA with your assessment of the nuance in the portrayal of the revolutionary/immigrant groups, Seamusk. It's rarely done so well, and I was genuinely relieved when the original group made it out unscathed and with new civil and citizenship rights. Every one of the violent turds really showed themselves to be nothing more than an unoriginal coward. As aggravating as Sophie was, Thomas proved himself to be an absolute rat when he threw his phone in the river after she'd carried out the plan on her own. Maybe Spiral will bring back Thomas for a helping of revenge next season? I'd enjoy that. The good ole' misogyny of the show was again present, even within the ranks of the extremists, but I guess you sign up for all of it when you dump your dying friend in the woods (alive) to rot.

It was a nice break to venture beyond the ranks of murdered women, it really was. Hope they continue to branch out from ultra murder-y sadism. And not a mention of even 1 case of incest either, hurrah! Roban's story took sort of a left turn with the Freemasons, but I guess we'll see how that plays out... looked like he missed his chance with his secretary though. Pierre was irritating through and through this season. He was not a better person than Karlsson, but he was following that whole "scapegoat the woman" path that is the laziest thing in the world, so he could recapture his glory.

I'm glad there are no superhackers too!