Series 2: Barbecue

[David T. Cole]

Your Series 2 topic.

[dramachick]

I watched this series in five straight nights, and I was on edge for each episode.  I thought Aziz was a really scary villain because his violence was so unpredictable.  I held my breath every time he was on screen.  I actually screamed when he got hold of the little boy who had shot the video.  But Aziz was a light weight compared to his cousins, the two brothers who were all kinds of just plain evil.  They made my skin crawl the way they would just stare at people as I wondered what evil thing they would do next.

 

Laure didn't blink when she lied about that baton!  She and Gilou and Tintin are tighter than tight.  I love every scene between Laure and Ms. Karlsson.  They've both got each other's number, but Ms. Karlsson truly is rotten.

 

I thought Pierre and Laure were going to be a couple, but I guess they just had a fling.  Oh well, along came Samy and I fell for him just like Laure did.  I was chanting his name when things went south in Spain.

Edited July 10, 2014 by sswriter

[seamusk]

I was interested in how much this season seemed influenced by the Wire. Just the approach to the crime solving with the wire tapping, the scene in the projects where Aziz lived where they tried to monitor him from across the way, etc... Plus the overall plot was very Wire-esque. I hate to over compare it to the Wire, as I think this show stands on it's own. 

 

I know nothing about French life really, let alone criminal life, so how realistic some of this is I don't know. But I am enjoying sort of getting a glimpse into their criminal justice system. I'm sure it's tv real, as in not really real, but it's still a sort of glimpse. I watched the Missing and it interests me how the magistrate gets involved in questions suspects so early on. I know that's their role in France, but it's so unique from what the US criminal justice system so I find it intriguing.

 

I was a bit dis-lodged by the changes for Laure this season. I mean, I get that they were trying to evolve her character but some of it seemed so out of the blue to me. Not the appearance. I get that. Time has passed, her life has changed some, etc... I think it all worked in the end but it felt a bit forced in the first half of the season to me.

[meisje]

Spiral, Saison 2: Everyone goes to the salon!

Enjoyed this one more than the first season, but am now wondering if Karlsson's objective last season was simply to narrow her field of competition by making certain her boss would not become a lawyer again... does anyone else have a clear reading on this? I was absolutely shocked that she didn't reveal Samy after overhearing the mention of an embedded cop. They seem to write her all over the place though. They wedged a scene in where we see her arrive home from a huge shopping trip, and there are references to her love of all things money, but then she appears to motivated by a desire for true justice. It's not that a person can't be many things, it just feels like they can't quite make up their mind(s). I felt terribly for her when she had to bed her disgusting old boss! I truly hope the sexism depicted on Spiral is for drama's sake some of the time, because there is a legitimate problem that needs UN intervention otherwise. It was plum crazy that Karlsson was the one to show, in court, that the husband has knocked his wife into near brain death from behind! Wouldn't that be the job of forensics or the "state"? It was crazy when the court room gasped as though this was the first piece of real evidence that she was more-or-less murdered. I didn't care for the judges' questions like, "if he were really a wife beater, why weren't there locks on the bedroom door?!" And the jackass who later mentioned slapping his wife only to have Pierre quickly find out that she had been beaten (and raped?) within an inch of her life, egads... 98% of Spiral's characters are super casual about women being beaten and murdered by domestic partners, and the burden is always on the dead, or half-dead, defendant.

Quote

I know nothing about French life really, let alone criminal life, so how realistic some of this is I don't know. But I am enjoying sort of getting a glimpse into their criminal justice system. I'm sure it's tv real, as in not really real, but it's still a sort of glimpse. I watched the Missing and it interests me how the magistrate gets involved in questions suspects so early on. I know that's their role in France, but it's so unique from what the US criminal justice system so I find it intriguing.

The magistrate's role in crime is almost unbelievable. Sometimes it seems useful and at other times it leaves me thinking how well the American justice system is designed (and that is not a feeling that is familiar to me). What on earth is with naming witnesses publicly and then telling them there's no such thing as protection?! Or, whatever it was that happened with the prison guy who eventually ruined Samy's cover? I sort of understood the judge saying they couldn't do anything since the team was in Spain, but they sure as hell didn't need to let the ex-con wander in the door and inform about the informant, especially to save the life of a cop! It was just bonkers that he wasn't at least pulled aside before getting to the door and held until the freaking operation was over! The judge's role feels a lot like the DA's role or IA in US crime shows, where someone who really doesn't know how the whole thing works calls the shots in sometimes-inexplicable ways, but usually it's just a dramatic crutch - I don't get that feeling here.
 

Quote

 was a bit dis-lodged by the changes for Laure this season. I mean, I get that they were trying to evolve her character but some of it seemed so out of the blue to me. Not the appearance. I get that. Time has passed, her life has changed some, etc... I think it all worked in the end but it felt a bit forced in the first half of the season to me.

The part where she is sent to a psychiatrist and divulges that she's been in a relationship for 10 years with an older doctor was quite a surprise... Since last season Laure was often the cute party girl as soon as work ended, it didn't feel particularly believable. 

[meisje]

I've started season 3 but don't want to get spoiled by posting there just yet! One thing that has really stood out to me is how much a few of the actors look actor's I've seen in US shows. Karlsson reminds me of Jessica Hamby (even starting out as a light red and transitioning into darker red). Her mannerisms remind me of Hamby in Daredevil too!

And Pierre reminds me a lot of Mariska Hargitay's RL husband, L&O staple Peter Hermann 

And to make things super confusing, I thought Arnaud Ledoré was played an actor from Les Revenants, but it's actually the actor who played Simon in the US version.

(I think this needs to be 2 posts...)

Edited August 19, 2016 by meisje

[meisje]

But Arnaud is actually this guy

And then the thing that cracked me up was a shot of the gorgeous Caroline Proust's hand in one of the show's scenes, because I immediately shouted "man hands" (Seinfeld) when I saw it! At first I thought it was a stunt hand, but I'm pretty sure it's her hand based on the whole scene.

 

Edited August 19, 2016 by meisje