If you, like I, have been hearing for some time how very good is the French TV series
SPIRAL (
Engrenages) -- all about (among other subjects) top-to-bottom corruption in government, judiciary and police -- you might as well go ahead and have a look. You'll soon be hooked. This series seems nearly as good, though quite different from, the superb Danish TV hit,
Borgen. Having just completed the first season, consisting of eight approximately 47-minute episodes, I can tell you than
Spiral is much uglier, darker and more involved with grizzly stuff than is
Borgen -- which is concerned with how an entire country, as well as the family of its Prime Minister, is run.
The first thing you may notice, as we often do with European films, is how attractive but-in-the-manner-of-real-people is the cast. Created by (and with most of the first season also written by)
Alexandra Clert (at left) and
Guy-Patrick Sainderichin (below, an actor whom we've seen in two of
Mia Hansen-Løve 's movies:
Father of My Children and
Good-bye First Love), the series revels in its characters' hypocrisy
and denial, even as it presents them to us so fully, richly and believably that we end up in their corner -- rooting for even some of the sleazier among them. This is no small accomplishment. The mistakes and misgivings of these people are the same ones we so often possess -- husband/wife differences (sometimes rather enormous), loyalty to a friend vs loyalty to the truth, ambition and how far one can go in stalking it -- so the hot water the characters sometimes jump into may seem to us a little too comfortably warm and cozy.
The series is based around a particular police department in Paris and the female captain who runs it (a smart and sassy
Caroline Proust, above, left), the judge (
Philippe Duclos) and the prosecutor (played by sweet hunk
Grégory Fitoussi, below, who's currently in the new
World War Z) who work with the police -- the French system is quite different from ours, and part of the enjoyment of the series comes from learning about this -- and the various criminal cases that occupy these three in tandem.
We follow not just one crime, but several simultaneously that weave in and out and sometimes connect to the personal lives of our not-quite heroes. This gives us the chance to see all these characters, including some vicious criminals, in various situations that help them grow more understandable and real as the series wends onward.
Sprial is definitely a police procedural, but it's also much more: a character study, a slice of life (high to low) and a look at Paris from a view that tourists never get near (if they're lucky). Some cases move quickly to some form of settlement and justice (or injustice); others takes their time. Perhaps the most interesting character on view is the gorgeous redheaded defense lawyer (
Audrey Fleurot, below) whose ambition seems as limitless as her motives are opaque.
The series opens with the remains of a grizzly murder of a formerly beautiful and now horribly disfigured young woman. What really happened we learn only at the close of this season, but the horror and guilt spreads outward and upwards into more than the season will hold. There will be further explorations to come. Yet one does not leave these episodes (or the entire season itself) feeling empty-handed and cheated as did viewers of the
U.S. remake of the Scandinavian series
The Killing. Instead, we're made aware of implications that keep the people and events spiraling outwards into ever more complex forms.
The
Spiral series is smartly written, acted and directed, achieving maximum potential from every situation, performance and moment. There is genuine surprise and shock along the way, and some fervid emotional jolts, as well -- and these comes as often from the exploration of character as from the events on view. The series seems to be deepening as it goes along. I'm certainly going to finish it, and I suspect you will, too.
Right now
Netflix is streaming 28 episodes: eight in Season One, eight more in Season Two, and twelve in Season Three.
