8/23/2023 0 Comments Spiral review 1![]() As is usual with French crime films and series, they struggle against the octopus of French political corruption on a continual basis, as they cope with crime after crime and try to do their jobs against all the obstacles artificially created by powerful 'high-ups' and stony-faced bureaucrats. It embodies a complex concept within a single word, referring to a vast web of interlocked and enmeshed gearings of events and personalities, which perfectly describes this incredibly complex and intriguing body of simultaneous and interrelated stories.) This is a sensationally compulsive and gripping series, full of well-rounded leading characters whose evolving personal tales are just as interesting as the crimes they are perpetually solving. ('Engrenages' does not actually mean 'spiral' but is not particularly translatable. This is a review of Series 1 and Series 2 (total of 16 episodes) of the French police investigation TV series called 'Engrenages' in French but called 'Spiral' in English. I'm perfectly devastated that it's all come to an end. So many are burnt out after two or three seasons but not Engrenages. All in all, a super series that kept the tension up for far longer than many others could have. These deaths weren't wasted as they were drivers of the plot and development itself. And neither were they frightened of losing sympathetic minor ones either that other series might have shied away from. It added a frisson and new blood to the overall story. The producers weren't afraid to kill popular major characters off either which was a definite plus. Usually this is done in a cosmetic way to add some purported human interest, but here the personal meshed with the professional and drove the plots along in unforeseen ways. The series could not have been about dry police procedure only and therefore opened out onto the private lives of the characters. And the disaster zone of Gilou simultaneously ruining and solving investigations. It's hard to imagine another actress pulling this off throughout the seasons. Of course, without the character of Laure, there would be no series at all. I missed him in the final season, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I don't think he would have put up with some of the shenanigans that the two new judges allowed. ![]() Everyone has to have their favourite characters in the series and mine was Judge Roban. However, the excellence of the acting and the overarching plot lines mean that one simply forgets about the inconsistencies and exaggerations. Cops, judges and lawyers don't act like this in the real world. The series requires a hefty dose of acceptance of the absurd to be able to believe in the plot. Having used the word "reality", one mustn't go overboard. Corruption, poverty, slavery, immigrant crime, drugs, murder and robbery. It's showing a harsh reality of the underside of glamorous Paris. I've seen every single one over the years and watched the characters grow and change as well as the new ones introduced. I just watched my last ever episode of Engrenages.
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