Reviews

I like Eléonore Bernheim in The Art of Crime, a part she plays well. The jury is out on her playing a gritty cop in the two "Murder In..." that she has done.

However, no one's acting could save this contrived, clichéd catastrophe, "Murder In Le Mans". The story is stupid, with an LAPD cop, former Le Mans racer and apparent father (Jason Priestly) aiding in the investigation.

Jason Priestly, an actor from the English/French bilingual Canada, couldn't read a stop sign in French. It was so painful to hear him speak I turned off the sound then just read the subtitles.

His new-found daughter from a race-time relationship thirty years earlier? Don't know, don't care, I gave up.

... but the first thing I did was laugh.

I think to enjoy this series you have to have enjoyed Shameless. Some describe this family as clichéd but that falls short. Dysfunctional doesn't cover it either.

The main character returns home and to her completely over the top family members in an attempt to maintain her fragile, six-month sobriety. She couldn't have made a worse choice.

The eight-part series details everyone else's shortcomings as well as her own, making you want to reach for a drink yourself. But it is very well done, humorous, gritty and for someone who finds the theme close to the heart, very difficult to watch in parts.

It is the woman's sponsor who is the lone voice of sanity and some hard truths. The series is very well done, very well written and very well acted.

Some would like to see additional seasons but I think what had to be said and done was accomplished in these eight, half-hour episodes.

I got hooked by the first season of Candace Renoir. The character was different, bubbly and out of date due to her seven or so year absence from police work. A cute hook.

The next few seasons were okay with good story lines solved in an often quirky way by our heroine.

A continuing thread is her love life, or lack thereof. The first guy was believable but soon gone. The second guy, played by the same actor who portrays the detective ex-husband of a detective in a different French show, Tandem, got hokey quickly.

The third love interest is a just plain stupid story line dragged on ad nauseum. I'm nearing the end of Season five and getting ready to give up.

Up to this episode I have enjoyed the series. The characters are engaging and the stories are from a slightly different point of view.

Rather than clues being found by detectives, the Forensic Pathologist, Raphael Balthazar, comes up with they key to solving the crime, many times rather graphically. There are 'suspension-of-disbelief' fantasy conversations between the deceased victim and our hero, Balthazar, that are no further far-fetched than what we are expected to believe in American programs and commercials.

As is typical, there is an element of sexual tension between the two main characters which, no doubt, will continue with innuendo but not deed.

This episode was eye-rollingly bad and I sure hope it's a one-off. Balthazar, who directed this episode, is put in mortal peril, though we must assume that he does not perish as there are another three seasons of the show.

What saves him might possibly be the over-the-top acting and lines that Capitaine Bach (Hélène de Fougerolles) is asked to deliver. As this episode does not advance any of the overlaid story lines, you might consider giving this episode a pass.

I know. It's supposed to be based on the Henry Fielding bawdy and humorous classic. I have not read the book and I don't remember the 60's film but I doubt it resembles this. This is like the Jane Austen books and films that I never finished, perhaps made bawdy by the bust-enhancing corsets but certainly not humorous.

I watched this only for Hannah Waddingham and, as Cruella de Ville of the 1800's, she does not disappoint. Unfortunately she is featured in but two of the four episodes.

The scenery in the first episode and the costumes throughout are magnificent. Visually this series is amazing. How this version of the story unfolds, however, is a solid 'meh'.

... from rolling them.

Some of these "Murder In..." are good. Good story line, good, typically-opposite main character combinations.

Others are not-so-good. Hard-to-follow storylines, especially when 'reading' the movie with sub-titles, and bodies dropping like flies.

This is neither. It's terrible. Contrived plot, overacting, cliché-ed evil stepmother, mother always liked you best sisters, ridiculous scenarios... even a hidden staircase.

I chose this episode because I had seen the main police character in another MHZ offering... "The Law Of..."... and she was quite good. If I were in her shoes, I'd be leaving this 'Policier' off my resumé. Definitely worth giving it a miss.