Cannes Confidential

I am a murder mysteries addict. I have BritBox, I have MHZ, and Acorn. I watch German language detective shows in France, English detective stories anywhere in the world, but the accents were so bad that Cc was required. I could barely get through the first 10 minutes much less all the way through the show as the lighting and cinematography were terrible. At the first crime scene, The camera was literally on the floor looking up at the two detectives talking, why? The two detectives are clones of each other. Exotic ratty haired, puffy lipped 20 somethings women. And their outfits??? This is France for heaven sakes.... why are the detectives walking around with cheap blouses, super tight jeans and silver booties? At least it wasn't like 10 years ago when all the female detectives wore black pants, black jackets and a tank top with half their boobs sticking out. Now the focus seems to be the booty. In The first half hour there were several shots showing the detective walking away with the lens focused on her butt incased in the tightest jeans ever. I don't want to sound like a prude but it would be tolerable if there was anything going on. According to other reviewers nothing seems to improve in the next episodes....so I will stop here. BTW, many comparisons with Mallorca Murders...and except for similar european coastal towns, Mallorca is great. Especially after the first two episodes and the protagonist are comfortable with each other. I like that there is chemistry between the German and English detectives without it falling into a cliched romance.

The show had potential but suffers from a serious problem with the writing and acting. The dialog is wooden and doesn't ring true. The female lead detective isn't likeable or interesting. Rather than being irascible but somewhat charming she is just unpleasant. She is not a credible actor - or at least not in English. Often I could not understand her - shows like Death in Paradise have successfully integrated French speaking actors into the series by making sure they are understandable to an English speaking audience. Her female associate simply mumbles and is faced with trying to deliver cliche ridden lines. It is fortunate that we can't hear her most of the time.

I have only suffered through episode 1 - I am not sure that I can face Episode 2. The production values are excellent and of course the scenery is wonderful. It must have been expensive to film there. Too bad they didn't spend some of that money on writers and a decent co-star to match Jamie Bamber.

Alas, Cannes Confidential, besides its beautiful scenery, is a bust.

The women were cast too young and with ridiculous outfits.

The plot involving the father is confusing and doesn't seem necessary.

I only watched this show because of Jamie Bamber. This is so beneath him. First of all, for me to keep watching, he'd have to be in every scene and of course he isn't- he undoubtedly spends most of his time trying to line up another job or changing agents.

He's gorgeous, so with him and the scenery, it's not a total write-off.

I say cast some believable police detectives and feature Jamie in another series.

I wanted to like this so badly. Love Jamie Bamber, beautiful scenery on the French Riviera, heists, capers... what could go wrong? Well..... apparently a lot. Start with a lead actress with zero charisma and acting ability, then take yourself too seriously and remove all of the fun and romance and intrigue and make it weird and dark with everyone pissed off all the time. Whoever was in charge here missed the boat completely and should really have taken a cue from shows like The Mallorca Files or Candace Renoir. It's a shame really to waste so much potential. Get a different lead actress and revamp.

The good: Scenery is beautiful & I like the Harry King actor. At least he can act. The potential for good story lines is there but it keeps missing the mark.

The bad: Pretty much everything else...the dialogue, writing, editing, acting (especially the female leads), the same backstory has been way overdone & the filming & lighting were dark. Colours seem really off to me in some indoor scenes. Not in an artistic way. Makes me wonder if it was filmed on a phone. The very worst is the sound track that sounds like it's from the '80's and completely drowns out the dialogue, which is hard to make out anyway with the French accents but impossible with the music. We had to watch with subtitles. The worst episode is the 1st one.