Review of Pax Massilia

I am a big fan of Olivier Marchal. Over the years, I have thoroughly enjoyed his many movies and TV series - they rank among the best in a genre in which the French excell: crime drama. Unfortunately, Blood Coast does not live up to expectations. The plot is unimaginative, a rehash of a story told so many times before. The actors are for the most part wooden and underwhelming. The characters are universally unlikeable and make the dumbest decisions. Swearing, while expected and welcome in such a show, is just overboard and detrimental to storytelling - every conversation turns into in-your-face, profanity-laced slang mumbo jumbo. The "music" is particularly grating - very little sucks as much as French rap. And the ending feels like a slowly deflating balloon. Total miss.

One more thing. Throughout, I kept thinking that these idiots are so fortunate to live in the south of France, a real paradise, and yet they choose to live like gangstas in run down ghettos. Fools.