Astrid et Raphaëlle

The most amazing thing about this show is the portrayal of autism, in the character Astrid.

It's an astoundingly convincing performance, and an astoundingly convincing script.

Everyone must fall in love with Astrid, with her simplicity, her vulnerability, and her persistence in the face of tremendous challenges. She captures the innocence and joy of a child as an adult.

Around this character is an ongoing love between Astrid and Raphaelle, who work together as detectives on homicides. Astrid is Sherlock Holmes to Raphaelle's smarter, more competent version of Watson. The affection between these two women deserves a canonical place in cinema, where a focus on supportive, loving friendships between women as the central spring of a plot is not common.

There is also a moving love story as Astrid negotiates her first love affair. The love story though serves to throw Astrid's relationship with Raphaelle into relief, rather than supplanting it.

Each episode is a complete murder mystery. The mysteries are taken seriously, but they have a comic book element, with plot elements that are magical and unusual out of a fantasy adventure for children, yet always end up with a rational realist explanation. The adventures have something of the wonderful French "bande dessinee" adult comic book novels. This adds a lot of fun.

As mystery stories, fitting the complex plots and lines of investigation into 53 minutes is a shoehorn job. A lot of the story is told in summary by characters. Often repeat characters turn out to have special knowledge or abilities exactly as needed for the plot, in coincidences that beg credulity. But this convention us allows to stay in touch with some endearing repeat characters and also moves the plot along quickly to a swift conclusion. It fits the comic book flavor. The investigations themselves are fun as adventures, and have plenty of red herrings and plot twists, but are not the most convincing crime plots.

It's also often laugh out loud funny. The show finds humor in Astrid's adaptation to life always laughing with her. Astrid herself tackles difficulties like understanding figures of speech and making jokes.

All the actors manage to give performances that are at the same time exaggerated and bigger than life, and completely credible. Lola Dewaere and Sara Mortensen do outstanding jobs. Sara Mortensen has a very challenging role and gives a gold medal olympic performance, avoiding any mechanicality in the role.

The episodes often deal with social issues in a progressive way, which gives them three dimensionality and relevance apart from the discussion of autism.

Altogether, this is one of the most moving and fun tv series from any country.