I was looking forward to some gritty French drama series, starring the incredibly talented Jean Reno. I understand that the series has to appeal internationally (and by that I mean Americans), but it's totally NOT French. Jean Reno is wasted and the plot is interesting in terms of story lines but the police-procedure is so contrived, and whilst it's not entirely predictable, it's full of leaps in investigation.
Reno plays it French but everyone else is either American or British and I don't get that. He's investigating random murders (being a homicide cop) but everyone is English! Everyone! Even if they spoke with cheesy French accents it would have made more sense. The producers missed a trick by making it too much like all the other investigative procedurals that are on US and UK TV at present - if the only thing different is that it's set against Parisian architecture, that's not a good enough reason to watch. The script is too staccato because the action is stilted due to the contrived leaps, and even Reno can't raise this show to above 5/10 for me. Tom Austen the sidekick is good, pretty and the flirty cop who gets all the ladies to open up with information - well cast - but I would like to see some reason why he's working in Paris and hear him attempting to speak French occasionally.
Only Reno's character St-Clair has a back-story, which makes the program too shallow. St-Clair's struggle with drink and drugs is only touched on, but perhaps it's early days in the series... there's not much story arc.
It needs to be more French. I'd love it then. Subtitles aren't such a bad thing!
