TRUE GRIT: 'SPIRAL' SEASON TWO

Sorting out the trash. The cast of the acclaimed SPIRAL Season Two. Image: CANAL+

The scum and villainy of the Parisian underworld comes out to play in the welcome repeat of the second season of the hit French police/legal crime thriller SPIRAL, created by Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin for CANAL+, starting in double episode screenings on the UK's BBC 4 from tonight (their European TV strand a stand-out treat, and deserved success, on weekends this past two years). And if you thought that first season was tough and uncompromising-a true character drama precursor to the kind of successful elements taken up a more stylistically brutal notch in BRAQUO these days, then you haven't seen this one, as a burnt out corpse found in a car, at first thought to be a singular case of disturbing gang retribution violence branches out into something far more rotten and corrupt for the detective team led by the spirited and volatile lady detective Captain Laure Berthaud (the very French Caroline Proust) and her loyal but always in trouble, always in-fighting team (including a noteworthy performance from Thierry Godard as the in and out of drugs rehabilitation Gilou), often just as dangerous as the criminals they pursue, delve into the dangerous undercurrents of international trafficking and arms dealing- a world of money, power and violence in which rising star Audrey Fleurot's hot-headed, spunky, overly ambitious lawyer Josephine Karlsson, broke and looking for a way to get her life together, will soon be caught up in its vice like grip and seemingly unable to escape.

Trailer: Spiral / Engrenages - Season 2 - Trailer (Totally Serialized) - YouTube


Seasons One to Three of SPIRAL are available on DVD from the BBC/2ENTERTAIN.

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: "SPIRAL" SEASON ONE

Minds for murder. The cast of the super French drama series SPIRAL. Image: CANAL+

Fans old and new of the French thriller/legal drama series SPIRAL will get the chance to go back to the full genesis of the series and see how its familiar characters comes together when the UK's BBC 4, continuing to successfully capitalise on the screenings of critically acclaimed European series shown on Saturday nights (which kicked off to high audience viewing figures with the first series of the Danish version of THE KILLING), starts a much welcome repeat of its opening series in double length episodes every Saturday evening starting tonight. Stylish, atmospheric, brutal and uncompromising alongside its pure and uniquely appealing continental flavour, the series gets off to a sprinting start as our main cast of Caroline Proust (as fiery Police Captain Laure Berthaud, who acts as a kind of mother hen to loyal male team), Gregory Fitoussi (as the ambitious but sometimes naive Deputy Prosecutor Pierre Clement), Philippe Duclos (as the troubled family man whose work has taken over his life, Judge Francois Roban), Thierry Goddard (as Laure's bull-dog like second in command, "Gilou" Escoffier-one of the series best characters, a good man to have on your side despite his complex drinks/drugs problems), and the striking redhead Audrey Flouret as the calculating and very resourceful young lawyer Josephine Karlsson,  whose work in defending criminals leads her into lots of shady dealings that she may ultimately have trouble escaping from long term) converge to investigate a web of corruption linked to the discovery of a murdered Romanian woman found in a Parisian rubbish dump

I came into watching the series with its third season, so I'm greatly looking forward to catching up on what I've missed from 2005, as originally created and written by Alexandra Clert and Guy Patrick Sainderichin.

Outside of SPIRAL, the equally acclaimed BBC 4 channel is in grave danger of being shut down by the BBC due to the stress of recent budget cuts. From the start BBC 4 has been one of the best arenas of British television you can get, combining all types of arts programmes, drama (old and new) and music, which we (the British public) are paying for with our license fees, and which, instead of filling outrageous sums of money into the pockets of TV presenters, over-rated comedians, chat show hosts and lead series stars who aren't worth millions of pounds, the money should be properly finding its ways in to keeping quality channels like this alive and on the airwaves. There's a  FACEBOOK campaign to SAVE BBC 4. Please add your support to it here: Save BBC Four | Facebook

CAUGHT IN THE "SPIRAL"

A day of life and death for the cast of the French series SPIRAL. Images: CANAL+

Following on from their huge viewing success with their two episodes a week screenings of the acclaimed murder/thriller series THE KILLING (which received huge audiences of half a million viewers a week-a record for a small digital UK channel), BBC 4 are trying the same viewing experiment, and hoping for similar success, with the new third series of the equally popular mainstream French detective series, SPIRAL, created by Alexandra Clert and Guy Patrick Sainderichin for SON ET LUMIERE productions (and which first debuted on the France station CANAL+  from 2005 onwards), about the exploits of six main characters in the volatile and intense French legal and justice system, including Police Captain Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust), who, mired in previous problems from Season Two (including unceasing accusations of corruption and the death of one of her colleagues), tries to redeem her name during the investigation of a murdered woman found on the tracks of a disused railway station, with strong indications that there might now be a serial killer on the loose in the Northern Paris area of la Villette.

Captain Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust) begins her murder investigation.

I have to say that I sadly, and accidentally, missed the two UK screenings of the previous series of SPIRAL (from 2006 onwards) but I heard it received excellent word of mouth reviews for its atmosphere and very intriguing characters/performances, as well as good critiques online (with several more new series already in the planning stages from CANAL+). I shall be watching Season Three and posting a review in the near future. And I'm sure it will make an excellent viewing appetiser before the much awaited return of THE KILLING later in the year...

Season One of SPIRAL is available on DVD in the UK.