Spiral fans

[supercee]

Just a head's up that Season 1 is on BBC 4 on iPlayer.

I've only watched from about Season 6 onwards so I'm excited to see how it all started.

Yes, it had started 3 years earlier.

I have the first series on DVD and remember that it seems almost too full on compared to watching later series episode by episode. It’s a while since I’ve watched any, so I may be wrong, but the format in series 1 is one ongoing saga and then one separate crime each episode and they are fairly hard hitting. Maybe I was in a funny headspace at the time but would be interested to see what other people think.

@Lady1576 - I see what you mean about Season 1.

The 'weekly' crimes were tasteless in the extreme, involving murder and other atrocities of babies, young children and adolescents. The sort of crimes where you shout, "Oh God no!" at the tv.
The clear up rate for these was swift - the perpetrators seemed to confess very easily.

Yes, I think season 1 was definitely going out of its way to show us how 'gritty' and 'shocking' it was, mostly using the time-honoured tactic of sex crimes against pretty young women.

Ugh.

I'm glad they got rid of the 'crime of the week' thing. It was clunky and took away from the overall storyline. I also thought the denoument of season 1 was confusing. Easily the weakest season.

I wonder what series 8 has in store for us?

I can't find Roban amongst the credits for S8. .

What!

No Roban?!

@stumbledin

Yes - I think that must be it. Pretending to be everyday "normal". Though surely a police psychiartist would have access to her personnel files.

Yes, she claimed to be in a long-term relationship with a doctor because she felt it was what a woman her age 'should' be doing, instead of sleeping in her car and having affairs with a series of unsuitable - albeit very fit - men.

You're right in saying that the psychiatrist would have known she was fibbing though.

Ah non! What no Roban? Oh dear :-(.

He was due to retire though, wasn't he.? He must be getting on. It won't be the same. Maybe he'll return in a consultancy capacity though, when the replacement Juge struggles with keeping Laure and Gilou in order. . (j'espere).

Do you have to watch the series in order ? I only have access to 5, 6 & 11 as I am not in the UK
Should I hold off and try to get 1, 2 etc

@workshy44

Do you have to watch the series in order ? I only have access to 5, 6 & 11 as I am not in the UK Should I hold off and try to get 1, 2 etc

Each series focusses on a new case, so from that point of view they are each independent of each other.

However, if you start watching at a later series, you will miss out on a lot of the character development and 'office politics' which are such an important part of 'Spiral'. A lot of the conversations and interactions won't really make sense if you haven't been watching from the start, so I'd suggest trying to find the earlier series before watching the later ones if possible.

I only started at series 6 or 6 and managed perfectly well BUT it is useful to know the backstories, particularly regarding why Tintin gets pissed off and leaves. Also interested (watching the first four series) to see that both Laure and Josephine had relationships with Pierre.

AS has been said up thread, the early series were / definitely more crude and lots of body parts etc..

As someone who watched they all at the time but have such short term memory I still enjoyed the later ones having no memory of earlier interactions between characters.

So it is possible to enjoy them without having the back story.

I am rewatching and only now noticing interactions which seem so slight but I can no link to later deveopments.

However, am very worried at the mention of a series 11 being available as we are all on tenterhooks waiting for the start of series 8 only recently shown on french tv.

And very, very cross with those of you who have posted spoilers about Roban and series 8!

The new series starts on BBC4 on 2nd January!

Can anyone remember which series it was in which Tintin got p..d off please?

It's series 6 isn't it (the first one I watched), but watching from the first series, he is quite often hacked off with them from the off, I would say.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

It's series 6 isn't it (the first one I watched), but watching from the first series, he is quite often hacked off with them from the off, I would say.

Yes, Tin Tin is kind of the 'straight man' in Spiral. He's the only one of les flics with a normal family life - even if he gets divorced - and who isn't over obsessiv about his job. Gilou and Laure are great characters to watch on TV, but working with them in real life would be exasperating!

Yes, I would entirely agree @IcedPurple. Gilou definitely is on/over the line in 'good cop/bad cop' mode. Laure less so but she's so committed to solving the crimes that she will overlook transgressions.

I really disliked Josephine at the beginning but find her (along with Laure) the most compelling characters in it. Having watched series 5, I now understand why she was going off the rails in series 6.

i'm only only series 3, so dont think I will catch up by 2nd Jan.

But can see quite clearly that the relationship between Laure and Gilou is much closer (has similar approached to work!) than TinTin, but when I first watched I saw them as a team, and even this early on the strain is showing.

Having previously just seen Laure as a flawed person, I am now wondering if it isn't that classic french thing that in films a woman who denies her femininity and role as mother is always made to suffer. ie a not very subliminal message. In a way Josephine is the same.

Walkingtheplank - yes someone pointed this out early on in this thread, so quite a few of us are taking advantage of series 1-7 being made available on iPlayer and are working our way through to be up to date when it restarts. But its quite grim watching when not spaced out week by week. So much unpleasantness and people behaving really badly towards each other, including family members.

I think you are right about Laura and Josephine, although the latter is very BCBG in her appearance and love of fine (and expensive) clothes. She looks exquisite with her beautiful auburn hair and scattering of freckles. Laure also manages to look sexy even in her downbeat unofficial 'uniform' and sensible shoes.

I am now up-to-date with where I started watching Spiral - series 6 but will watch it and series 7 so I'm fully primed for the 2nd of January (can't wait).

BCBG?

Je ne compris pas.