Spiral Series 8 - BBC 4 from 2 January 2020 - Week by week - no spoilers please!

[stumbledin]

This will be the final series of Spiral. And I hope to come to this thread to be able to ask questions of all the bits I will not be able to understand or will have missed!

All the previous series of Spiral are currently available on BBC iPlayer and there is a discussion thread about them here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/4099550-spiral-fans

So for those like me who need a helping hand with this French wizardry which I am addicted to can we keep this thread to whatever is going to unfold as from 9pm tonight? Thanks!

And maybe those who are going to binge watch (assuming the BBC makes all episodes available) would want to have their own thread to freely discuss?

So looking forward to watching. So sad it will all soon be over.

I think last week was 5 & 6 - I know I have to not comment on whole series until 30th Jan!!! (My notes are getting longer and longer)

No I dont have netflix - I've heard of Call My Agent and a lot of Spiral fans seem to really rate the Bureau, also French.

I keep dithering about which service to sign up to. Or up my current expensive monthly package that doesn't even include Sky Atlantic.

I watched Trapped when it was on BBC for 2 series and then it was privatised somewhere!

There’s only 2 series of Trapped so you’ve not missed anything - it’s on Amazon Prime now.

I’ve just finished Spiral - I’ll come back when we can comment.

I was watching it on BBC4 but enjoyed it so much that i've just binge watched to the end. So I will keep schtum till we get to the bbc4 last episode but my god, I enjoyed the last 4 episodes. I just couldn't stop watching!

thanks for the recommendations - I haven't seen Call My Agent or Bureau. I loved Trapped.

I have a question about programme 8 shown last saturday and again Tuesday.

So NOT asking for spoilers but for plot or even character development.

Why did Gilou go all macho male in the pool hall? First it showed him just trying to calm the situation down then he's out in the street beating the sh*t our of someone he doesn't even know.

He has been shown to be so on edge not to cross the line because he is desparate not to be sent back inside and then he does this?

Also, and this is just a comment loved the way that Laure just took off in the very conspicuous spying van, tracks Gilou and his bad boss, follows them, is made aware that she is a bit obvious. Brazens it out by pretending to be lost. Finds the crime scene anyway. Somehow sees Gilou has jumped over a back wall and conveniently finds him limping along the road and gives him a lift.

After dropping him off gets a phone call to collect Souleymine (spelling?) which she does, and then she is at work early enough to get the call from Ali to say he has f*cked up and goes and rescues him.

What a woman! No sleep but still alert and able to take charge.

AND - she had remembered to make alternative arrangements for Romy!

Last 2 episodes this saturday.

That was an amazing series and an amazing finale.

Real sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat drama.

Nice end.

Need something else to watch now.

Well I've waited a while to say this as I gave in and watched online, and it is with a heavy heart as long time fan since it started, but series 8 was total rubbish.

It felt like they just couldn't be bothered to put any real thought into it.

And absolutely in no way would Josephine have ended up with Edelman. She was like a completely different character.

So disappointed.

And the actor playing Gilou looked really bored throughout, and the interaction between him and Laure was a bit odd all the time.

Then I read on another thread that appartently IRL the two actors hate each other and that's why there were no screen kisses!!

And also wondered if they did the last episode with the sort of "happy" ending because somehow Covid meant they couldn't do episodes 11 and 12 which previous series have had where they could have done something a bit more subtle and complex.

Badly plotted. Unconvincing.

And worst of all turning Josephine into a helpless female.

Why did they bother.

I feel really let down and betrayed.

(Would still recommend series 1 to 7 though maybe skip the first 3 which are much rougher and more explicitly violent.)

The production values were definitely different. I liked it, though, on the end. I agree that Josephine seemed to change personality, and her capitulation to Edelman of all people was off.

I missed a bit - what happened to Yousef? Did he make it safely?

The bit that cracked me up was Laure setting off to discover Gilou, finding him, then almost guaranteeing that they would be discovered by Cisco by gesticulating noisily to Gilou under his window? What was she thinking? Reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, that bit .

As I thought, it wasn't the same without Roban. And JP didn't speak, did he?

I'm hoping to see a lot more of Edelman - Il est très sexy

I really like him too ! I can’t read more as halfway though 8