Spiral- is it worth watching?

[Yamayo]

Ok so I've heard about this show (I'm French btw).
There was a thread here a few days ago about the new season and everyone seemed super excited.

So I downloaded the first series and watched the first episode last night... and what the hell???
Not only was it badly acted but it looked so... cheap?
Weird jaunty music at odd moments, clunky script, a weird side plot involving a school teacher (who sounded and acted demented) and parents approaching a public prosecutor to get her arrested on non-existent charges?

The whole thing was mind-boggingly awful.

Does it really get good? It looked like an 80s bad cop show.

LaMainDeFatima - I mentioned up thread that in the series recap articles that the Guardian does each week, quite a few people from France regularly post and recommend the series. But then a fan page is more likely to attract fans than detracters.

Almost as bad as finding what you think is the worst tv series ever has become the highest rating Brit tv series in another country.

Apparently during lockdown BritBox has had a huge increase in sub scribers in the US. And (hard to believe) but apparently Murder in Paradise is one of the most populat.

The embarrassment. I cringe at the thought!

@oneglassandpuzzled

But Laure no longer has the plait in series 8, IcedPurple and I miss it.

Either Ali has a drawer-full of those white v-neck t-shirts or he needs a gentle reminder that it's not good to wear the same one every day.

All of les flics look a bit manky. At least Laure got rid of that 1970s sheepskin coat from the 5th season. Not even she could pull that one off.

@LaMainDeFatima

As others have said , the first series are the weakest.

I dont think it has aged well and doesn't shine a positive light on the french police.

Also I don't know any french people that like it.

Good for keeping up with Parisian slang

Is it true that Engrenages is just shown on a subscription only channel in France, and that the show and actors aren't all that well-known there?

Yes . It's on canal plus which you have to pay for .

For anyone who's interested ...The french programme which people are raving about at the moment is Lupin (on Netflix) .

Another one is Call my agent (10 pour-cent in french ) also on Netflix. It's not often that I find a french comedy funny but this is good .

Some of the spiral actors are in Un Village français (on YouTube I think ) which is about ww2 occupation. Different vibe but worth a watch .

I've given up.

Parrot Analytics has found that the audience demand for Spiral is 16.9 times the demand of the average TV series in France in the last 30 days. 2.7% of all shows in this market have this level of demand.

Spiral ranks at the 99.6th percentile in the Drama genre. This means Spiral has higher demand than 99.6% of all Drama titles in France

tv.parrotanalytics.com/FR/spiral-canal-plus stats until 11 Jan

By the way I dont understand this as I had thought it was subscription only!

But then not everyone has Netflix but some of what is shown it then said to be the most popular.

I turned off half way through the first episode and never tried again. There seemed to be such an emphasis on every single character being on the make that I couldn't get hooked into any of them.

@LaMainDeFatima

Yes . It's on canal plus which you have to pay for .

For anyone who's interested ...The french programme which people are raving about at the moment is Lupin (on Netflix) .

Another one is Call my agent (10 pour-cent in french ) also on Netflix. It's not often that I find a french comedy funny but this is good .

Some of the spiral actors are in Un Village français (on YouTube I think ) which is about ww2 occupation. Different vibe but worth a watch .

Just started Lupin - it's great!

Interesting that British viewers get to see Engrenages for free on BBC4 (the Beeb is a producer) but French audiences have to pay.

Call my agent is hilarious- and it stars the crème de la crème of French cinema A listers playing fantastic alternative versions of themselves.
The episode with Nathalie Baye and Laura Halliday was great.

Re Engrenages, the only famous actress is the lawyer (can't remember her name in the show or IRL- the redhead)

Fun fact- she appears in Call My Agent.

@Yamayo Audrey fleurot . Great actress. Bazar de la charité on Netflix is good too .

@Yamayo

Call my agent is hilarious- and it stars the crème de la crème of French cinema A listers playing fantastic alternative versions of themselves. The episode with Nathalie Baye and Laura Halliday was great.

Re Engrenages, the only famous actress is the lawyer (can't remember her name in the show or IRL- the redhead)

Fun fact- she appears in Call My Agent.

The one and only Josephine.

Most of the cast are from theatre groups and apparently dont usually do tv! Apart from the drip Pierre who has admitted he felt intimidated acting with them.

Audrey Fleurot was in the NF drama 'Safe" where she played a MILF French teacher accused of 'inappropriate behaviour' with a student. I'd imagine quite a few teenage boys would develop a sudden interest in French if she was their teacher!

I didn't rate her performance though. I think she might be one of those actors who aren't comfortable in another language, even if they speak it well.

is it worth watching if havent seen previous series. do they stand alone or do i need start from beginning

@Branleuse

is it worth watching if havent seen previous series. do they stand alone or do i need start from beginning

Each series is based around a stand-alone criminal case, so you'd be able to follow the main plot without having to watch earlier series.

However, for me Spiral is more about the characters than the plots, which are often a bit daft. There are 8 series so quite a lot of history regarding the characters' relationships and life stories. So while you could watch later series without having seen the previous ones, I think you would get a lot more out of it by starting at the beginning.

Branleuse - each series has a different crime plot, but obviously over 8 series there is a lot you get to know about each character and events that happen to them that there are references to in later episodes.

I dont know how much that would detract from what you get out of watching later ones.

Did anyone else just just start half way through the series, or even just on 7 or 8?!

I started on 5, possibly 6 as my mum was watching it. I didn't realise there were earlier series but that didn't spoil my enjoyment. I went back to watch S1 when they all came onto iPlayer, then watched the last, now I'll probably sack off season 2 and watch 3 and 4!

OK so I spoke to my French (living in France) sister who told me she loved the show.
Apparently the first season is weakest because the showrunner did it as a one off thinking he wouldn't get to carry on with a longer storyline.
She confirmed what you all told me, that the stories/characters get way better.
Guess I will be watching more of it after all...

1 - 3 series definite very rough and only 8 edisodes in each series.

Better filming, plotting, series 4 - 7 which have 12 episodes each series. (More funding? Different writers?)

Not sure why last series is only 10 episodes. I think 7 was meant to be the last but there was such huge pressure they made series 8.

I thought that S1 was average but that the following series were excellent, like a different show. I’ve just finished 4.

I could do without the naked young female corpses though.

I’m amazed to hear everyone saying series one was awful as I watched it when it was first shown and absolutely loved it. Plenty of others did too (I was on a thread on Digital Spy at the time as I didn’t even know Mumsnet existed and it was loved almost as much as The Killing and The Bridge), it’s why it went on to have such a dedicated fan base. If people hadn’t loved series one then there would’ve been no more series. I haven’t watched it since though so maybe it’s aged badly and tastes have just changed.

Really? You can't compare it to the Bridge and the Killing!
To me what fails a police show is presenting a sad/ tragic case without projecting any emotion.
In the first season there was a random storyline (still not sure why it was thrown in there) involved a dismembered baby whose mother eventually kills herself.
On a show like the Bridge it would have been gruelling.
On this show? Meh.

We've just watched and enjoyed series 1. I know what you mean though OP. We just figured it was a different style to other similar programs we had watched. Re the French - this was great for me as the words were more distinct so I could 'hear' the words. Often French is so fast, all the words roll together and I can't distinguish the them.

No perseverance needed here, I'm so excited that everyone is saying there is better to come!

I posted exactly the same as this when I watched first episode of series one, thought it was awful, so badly acted, written and so sexist. I got to the end of series 1 and am going to give series 2 a go and see from there.

@Yamayo I didn’t, it’s clearly a very different show. I said that at the time it was loved almost as much as The Killing & The Bridge.