Spiral: should I do it?

[IntermittentParps]

DP and I love a subtitled thriller but the last couple of things we've tried on Walter Presents have been a bit meh. I want something that makes me go 'wow'.
Have heard so much about this programme, great reviews, people love it etc. Never seen it. I know there's about a hundred seasons. Is it worth taking the plunge and starting it?

We started with season three on mumsnet advice. I recommend, you can go back and watch season one and two at the end but they are not as good so if you start there you probably won't persevere. Enjoy!

Yes absolutely - just watched them all and was dreading them finishing. Start from Series 1 but accept that it is not as good as the others (weird almost amateur filming) but you get an idea of the characters.

Thanks again everyone!
I did see DNA and rather liked it.
Loved I Know Who You Are and Witnesses.

Quite liked Twin and Wisting. Couldn't get on with The Serpent (that's the 70s killer of people on the hippy trail, yes? BBC not Netflix, I thought). Spring Tide sounds good; where is it available?
Recently loved on Netflix,La Mante,The Forest,Borderliner..

@IntermittentParps Thanks for the NF recommendations - have just got NF, mainly to please the children, and its difficult to know where to start!

Double, oops, sorry, just realised I quoted someone else –'Recently loved on Netflix,La Mante,The Forest,Borderliner' was not me and I hanne't seen them (am going to check them out though!)

*haven't

@IntermittentParps That’s ok! :D

Any other recs for Netflix greatly appreciated - sorry to hijack, but I love world cinema and don’t know where to start! Particularly the French films - they don’t seem to have any old favourites so can’t get decent AI list.

Oh I love it! This reminds me I have the latest series to watch

I think Spiral is brilliant, but like others when it first came out I nearly gave up because the first 3 series are much cruder with way to much graphic violence. If you can sit through them (because they give the background to the relationships) do, otherwise as others have said jump in from 4 onwards.

As it was it was only when I rewathced from series 1 all the way through over New Year to prepare for the last series that I got a lot of inferences that on first watching I just didn't get.

Some people who speak French say the subtitles let down the show, or dont always correctly translate.

Am I allowed to say I thought the last series was a complete let down and they just shouldn't have bothered.

Also agree that the current spate of Euro thrillers from All 4 are pathetic in comparison - but then so are most UK thrillers at the moment.

Yes, I think Walter Presents has gone off the boil a bit. I was pleasantly surprised by Floodland though, and I do like Thou Shalt Not Kill, although that probably doesn't count as current.

@Skatingpark97

It's fantastic but you can start a bit further in at Series 3 or 4. You are lucky to have it all ahead of you!

Nooooo!!!! Don't do this. The slow build of relationships and history of PTSD and dodgy dealings in the main characters begins in series 1. It's a brilliant series. Lucky you.

OK, OK, I'll start at the beginning

If you liked Floodland maybe give Professor T a go (Walter Presents), the same actor, Koen De Bouw, appears in both. It's about a criminal psychologist helping the police. It sounds quite hackneyed but it's very enjoyable, with some Belgian surreal twists.

I love Spiral and have arched most series multiple times so it's a definite yes from me Like others have said it does get less gory as the series progress.

So are the first three series really gory? Think that might put me off - though I did get hooked on Ripper Street!

I wouldn't say so much gory, as a bit sensationalist and clunky and some of the behaviour is shocking, how young suspects are treated, teenagers, trafficked women are simply 'les putes', some casual police brutality, so some of the attitudes and behaviour are quite crude and, yes, shocking.

OP, I so jealous because Spiral is my absolute favourite out of the 9pm bbc4 series. Having it in front of you to discover is amazing. I think I got hooked around series 3 and went back. Series 1 is certainly not the best but far better than a lot of the output on Walter Presents. Start from the beginning and stick with it. It gets better and better. What I really love is that they are all so flawed, the grim side of Paris and there is no black and white.

I wouldn't say so much gory - what?????????????

There is very explicit depiction of terrible violence against women. And I think it changed so dramatically in presentation after (I think it was series 3) that they never went down that path again. Although many of the plots are about violence and exploitation of women.

There are plots which involve terrible violence against women but also against several marginalised groups. It does not pull punches but in my opinion Spiral does not sensationalise violence against women or any other marginalised group, in fact the opposite. The violence is within the lives these people live, for whatever reason. The police are flawed, the system is flawed, the people on the streets are doing whatever they need to do to survive at the bottom of the heap.

As a French person I was shocked at how bad the first season was.
The dialogues were stilted, some tragic storylines were treated completely callously and the music was awful!
I was honestly bemused at how much people like it.

But then my sister told me that it does improve dramatically. It seems they made the first season as a possible one off and that it then became much more popular.

If you want a one season subtitled show I recommend Il Processo on Netflix- Italian show about the murder of a teenage girl. Done from the perspective of the lawyers.

midsomermurderess Yes, I did look at Professor T, but thanks for the prompt, I'll check it out properly.

Yamayo, thank you; I'll try that.

I absolutely loved Ripper Street and think it's rather underseen and underrated.

@Yamayo Thanks for the tip for Il Processo, I'm learning Italian so I'll enjoy that. I like watching Insp Montalbano and picking odd bits of dialogue up without the subtitles

willstarttomorrow - as i was saying, in the first 3 series they went out of their way to actually depict the violence against women. I was not saying they then ignored it s a fact of life. But they realised, or got enought criticism, to know that they could have a plot around violence against women without turning it into torture porn.

Yamayo - did you get beyond season 1? I think a lot of people watched it (particularly those who used to love to comment on the Guardian recap reviews) because they thought it was somehow a genune expression of French life. Would be interested what you or anyone else from France thought.

I watched s1 and did like it but not enough to start s2 yet. I think there’s 8 in total.
If you fancy something French I would highly recommend Lupin (netflix). S1 is just five episodes, s2 just came out. Not nearly as much commitment!