SPIRAL - french cop series.

SPIRAL • Series created by Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin

• Written by Guy-Patrick Sainderichin (series 1), Virginie Brac (series 2), Anne Landois (series 3 and 4), Eric de Barahir (series 2 to 4)

• Directed by Philippe Triboit (1x01 to 1x04, 2x07 and 2x08), Pascal Chaumeil (1x05 to 1x08), Gilles Bannier (2x01 to 2x04), Philippe Venault (2x05 and 2x06), Manuel Boursinhac (3x01 to 3x06) and Jean-Marc Brondolo (3x07 to 3x12)

• Produced by Alain Clert and Charline de Lépine.

Why do I love this French serial cop show?

The title music is a gentle series of metallic sounds that make a tune as letters detach and move on a grey metallic background. It fits the title very well as a spiralling theme like the twofold unfolding plot. It immediately sets the scene of depressing menace and hopelessness.

The scenes are almost entirely grey, brown, grey, ochre and black apart from the female lawyer who ran down her rapist. She has vibrant long red hair.

Everyone dresses rather drably and hardly smiles. The judge is very grey, old and troubled. The two main cops are sometimes sexually entangled in a rather desperate sad way. The woman is unable to bond with the baby she had and left to the care of others. She looks fairly miserable but dedicated to finding the criminals. The male cop who fancies her is also repelled by her heartlessness to her child. He is prone to illegal methods, to violent interrogations, very unshaven and rough looking, overweight and yet compels sympathy. Surprisingly a very attractive young woman with those very French looking full lips is attracted to him but he gallantly does not succumb to her seductiveness.

The plot is fashionably hard to follow but fairly understandable. Different branches of the police are at odds with one another. There is money laundering via a network of Chinese businesses.

There's little overt violence, a lot of scenes of surveillance from a van or tailing cars through traffic at night.

It's a grim, grimy urban scene in which the cops attempt to track down bad people and aim at justice.

As in most cop shows the cops are the focus of interest, their flawed actions and personalities.

It occurs to me it would be interesting to show equally the criminals, how they are also a mixture of traits and foibles, prone to mistakes and different relationships.

Two one hour episodes back to back each Saturday night to which I look forward, doing my best not to fall asleep.

Being in French with subtitles means it's essential to watch all the time.

Maybe it's this concentration that makes it flash by so enjoyably.