Spiral (TV Series 2005– ) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Follows criminal investigations in Paris from all the different points of view of a criminal investigation. Creators: a list of 30 titles created 18 May 2014 a list of 23 titles created 08 Sep 2015 a list of 31 titles created 27 Nov 2015 a list of 30 titles created 01 Dec 2015 a list of 47 titles created 2 months ago Search for " Spiral " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 1 win & 6 nominations.

See more awards » Photos Four police officers of the SDPJ Hauts-de-Seine, Eddie Caplan, Walter Morlighem, Theo Wachevski and Roxane Delgado have their lives turned upside down when their colleague, Max, committed ... See full summary » Stars: Jean-Hugues Anglade, Joseph Malerba, Karole Rocher A police inspector investigates the robbery of 66 safe deposit boxes at a private bank in Brussels. Stars: Filip Peeters, Koen De Bouw, Mike Verdrengh Set in a small coastal village in France, this is a quiet thriller of crime and dark secrets. The opening sequence takes place in a house just put out for sale. In it, the discovery of what... See full summary » Stars: Thierry Lhermitte, Marie Dompnier, Laurent Lucas Un village français (TV Series 2009) Drama A French village and its inhabitants go through the ups and (mainly) downs of the occupation by the German army from 1940 to 1945. The village doctor is assigned as mayor, and confronted ...

See full summary » Stars: Robin Renucci, Audrey Fleurot, Thierry Godard A political drama about a prime minister's rise to power, and how power changes a prime minister. Stars: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Emil Poulsen The Bridge (TV Series 2011) Crime | Mystery | Thriller When a body is found on the bridge between Denmark and Sweden, right on the border, Danish inspector Martin Rohde and Swedish Saga Norén have to share jurisdiction and work together to find the killer. Stars: Sofia Helin, Rafael Pettersson, Dag Malmberg "Malotru", a French intelligence officer, undercover in Syria for 6 years, is called back home. He will face the difficulty to forget his undercover identity, the disappearance of a colleague in Algeria, and the training of a young girl. Stars: Mathieu Kassovitz, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Sara Giraudeau Police detective Sarah Lund investigates difficult cases with personal and political consequences.

Stars: Sofie Gråbøl, Morten Suurballe, Lars Mikkelsen After the french president is killed by an assassin, a political intrigue about the following campaign begins. The best friend of the dead president and his spindoctor installs the ... See full summary » Stars: Bruno Wolkowitch, Grégory Fitoussi, Philippe Magnan When a teenage girl does not return home from a festival, her parents contact the police. Stars: François-Xavier Demaison, Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Alix Poisson The Legacy (TV Series 2014) Drama The death of a matriarch brings forgotten secrets out into the open and causes a prolonged battle for the family inheritance. Stars: Trine Dyrholm, Marie Bach Hansen, Carsten Bjørnlund The original series follows a murder investigation and reveals the cooperation, conflict, transgression and corruption within the French legal system from the perspective of the lead ... See full summary » Stars: Fatou N'Diaye French police drama with a twist.

Genres: 13 December 2005 (France) See more » Also Known As: Remade as Engrenages (2014) See more » Frequently Asked Questions Complex, dark, gritty murder and political thriller 24 July 2008 | by alitosca (Melbourne, Australia) – See all my reviews Forget formulaic shows posing as violent, dark and gritty. Spiral shows how the genre should be done. The French title means cogs or gears which trap the characters into ever more convoluted situations. No good & bad here - the naively honest prosecutor facing his first job is drawn ever deeper into a conspiracy which forces him to make increasingly dangerous compromises. The initial mystery underpinning the entire series, unfolds each week to offer us more fascinating pieces of the puzzle. Even the weekly murder - often solved within the episode - has repercussions that continue on. This is compulsive viewing  the end of the hour feels like ten minutes. Tho' shot in colour, the drab settings and costumes often give the impression of black & white, till a bright handbag or scarf pull us back to reality. The mood is edgy and challenging.

Caroline Proust and Philippe Duclos give particularly outstanding performances. Although a police lieutenant, the stunning Proust (as Laure Berthaud) has the direct wide-eyed look of a bewildered naïf. Duclos' Roban, looking somewhat like an ironic vulture, is the judge determined to unearth the truth despite sinister political pressures. Spiral is uncompromising in its presentation of violence including sexual paraphilias (tho' I thought the French might have had their own word for Laure's "fist-f**cking?") Despite the graphic violence & frequent coarse language, which is only noticeable in programmes with sub-titles, this 8.30 pm free-to-air show - competing with the very tame "Gil Mayo Mysteries" still only attracts an Aussie M (parental guidance), not an MA (over 15). 20 of 24 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Spiral is a subversive, relentlessly dark drama | Radio Times Spiral is a subversive, relentlessly dark drama If you think The Killing made continental crime drama cool, you're wrong...

Comments Anne Penketh 8:30 AM, 09 February 2013 The French have been raised on a rich diet of TV cop dramas, which have tradi- tionally been the country’s most popular shows. They’ve had decades of Maigret, starring Bruno Cremer; Navarro followed the investigations of a Paris police commissioner and ran from 1989 to 2006; and they’ve watched dubbed British and American detective series from Taggart to Columbo. So the success of the detective drama Spiral (Engrenages, as it’s known in France), which is broadcast by the pay TV channel Canal+, isn’t a huge surprise. What is more surprising is its subject matter: for the first time in France, the lid has been lifted on the sordid reality of the country’s judicial system. Also unusual is the fact that it has been a cult hit in Britain since series one was shown on BBC4 in the summer of 2006 – long before The Killing made its debut here in January 2011. So what makes Spiral special? “Spiral is subversive,” says head writer Anne Landois.

“The other shows always had a hero who played it straight, with a healthy respect for republican values. Ours is different because we don’t only show the police perspective, but that of the bad guys and the magistrates.” The series is as much character-driven as plot- driven, with very human blunders handicapping the police murder investigations. Each of the main characters – including the implausibly good-looking lawyer Pierre Clément and his voluptuous redhead sidekick, Joséphine Karlsson – is flawed, even overtly corrupt. The detective team is led by prickly workaholic Chief Inspector Laure Berthaud, who struggles to keep her roguish colleague Gilou out of trouble. But even Berthaud, notable for her trademark vests and dishevelled hairstyle, has gone rogue in the heat of the moment, and doesn’t flinch from tampering with evidence in the interests of secur- ing a conviction. She reports to the investigating magistrate Judge Roban, who is in charge of the overall case but who has to co-operate with creepy prosecutor Machard, the incarnation of evil. Being a French drama, there is plenty of sex. There is turf warfare between police departments, political manoeuvring and police brutal- ity.

It’s like The Sweeney – the 1970s British series apparently unknown in France – minus the jokes. For Spiral is a relentlessly dark drama. Is the French system as cynical and corrupt as the series would claim? “The show is rooted in reality,” says Landois. Seasons three and four were co-written with a real police commissioner, working under a pseudonym. He is now returning to the field. “Everything we put in Engrenages is from his anecdotes,” she says. In season three, where the police investigation focused on an Albanian prostitution ring of eastern Europeans, scenes were filmed in La Villette in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, “Exactly where the real thing took place,” says Landois. Yet the Spiral writers also want to explore the complexity of the characters. “You can see the conflict within the team, and with their hierar- chy. You can see how the investigation impacts on their lives. In season three, for example, Laure Berthaud became a hunter,” says Landois. If Landois admits to being inspired by other police dramas, it’s The Wire, the acclaimed US series filmed in Baltimore, that caught her atten- tion.

She notes that The Killing, the bleak Danish series also boasting a female detective chief inspector, was first broadcast two years after Spiral burst on to French TV screens in 2005. Although Spiral remains a cult show in France, since it’s broadcast on an encrypted channel, the Canal+ audience has steadily grown with each season, with 900,000 viewers tuning in for season four. When season five airs, it will become the longest-running series on a channel that sees itself as a kind of French HBO, nurturing original drama. It’s also very successful – it’s shown in 70 countries and is the first French drama series bought by the BBC since The Flashing Blade in the 1960s. Landois is now working intensively on season five to avoid the long wait that kept viewers in suspense for a couple of years between earlier seasons. She has three police officers, two exam- ining magistrates and two lawyers as consultants to ensure maximum authenticity. “I’m not inter- ested so much in plot twists and red herrings, like other police dramas,” she says. “It’s interest- ing to see how sometimes the cops have a hunch about a murderer, but they have to prove it.

It’s like a big puzzle unfolding in a complex way.” Hence Engrenages. Landois says the writing team is always conscious of the series title, whose primary meaning is “gears” or “cogs”. “It’s about how one thing meshes with something else, for example decisions that can lead to catastrophic consequences.” Netflix Snags French Series 'Spiral' | Hollywood Reporter Netflix Snags French Series 'Spiral' 7:59 AM PDT 7/27/2012 by Rebecca Leffler COMMENTS Getty Images The gritty crime drama is the first non English-language show to air with subtitles on the VOD platform. Netflix will put on its best French accent to air its first subtitled, non English-language series Spiral. The hit French crime drama will air in French with English subtitles. Created by Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin and produced by Son et Lumiere, international sales for Spiral are being handled by Newen Distribution. Spiral first aired on pay TV powerhouse Canal Plus in 2005 and the show’s fourth season will premiere in September on the network. The non-exclusive deal encompasses all four seasons of the show that is called Engrenages in France.

The police drama focuses on the action-packed days of a tough female captain, her two lieutenants, a judge, a prosecutor and a lawyer as they investigate murder cases and target corruption. The show stars Caroline Proust, Philippe Duclos, Thierry Godard, Fred Bianconi, Audrey Fleurot and Gregory Fitoussi, who will also appear in the upcoming Jeremy Piven drama Mr. Selfridge. BBC Worldwide Productions has snagged the remake rights for the series and Sam Mendes’ Neal Street Productions plans to develop the show that will be written by Cold Case scribe Meredith Stiehm. Spiral has been a ratings success in France for Canal Plus and has been licensed to 72 networks worldwide including both free-to-air and pay TV channels. It airs on BBC4 in the UK and in Australia on SBS2.

‘Spiral’ and 3 Other French Shows Worth Seeking Out - The New York Times The New York Times Television |The Elusive Pleasures of French TV Series Search The Elusive Pleasures of French TV Series ‘Spiral’ and 3 Other French Shows Worth Seeking Out Continue reading the main story Photo Jemima West stars as a country innocent blackmailed into prostitution in 1871 Paris in “Maison Close.” It is one of several unusual French series that are hard to find in the United States. Credit Wahib-Noe Productions/Canal+ It may be a small world, but it’s remarkable how many barriers remain to easy viewing. There is exotic and beguiling television all across the world, far away by plane but near enough by satellite, cable or Web to be tantalizingly just out of reach. Television reveals the limits of globalization. In the era of Mumbai call centers, online offshore banking, Skype chats, drone attacks, satellite phones and avian flu pandemics, national borders seem almost quaint. Yet foreign shows that should be as easily found in Minnesota as Monte Carlo are not readily available. Instead, Americans rely on trickle-down distribution.

Audiences in the United States have been sampling the best of British television — and “Benny Hill” — since “The Forsyte Saga” reached PBS in 1969. They more recently discovered Nordic Noir police thrillers and other Scandinavian cult favorites, including the Danish series “The Crime” and “Borgen.” It’s not just Denmark. There are really well made programs in every corner of the world, and Internet streaming has opened the door a crack. Whether it’s because of technological differences or copyright issues, American audiences today are a little like Italians in the era of Marco Polo: They have a few exotic spices and a faint sense that there may be a lot more somewhere out there. Photo “Engrenages” (“Spiral” in Britain), with Thierry Godard Credit Nathalie Mazeas/Son et Lumiere, Canal+ “Spiral,” a French crime series originally called “Engrenages,” is a huge hit in France, as well as on BBC Four in Britain , and it has found a devout American following on Netflix, which offers the first three seasons. But beyond “Spiral,” there are excellent French series that are almost inaccessible to American viewers, and for no good reason.

Continue reading the main story “Un Village Français” is a period drama about a village under Nazi occupation. “ Maison Close ” is a drama set in a 19th-century Parisian bordello — Baudelaire meets the Playboy Channel. “Les Revenants” is a matter-of-fact ghost story about a handful of people who return from the dead and try to resume normal life in a small French town. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Those four series represent different genres and have nothing in common, really, except the shared context of history and a stylishly unhurried pace that is a legacy of French cinema in its heyday. Most important, they serve up the most common themes — crime, war, sex and the occult — in fresh and unexpected ways. All but “Un Village” are under consideration for adaptations in English. “Spiral,” which just finished a fourth season, was the first to find an outside audience, probably because it belongs to the most familiar and exportable format, the police drama.

But it’s a particularly rich and complicated version, weaving detectives hunting down drug traffickers and terrorists into a contemporary Parisian backdrop of political arrivistes, corrupt judges and criminals with friends in high places, including predators in the mold of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. “ Un Village Français ,” which began in 2009, was also a sensation, possibly because it was the first major French television series seriously to address collaboration during the Nazi occupation in World War II . Vichy is not a taboo subject by any means. There have been scores of history books, novels, movies, documentaries and even graphic novels about the occupation. (Though it is a measure of how quickly postwar amnesia and myth making took hold that in the 1970s, one of the first scholars to point out that the Pétain regime willingly went along with Hitler was an American historian , Robert O. Paxton.) Photo “’Un Village Français,” with Martin Loizillon, left, and Robin Renucci. Credit Etienne Chognard/CCSP But France is not as much of a television culture as are Britain and other European countries.

The French film industry, internationally respected and state subsidized, has thrived better than most, and, accordingly, producers and stars tended to favor movies over television. Films, commercial and art house, were a better reflection of the national mood and cultural mainstream; most of the top-rated series on French television are made in the United States. “Un Village Francais,” which is about to start its fifth season, is evidence that the tide has shifted. The drama begins in June 1940 in Villeneuve, a fictional village in the Jura Mountains, when the Germans are at the door, and the illusion of invulnerability is crumbling. The byword of the series is “To live is to choose,” and in each episode, and each season, the war intensifies, options narrow and collaboration thickens. This series was not a shock or an awakening for French viewers in the way that the 1978 NBC mini-series “Holocaust” was to many Germans — half the country watched that drama about the plight of German Jews. “Un Village” goes over very familiar territory, only it is neither an indictment nor an exoneration.

It’s a subtle, historically accurate but not unsympathetic look at ordinary people suddenly tested by war, defeat and enemy invasion. Some of the most well-meaning people collaborate — faute de mieux — and some of the bravest resisters are downright unpleasant. Many citizens of Villeneuve have personal reasons for working with the Germans or against them. Raymond Schwartz (Thierry Godard) is a local businessman whose sympathies lie with the Resistance, but he agrees to turn his sawmill over to the Germans, so he can freely cross checkpoints to visit his mistress. The mayor’s brother, Marcel (Fabrizio Rongione), is a Communist. He gets in trouble with the Germans but also with the local party bosses. The party chides Marcel after he risks his life clandestinely to distribute leaflets attacking Hitler because they didn’t also denounce Churchill. Photo “Les Revenants,” with from left, Clotilde Hesme, Brune Martin and a ghostly Pierre Perrier.

Credit Jean-Claude Lother/Haut et Court, Canal+ “Maison Close,” which opens in Paris in 1871, right after the suppression of la Commune, a workers’ revolutionary movement that briefly took power in an uprising that year, lies somewhere between a historical drama and erotica. The drearier bits are about sex, not politics. One of the heroines is Rose (Jemima West), a country ingénue who goes into a bordello looking for her mother, and is quickly tricked and blackmailed into becoming a prostitute. The perils of Rose are almost comical — she keeps finding herself at police headquarters in corsets and petticoats. Advertisement The story gets more interesting when it gets down to business: politics and power, particularly the complicated cat-and-mouse relationship between the madam and her best employee and sometime lover. Prostitution then was legal, but strictly controlled by the police. “No woman leaves this profession,” the police commissioner warns Rose after issuing her a prostitute’s identity card. “But it’s a real profession, and there’s a way to do it well, with self-respect.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter.

You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy “Les Revenants,” which was shown in Britain with subtitles,” is strange, and strangely suspenseful. In a small town in the French mountains, a small number of people — a boy killed during a robbery, a teenager in a bus wreck, a bridegroom who committed suicide, a serial killer buried alive by his brother — return from the dead and quietly try to restart their lives. It was based on a movie by the same title, but the series focuses on the widening ripples of consequence as survivors slowly move from shock to acceptance and then, as weird things start to happen, suspicion. All of these shows echo the most basic elements of American television — with a twist. “Spiral” is “Law & Order” as seen by Stendhal. “Un Village Francais” is a “Band of Brothers” or “Foyle’s War” for a nation that wasn’t saved by its greatest generation and didn’t have its finest hour. “Les Revenants” is “The Walking Dead,” only the zombies are sentient, and hungry for cassoulet, not human flesh.

Unlike the Showtime series “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” the French equivalent, “Maison Close,” traffics in prostitution without indulging the common male delusion that women become prostitutes because they enjoy the sex. Nobody can complain anymore that there’s nothing good on television. There could be more. Correction: August 31, 2013 The TV Watch column on Friday about French television shows that are hard to find in the United States gave an incorrect English translation for a Danish series, “Forbrydelsen.” It would be “The Crime” in English — not “The Killing,” which is the title of the American remake. A version of this article appears in print on August 30, 2013, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: The Elusive Pleasures of French Series. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Endemol Studios Acquires Rights To French Crime Drama ‘Engrenages’ To Adapt For U.S. | Deadline Endemol Studios Acquires Rights To French Crime Drama ‘Engrenages’ To Adapt For U.S.

Endemol Studios EXCLUSIVE: Endemol Studios has closed a deal to develop and produce an English-language adaptation of the hit French crime thriller series Engrenages . The original series follows a murder investigation and reveals the cooperation, conflict, transgression and corruption within the French legal system from the perspective of the lead characters: a police captain and her two lieutenants, a judge, a prosecutor, and a defense lawyer. (trailer with English subtitles below) “Engrenages offers a hyper-realistic take on the French judicial system”, said Endemol Studios CEO Philippe Maigret. “The show’s masterfully complex storylines and layered characters give us the right blueprint to further explore society’s ever-changing codes of justice and develop a distinctive, un-apologetic, gripping television drama set against the backdrop of today’s U.S. legal system.” Engrenages premiered on French pay-TV net Canal+ in December 2005. The fifth season is set to air in 2014, with work on Season 6 already underway. The show, a Son et Lumière production in association with Canal+ for U.S.

television that is produced by Vassili Clert and Daniel Dubois, has sold in more than 60 territories including in the UK where the series airs on BBC4 under the title Spiral. In North America, Engrenages‘ first three seasons are available on Netflix. Endemol Studios is Endemol North America’s LA-based scripted studio operation that has produced AMC’s Hell On Wheels and Low Winter Sun and ABC’s Red Widow. Spiral (Engrenages) Series 3 | DVD Review | Film @ The Digital Fix Spiral (Engrenages) Series 3 15:02 on 31st Jul 2011 By Les AndersonLes Anderson Subtitles English Spiral (the original French title is Engrenages meaning gears or cogs) is a French TV police procedu... Spiral (the original French title is Engrenages meaning gears or cogs) is a French TV police procedural serial. It's also dark, bleak and cynical, more like The Wire than The Bill. The first serial aired in France in 2005 and the second in 2008.

This third serial first aired in France in 2010 and here on BBC4 in 2011 with the salacious added title of The Butcher of La Villette. All three serials feature the same principal cast headed up by Caroline Proust as Capitaine Laure Berthaud of the Parisian DPJ (Direction R�gionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris). Her two right-hand-men are the tough guy 'Gilou' who has a weakness for drugs and whores (Thierry Godard) and the by-the-book family man 'Tintin' (Fred Bianconi). Also featured are Investigating Magistrate Fran�ois Roban (Philippe Duclos) and the two drop-dead gorgeous hotshot lawyers, the idealistic Pierre Clement (Gregory Fitoussi) and his thoroughly amoral on-off partner/nemesis Jos�phine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot). Minor Spoiler Alert I haven't seen the first two serials but had heard great things about them when, suffering from Forbrydelsen withdrawal earlier this year, I decided to give this a go when it succeeded that series on BBC4. I wasn't disappointed.

It's quite bonkers in its own way but very watchable. There really is no need to watch either of the first two Spirals as this is fairly self-contained. The story kicks off with the discovery of the mutilated corpse of a young woman (how original is that) on a stretch of disused railway in the Parisian suburb of La Villette. Laure is keen to redeem her professional reputation following her disastrous handling of the case in the previous serial. It soon becomes apparent, following the discovery of a second body, that they are dealing with a serial killer. Now that would be enough for many a formulaic thriller. For this however it's just the start of a complex and somewhat tangled plot. Laure and her team bungle the initial investigation badly much to the delight of the press and her boss Aubert who is keen to take her off the case. As things develop, the core plot takes in sex-trafficking, a prostitution ring run by East Europeans and civic and police corruption.

Meanwhile the morally impeccable Juge Roban has to confront his appalling relationship with his estranged mother and brother, uncovers civic corruption potentially involving the highest political office and re-ignites an old flame while dealing with an unwelcome disruptive addition to his staff. Laure has no family ties but has to hunt for an elusive serial killer while dealing with Gilou's impending transfer out (partly motivated by the sexual tension between them), keeping Aubert off her back and bringing the East European pimps to justice. And that's just scratching the surface of the first few episodes. Spoilers over To discuss it in any more detail would do everyone a disservice. It really has to be watched (occasionally in disbelief) and each plot development savoured in its audacity. Although this is set in Paris, the action takes place in the seamy backstreets and underworld of the city. This is no picture postcard or love letter to one of the great cities of the world. You don't even get to see the Eiffel Tower. Most exteriors are shot in tight hand-held close-up and the most you will see of the city is the occasional bleak flyover or long-shot of prozzies on a street at night.

There is a deeply cynical streak running throughout this story and even the most morally upright characters, Roban and Clement, find their values and beliefs seriously challenged and even compromised. Laure, the antihero, does some morally and ethically dubious things in the service of The Greater Good but we know that underneath it all, she is a Good Cop. One of the things I like about Spiral is the strange aesthetic mix of actors which you would never see in an equivalent US show. Caroline Proust is an engaging and attractive lead but Laure is a scruffy-yet-chic mess who rarely changes her clothes and even sleeps in her car on occasion. Cl�ment and Karlsson are sleek and gorgeous and look like they have walked off the cover of a lifestyle magazine. Philippe Duclos as Juge Roban, the old silver fox, has that particular look that some older French actors have of a careworn but striking face topped by an expensive stylish haircut. Also turning US stereotypes on their head, one of the resident nutjobs is played by a pretty young actor (with a thousand-yard stare, it has to be said) while a teen rentboy has what is euphemistically known as a 'character' face.

And then you have Dominique Daguier as Roban's boss who, to be kind, has a face best suited to radio. You would NEVER see someone like him playing a similar figure in authority in an American show. Transfer and Sound The twelve 55-minute episodes are evenly split across three discs. The image has a deliberate handheld grainy aesthetic to it and many shots have a noticeably greenish, blueish or yellowish hue to them. This appears to be a stylistic choice as it was also a feature of the BBC broadcast. Many location interiors also appear to use available light only - the hotel interiors in particular seem to exploit this for added bleakness. The dialogue is recorded live and I can't attest to the French actors' diction but the subtitles are comprehensive and accurate from what I can tell, more so than the Beeb's in-house titles. The image quality is as good as you would expect from something made last year. However the framings chosen by the serial's two directors are pretty tight, particularly in close-ups, so don't be surprised if characters appear to loom out of the screen.

Unlike the broadcast print transmitted by the BBC which had only English subtitles throughout, this release appears to have been copied from the French DVD transfer. Unlike the BBC print this has hard-wired French subtitles for the odd moments where the various East Europeans speak in their own languages with additional English titles at the top of the screen. The French subtitles were absent from the BBC broadcast which had English subtitles only. Also if you are wondering why all the East Europeans speak to each other mostly in French it's because they all come from different countries and use French as a common language which is also very useful for the French TV audience. Extras None at all but the English subtitles are optional, unlike the forced French subtitles which appear when any other language is being spoken. Summary If you're a fan of gritty procedurals full of mutilated corpses, civic corruption, gratuitous police brutality and moral compromise you'll love this. Don't be put off by it being in French (and the odd bit of Albanian, Ukrainian, Polish etc). The subtitling is comprehensive but once you get used to it you'll be sucked in. The performances are all excellent but the outstanding turn for me was Philippe Duclos as Juge Roban.

He is one of those actors you can't take your eyes off whenever he is on screen. There are also a couple of weird but watchable character turns in the form of Corinne Masiero as Patricia a comedy whore and grass, and Jos� Etchelus as Jesus, the most weirdly likeable sociopath you'll see for a long while. While the show was being broadcast on BBC4 the Guardian website ran an interesting week-by-week blog and it really divided opinion. There are many insights from committed viewers as well as contributions from people saying how much they hate it. I recommend it. You can find it here . Engrenages | Adventures on the Bookshelf Adventures on the Bookshelf simonrkemp 1 Comment posted by Simon Kemp It wasn’t Scandi-noir that brought foreign-language drama to British TV and helped the Great British Public finally overcome their subtitle-phobia. When the BBC first showed the all-conquering Danish drama The Killing in 2011, they screened it in the Saturday evening BBC 4 slot that was already home to cult French police drama, Spiral, which was arguably the real ground-breaker in bringing foreign TV to UK audiences.

Where they started, others followed, and now, along with five seasons of Spiral, there have been at least three other French dramas fitted up with English subtitles and broadcast over here. What’s more, they’ve all been successful enough to get released as DVD and Blu-ray box-sets, as well as being available on various streaming services. If you can cope with French TV without subtitles, then there’s obviously masses of material out there to choose from. (The long-running sit-com, Fais pas ci, fais pas ça , or the sweeping saga of German Occupation, Un village français , are two that are worth a look). But if English subtitles are what you need, then Spiral, Braquo, The Returned and Witnesses are here for your enjoyment. The four series all tend to specialize in the gritty and/or terrifying. They’re all most definitely post-watershed, and not for the faint-hearted, as you can tell from the trailers below.

Spiral (the French title is Engrenages, which means cogs or gears, but also has the sense of being caught in a trap or a vicious circle) follows a single case through each season, as Laure Berthaud and her team hunt murderers, terrorists and organized criminals, while unscrupulous lawyers and judges play power games above their heads. The first five seasons are available on DVD, and Season Six is currently in production. Braquo is another police drama with murky moral boundaries and some shocking violence. Four police officers will stop at nothing to clear the name of their colleague, hounded to suicide by false accusations. Three seasons of it were shown on Sky. Probably the biggest TV phenomenon, though, was The Returned (Les Revenants), the supremely spooky supernatural drama shown by Channel 4 last year. In an isolated Alpine town, loved ones start returning to their families. They’re in good shape, ravenously hungry, and feeling more or less fine, if suffering from a bit of memory trouble. The only problem is, they’re dead. Even the trailer is terrifying — watch it if you dare!

And most recently, there has been Witnesses (Les Témoins), another detective drama, but with more of the otherworldly creepiness of The Returned than the gritty urban feel of Spiral and Braquo. Someone is grave-robbing in the little Normandy town of Le Tréport, and breaking into new-build show-homes to arrange the bodies in grisly parodies of family life. There’s also an escaped killer on the run from a nearby prison, and it all has something to do with the detective who caught him, whose photo is left at one of the show-homes. It was a hit on British TV last month, is due out on DVD in October. We’ll talk about each of them in more detail in future posts. In the meantime, with French TV drama in something of a golden age, there’s no better time to get stuck in. PS. And now there’s another one! Resistance, a TF1 drama about teenagers involved in the French Resistance during the Second World War Occupation by Nazi Germany, is currently showing on More 4, and available online here .

"Spiral" Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb trailers and videos full cast and crew trivia official sites memorable quotes Overview 63 out of 70 people found the following review useful: This May Be the Best Police Investigation Series Ever from United Kingdom 15 January 2010 This is a review of Series 1 and Series 2 (total of 16 episodes) of the French police investigation TV series called 'Engrenages' in French but called 'Spiral' in English. ('Engrenages' does not actually mean 'spiral' but is not particularly translatable. It embodies a complex concept within a single word, referring to a vast web of interlocked and enmeshed gearings of events and personalities, which perfectly describes this incredibly complex and intriguing body of simultaneous and interrelated stories.) This is a sensationally compulsive and gripping series, full of well-rounded leading characters whose evolving personal tales are just as interesting as the crimes they are perpetually solving.

As is usual with French crime films and series, they struggle against the octopus of French political corruption on a continual basis, as they cope with crime after crime and try to do their jobs against all the obstacles artificially created by powerful 'high-ups' and stony-faced bureaucrats. What is so remarkable about this series is the extraordinarily vivid and compelling characters which are created, and the magnificent acting. It is not really accurate to describe this as a 'police' investigation series, because under the French system, judges, magistrates, and prosecutors work side by side with the detectives on a daily and hourly basis, and this is what makes this series so fascinating. Major characters also include corrupt defence lawyers who are in the pockets of drug dealers and thugs. There is only one thing wrong with this series, and that is that someone high up in the production team (writer, director, or producer) is responsible for a disturbing and revolting streak of sadistic necrophilia which recurs time and again. We have to sit through numerous prolonged sequences where the camera lovingly dwells on mutilated or burnt corpses, which have clearly been expensively and meticulously produced by the props department.

This is part of the contemporary trend of 'being tough on screen' by showing pathologists at work, a sickness indulged in also in British television at the present time, but really it is disgusting and whoever is responsible for including all that in this otherwise wonderful series should be taken to the nearest vivisection room and done away with. The main star of this series is the extraordinarily versatile and talented actress Caroline Proust. In the first couple of episodes she was a bit up tight as she settled into the role, but by the end of Series 2 she had so grown into it that she was spontaneity itself, and very endearing as she jumped up and down like a gleeful child when cleared in an internal investigation. As a detective captain, she epitomizes the dilemma of the modern woman, forced to do a man's job in dangerous circumstances and be as tough as a man, while coping with love pangs, loneliness, personal isolation and no lasting partner, dreaming of having kids but knowing there will be no chance, and frustrated at being the victim of continual gender bias and persecution by men who view themselves as alpha males. She is a delightful and sympathetic presence on the screen.

The other woman dominant in the series is Audrey Fleurot, an eerily beautiful redhead covered in tiny freckles who epitomises the descent into evil. In episode after episode, we watch her progressively sell her soul to the devil as an increasingly corrupt advocate, betraying everything and everyone for money. Rarely has a reptile in human form been so successfully and compulsively portrayed. Really, Fleurot has achieved classic status as a villainess, and you simply cannot take your eyes off her because she is so wonderfully strange. My favourite character in the series is Judge Roban ('Monsieur Juge'), an investigating magistrate played by Philippe Duclos. He is quirky, eccentric, brilliant, intense, and a perfect joy to watch. The main investigating prosecutor ('Monsieur Procureur') is played by Gregory Fitoussi. He is a bit of a French 'pretty boy', ever such a good person, but also psychologically limited. Also compulsively watchable, exasperating and endearing at the same time, is the remarkable Thierry Godard, who plays the police detective Gilou.

There are countless fascinating supporting characters, such as Guillaume Cramoisan, who plays Benoit Faye, the childhood friend of Fitoussi who is always getting mixed up in something dodgy and thinks all rules exist to be bent. Then there is the chilling psychopathic pervert who is personal assistant to a minister, Arnaud Laborde, played by Scali Delpeyrat, Daniel Duval who plays the ghastly and horrifying Me Szabo, Reda Kateb who plays the terrifying drug dealer Aziz, and the gallery of characters just goes on and on. Many of the Arabs and Berbers in the stories are amazingly good as actors. There is never a dull moment for hour after hour, the tension never slackens for an instant, and Series 3 must be impatiently awaited by hordes of viewers, amongst which I number myself as a dedicated enthusiast. This series is really an incredible achievement. The 'creators' are Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin; this is her first project, but he is a highly experienced French TV writer with a background also as an actor.

They have been assisted by Virginie Brac and three other writers and there have been four directors, all splendidly creative. Everyone is excellent, and everything is superb except for all those horrible corpses. Interwoven throughout the series are highly intriguing miniature stories of puzzling crimes which are solved side by side with the main continuing investigations, in order to show the complexity of detective work, and how life is never dull for an instant. These are never just padding but are always interesting, and often bizarre. Everything about this series is highly charged, full of astounding energy and creativity, and it is really a triumph of sustained television drama. The amount and level of talent shown by everyone connected with this series is astonishing. The series really does deserve lots of awards. Was the above review useful to you? 53 out of 61 people found the following review useful: Top flight noir police procedural 17 August 2006 Series 1: Magnifique!

- gritty French police procedural buried on BBC4, each episode enmeshing you in a darker and darker world of crime, pain, and - as everywhere - a convoluted legal system that is best summed up by a brief exchange mid-series: "It's cruel." "It's only justice." With great performances and a coldly verité mise en scene, this holds its own among the best US & UK police/legal dramas. Oh, and need I say how refreshing it is to see a non-US drama on British screens? A large cast perform excellent dialogue, an engrossing single theme backed up by numerous sub plots, each one driving the characters forward as all the best drama should. The lead characters are attractive/repellent as required, but always interesting, without looking like an advert for a shampoo. In fact there's none of that slippery high-gloss (where every 'goodie' is always right, and never makes a mistake) that has marred some US series. Spiral attracted a good deal of support on BBC comment pages and is already being replayed on BBC4, with series two on the way. If it doesn't get a showing here there may be a riot.

Series 2: Now season two is over - all too quickly - I'm left actually gasping for more. It's the kind of show that makes the rash of 'CSI' type programmes looking plastic and rather basic. Is it because I'm so cynical that this show suits my way of thinking about the world so well? That dark, messy, morally ambivalent universe they live in is recognisable even past the cultural differences, such as the astonishing blurring of the boundary between investigative police work and judgement  it's not so much uniquely French as uniquely modern. I recognise this world: you could find desperate council estates and desperate police departments just like it all over the less photogenic parts of London and the UK. And as for the relationships  they're as fleeting, unresolved and problematic as everybody's are. I wasn't sure if they could top the tour-de-force complexity and classy storytelling of season one; and I'm not sure they did; but it doesn't matter - the quality is still so high, and the series-long story arc so engrossing, that you don't waste too much time comparing them. Some familiar faces, and some new characters, keep things ticking along nicely.

My only criticism really is that the 'villains' (as if it were really possible to separate them from anybody else!) of season one were so nasty, so venal, so atrociously amoral, that it was always going to be difficult to find new villains that didn't make you wonder where the bad stuff was happening. This lot were kind of old school. The final episode did leave me slightly confused and was I think underwritten in the haste to get to the end. Isn't the crucial difficulty of policing - everywhere - precisely that no one ever does really have that last minute change of heart, so that les flics must tread their dirty path alone? Was the above review useful to you? 41 out of 47 people found the following review useful: Paris crossed with New York from United Kingdom 4 July 2006 I stumbled across this looking for to improve my French, I've ended up being gripped by the characters. There is a unifying theme but every week there is more blood and seediness and sub-plotted nastiness.

It's enough to put one off Paris, however, you do get a vivid impression of reality as in "NYPD" and such work as Steve Bochco is famous for. The photographic effect is nearly monochrome, in keeping with the subject matter. Believe me this not a laugh a minute show, but it is a correction to the romantic view of France that Francophiles like me have. As a cop show it works, although there are enormous differences in legal procedures from those I know. There is also a cynical view of the wielding of power, both judicial and political. Aside from the action there is an indefinable Parisian gloss on the actors, it's no wonder falling into bed happens so easily, all the main leads are good looking and even the cops have a certain "je ne sais quoi".I am hooked on this series to find out what is going to happen to the main characters both good and bad. Was the above review useful to you? 41 out of 49 people found the following review useful: Title's meaning from United Kingdom 16 August 2006 The title in French "Engrenages" literally means 'gears'.

However this word is also used figuratively to mean 'complications' (apparently by Jean Paul Sartre). The English title "Spiral" doesn't carry anything like the same power. The story is immensely complex and dark with interlocking relationships, corruption and deceit. How does "Spiral" even begin to hint at this? I would have liked a better attempt at an English title. Some of my own suggestions are "Convolutions", "Wheels within Wheels" even "Enmeshed" or "Cogs". Can anyone else come up with a better idea? Apart from this quibble, I am completely gripped by the series and have had to reschedule my life around the late programming. I never fall asleep during the program and on occasion lie awake thinking about it afterwards. Was the above review useful to you? 32 out of 36 people found the following review useful: Superb Gallic Policier. from United Kingdom 28 July 2006 Engrenages is a Paris-based police procedural making no concessions to the easy-viewing requirements which deaden its English speaking equivalents. Dowdy police, incompetent lawyers, crims in grey shading into the deepest black.

Acting, camera-work, lighting and print quality is imaginative and thorough. Each episode had an exemplary cliff-hanging or shock ending. The rather delayed and somewhat cryptic sub-titles make it tough for non-native speakers, but it has done wonders for my bog-French. Sheer pleasure: the news that they are shooting a new series is excellent. Lets hope it goes out again on BBC3 or 4 - much too demanding, even for BBC2. Was the above review useful to you? 30 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Better and darker with each episode from United Kingdom 12 July 2006 This 8 part French detective serial is going out un-publicisied on BBC3 in the UK. It has some resemblances to the very darkest American cop shows, but is really grimmer and dirtier. There are unifying themes and tangents which may work into the main plot. It's impossible to explain how different things are from a UK police drama. The legal system is very different and it's fascinating to follow - who has power to do what to whom. The Police and Prosecutors aren't exactly corrupt, but in a way they can't help being.

The police look like criminals and work out of what seems like a run-down basement. A brilliantly convoluted thriller, with all the fascination of a really alien legal system, Paris backdrop, washed out colours, general decay. Final episode on BBC next week, but you should be able to see it somewhere. I see from Amazon France that there's a second season. Was the above review useful to you? 20 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Some explanations for the problems that rightwingisevil have found with this series: 24 August 2013 @rightwingisevil, Having accepted that the series is not 100% accurate (like the other series), i would like to give you some explanations about your findings. You think court houses and police stations are all fancy buildings like in the US? Come to Europe and see the buildings. Especially as a person who practiced law, i didn't not find these buildings' conditions very awkward in the series, most of the public buildings in Europe are old, and due to historic heritage it's not easy to renew/reconstruct these buildings.

Regarding your criticisms about Judge Roban's interventions and duties, first of all i would like to admit that i also found it bit awkward as a person who was trained in Common Law. However French judicial system is a continental System and in this system Examining magistrates are not same as Trial Judges. Their power is limited with the investigation and their aim is to rule the investigation and make sure that the investigation is competence with the law. That's why they may have controversies with the police dept. And i have seen more stupid police officers than Cpt. Laure in real life... (have to admit she's stupid) I think you are too much influenced by American crime series, and you accepted them as absolute truth... but you should know that there are 193 countries in the world and they have different systems. Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 26 people found the following review useful: Exceptional While the approach is not new, the execution is excellent. Firstly the stories interweave and become more engrossing with their machinations, the "engrenages".

Secondly the pace is engaging so its impossible to foresee the next part, and that is because it's well written and intelligently for the viewer; not disguised by quick cuts to dazzle the eye but then frustrate by its tedium or obviousness. Thirdly, the cast is right and well directed. Characters are alive with a range of human flaws. Maybe Albert Camus was the script editor overseeing the lines of each character's arc. Unlike some police dramas this one doesn't pull its punches - quite literally - and for those of us all too bored with the US legal system, the presentation of the way the French one does its business, is another interesting aspect to the show.(Along with all the slang.) And finally, watching Caroline Proust and Audrey Fleurot (the former plays a strong brigade police captain; the latter plays a lawyer without morality) is the coup de grace. Was the above review useful to you?

23 out of 28 people found the following review useful: Maitre Carlsson is in it up to her neck from United Kingdom 5 October 2009 Saw episode three of season 2 last night and I can vouch that this one is turning into a real potboiler like season 1. The series works on the basis of one big plot line and a series of more minor ones which link together. Sometimes, a new minor case is solved in a single episode like the "echangistes" (wife swappers) or the gay test pilot last night, or it is carried over to the next episode. Again, like last season, the police are morally fragile like the criminals but invariably come good, the defense lawyers are on the crooked side and the crims vary between violent, amoral wrongdoers and vile, completely sadistic and downright evil wrongdoers. There are some brilliantly funny moments too. As for 'racial stereotyping' commented on earlier, grow up! That's absolute b*llocks. Lots of non-white people live in Paris so some of them will be criminals n'est ce pas?

Watch out for gorgeous moneygrabbing redhead Maitre Carlsson who is getting involved with helping arch criminals and getting paid 3000 euros per case instead of 300 and buying loads of new outfits. Expect a big showdown between Laure and her before the end of the season. This is great TV, far superior and much less formulaic than CSI NY/LV/Miami. Give it a go. I for one, am hooked. Was the above review useful to you? 20 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Complex, dark, gritty murder and political thriller from Melbourne, Australia 24 July 2008 Forget formulaic shows posing as violent, dark and gritty. Spiral shows how the genre should be done. The French title means cogs or gears which trap the characters into ever more convoluted situations. No good & bad here - the naively honest prosecutor facing his first job is drawn ever deeper into a conspiracy which forces him to make increasingly dangerous compromises. The initial mystery underpinning the entire series, unfolds each week to offer us more fascinating pieces of the puzzle. Even the weekly murder - often solved within the episode - has repercussions that continue on.

This is compulsive viewing  the end of the hour feels like ten minutes. Tho' shot in colour, the drab settings and costumes often give the impression of black & white, till a bright handbag or scarf pull us back to reality. The mood is edgy and challenging. Caroline Proust and Philippe Duclos give particularly outstanding performances. Although a police lieutenant, the stunning Proust (as Laure Berthaud) has the direct wide-eyed look of a bewildered naïf. Duclos' Roban, looking somewhat like an ironic vulture, is the judge determined to unearth the truth despite sinister political pressures. Spiral is uncompromising in its presentation of violence including sexual paraphilias (tho' I thought the French might have had their own word for Laure's "fist-f**cking?") Despite the graphic violence & frequent coarse language, which is only noticeable in programmes with sub-titles, this 8.30 pm free-to-air show - competing with the very tame "Gil Mayo Mysteries" still only attracts an Aussie M (parental guidance), not an MA (over 15). Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 4: Bill's Comment Page: "Engrenages" - Spiral (French TV cop series) Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland until I return to the Murcia region of Spain in the early part of 2017 for a few weeks 'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot Sunday, 25 October 2009 "Engrenages" - Spiral (French TV cop series) Unfortunately I didn't see the first series of "Engrenages" a couple of years ago, but the second series of this gritty French TV cop series is currently showing on BBC4 television. The English title of the show isn't particularly good, although it does try and encompass the different themes of the story, I suppose. In any case, I have to say I have become addicted to the second series - I started to watch it before I went to Spain in mid-September, but made sure I recorded every episode on my DVR, because I knew I proabably wouldn't be able to watch every episode when I was there.

Currently we're on episode 6 of 8 of the second series (with episode 7 being shown tonight and again next Friday, both on BBC4). It's still possible, however, if you're quick, to watch the whole series on the BBC iPlayer here . I mentioned that the series is "gritty" - well, it's that all rght! "Engrenages" means 'gears' or 'cogs', but a more colloquial translation might be 'convolutions' or 'complications'. I think what the actual English title 'Sprial' is trying to convey is the theme of the hidden complexities of the criminal and semi-criminal characters in the series and their inter-relationships.

Apart from the fact that the legal system is different in France from the usual English or American we are more familiar with, it adds the seediness of various of the legal protagonists (from the frankly corrupt Advocate Szabo to the ambitious, unscrupulous and completely out-of-her-depth AdovocateKarlsson), not to mention the ambition and publicity-seeking of a Public Prosceutor and a randy and stressed (female) police inspector and the undercover (and good-looking) Arab police officer Samy with whom she flirts. For me one of the attractions of this second series is the argot, a mixture of slang Parisian French and slang Moroccan Arabic - I can follow most of the dialogue in both languages without using the sub-titles (which are pretty good, I'd say), but it does add an atmosphere of authenticity.

Just as in modern 'popular' English, which is peppered with words orginating in India/Pakistan, Africa or the Middle East (which many people don't realise, so ubiquitous have they become), French is similarly admixed with a lot of north-African words and slang, even amongst native French, but of course in this cop show many of the ne-er do wells are of Moroccan or Algerian origin anyway, mainly Moslem but from what I can observe a few of them are probably north-African Jews too (when I lived in Casablanca in the early 1970s, for part of my time there I lived in an apartment in a smartish part of the city adjacent to the Jewish quarter or 'mellah', although many of the original inhabitants had left in the wake of the '67 war). The seediness, corruption and general back-biting, ambition and spite seems to involve all the communities portrayed in the programme, whether French, north-African or Jewish and whether they are the professionals (judges, advocates, police) or the low-life criminals who they are trying to catch or in some cases colluding with.

Much grittier than most of the CSI offerings from the US - in fact I'd say the closest to it I've seen is the Glasgow-based Taggart, specially some of its earlier episodes. Catch it on BBC4 (Sundays at 10pm, Fridays at 11.35pm or on the BBC iPlayer) if you can. Posted by

Question: What is the English title of the French police drama Engrenages shown on BBC4?
Answer: SPIRAL