As anyone can tell from the title, this Australian drama, SEVEN SNIPERS, is an action flick. What you can’t tell is that the level of action may be less than genre fans would prefer. Radha Mitchell stars as a former topnotch army sniper, now not only retired to a remote ranch with her teen daughter (Annabel Wolfe), but apparently hiding from someone or something (or both) in her past. Early on, she’s discovered by one who wants to relay her location to a grudge holder, forcing her to summon whomever she can among her old colleagues to help her defend against the imminent attack. Six of them answer the call.
It becomes likely that the guy who put a big bounty on her head is “Dragon” (Tim Roth), the most vicious, if not psychotic, player in their previous military endeavors (or endeavours, for the cast of Aussies and Brits), and his looming presence scares the (insert your own synonym for excrement) out of several. They all thought he had been killed long ago. They all gonna be proven wrong quite soonly.
So that gives us seven good guys (in the gender-neutral sense of the word), plus the daughter and her boyfriend vs. Roth, with all the action occurring in and around Mitchell’s isolated homestead, interlaced with a few flashbacks. What unfolds is a mixed bag of plot, character development and action that adds up to a so-so package. Roth is quite adept at playing smugly creepy, evil characters, conveying menace levels beyond his slight stature, in the vein of actors like Steve Buscemi, Joe Pantoliano or Jackie Earle Haley. Here, he does a lot of damage in relatively little screen time or dialog. And we eventually learn why he’s been dogging Mitchell for years with such determination.
It’s hard to stretch out that small cast and setup for 87 minutes. Unfortunately, Andrew O’Keefe’s script does that by having its characters make a number of annoyingly illogical moves, especially for seasoned soldiers. Those watching for bloodlust will get rewarded by a number of shots with serious doses of splatter. Mitchell, Wolfe and Roth are all worth watching, even in a vehicle that doesn’t give any of them their best chance to shine.
So, with suitably modulated expectations, this little flick may be enjoyable enough for fans of shoot-em-ups and the principals.
SEVEN SNIPERS streams on Well Go USA Entertainment starting Friday, June 5, 2026.
The six-episode French miniseries “Sea Shadows” (originally, “Rivages”) opens with a fishing boat and its 16-member crew vanishing in a sudden, violent storm that also contains several other inexplicable effects. They are from Fécamp, a close-knit village that depends heavily on its fishing industry, so the disappearance threatens the entire community. Abigail (Fleur Geffrier), an oceanographer whose experience may be relevant to this mysterious set of phenomena, is sent to investigate … reluctantly. Fécamp just happens to be her hometown, which she has assiduously avoided for three years, following some traumatic events the series gradually reveals to us. Her father owns the town’s largest fleet, including the missing boat, adding to the dramatic tension.
This plays out as a suspense thriller, taking quite a few episodes to sort out whether the phenomenon is man-made, extraterrestrial, or due to some other sic-fi threat. If man-made, is it some secret government program gone awry, or an attack by foreign foes? Strange subsurface lights and vibrations defy explanation. Once the military arrives on the scene, the cause(s) and remedies get even more muddled. Abi strives hard to do the right thing, despite struggles with that old business that kept her away, and the resistance she gets from locals and the army – especially the overzealous Commandante Calderi (Valerie Dashwood), whose agenda makes her extreme actions and attitude rival the worst of cinematic wingnuts in uniform.
The script contains a considerable amount of soapy stuff, mostly arising from her multiple family history issues. She has to navigate churning waters among the fishermen who are eager to resume plying their trade, politicians who don’t want their plans for a huge offshore windfarm derailed, and ecology groups that strongly oppose overfishing and environmental downsides of the proposed turbines. Those folks variably fit in as parts of the problem and parts of the solution. The principal mystery remains solid and suspenseful throughout, and most of the subplot diversions wind up having value by the time we reach the climax. The last episode gets a bit schmaltzy for my taste, but I’m probably more curmudgeonly than most of you.
The lovely Ms. Geffrier, who somewhat resembles a young Julianne Moore, makes an appealing protagonist, deftly portraying her character’s emotional turmoil, intellect and commitment to the task at hand. The rest of the cast largely fills standard genre types, with Dashwood’s megalomaniac and Olivia Cote’s Sylvia (the leader of the environmentalists) getting the juiciest supporting parts.
The f/x are quite well done, with much of the oceanic action bringing cinematic quality to the small screen. The Normandie locations provide a lovely backdrop, with the town of Fecamp looking like the cleanest, most picturesque industrial fishing village one could find anywhere.
RATING: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars
SEA SHADOWS, in French with subtitles, premieres June 2, 2026 in the U.S. and Canada on MHz Choice.
My favorite curmudgeonly police detective, played delightfully by Corinne Masiero, once again drives her old jeep all over France, solving crimes beyond the ken of the local gendarmes in “Captain Marleau: Season Five”. As we’ve come to expect, she’s dressed in the same shabby outfit (although she switches among three plaid shirts, rather than sticking with only one), making our Lt. Columbo look like a GQ model, as she brashly wades through colleagues, suspects and witnesses with a stream of sarcasm that Dr. House could only dream of achieving. She’s rude and crude by design, since annoying others works so well as an investigative technique.
Here’s a link to prior seasons’ coverage, for those who seek a refresher. It’s not as essential as in most other series reviewed here, since each 90-minute episode is a new crime in a new locale, with very little plot carryover, or return of supporting characters.
Season 5 blesses us with the bounty of 10 episodes of La Capitain doing her thing with her usual tactics. Her disdain for the rich and powerful, whether her superiors or her suspects, is proudly flaunted in their faces. They hate it. Fans of the show love it. The most exotic of the new batch is the first, which begins with the disappearance of a stripper from the local Club Follies. Nobody gets nekked, but Zahia Dehar’s opening number before her character goes missing is quite a treat.
In the second, a town’s local hero who saved the sawmill that provides the bulk of its economic base may not be the good guy everyone believes him to be. Next, a porcine crime boss turns states’ evidence, putting Marleau in the unusual position of preventing a murder, rather than solving one. Next comes upheaval and suspense when the daughter of one of a group of old school chums announces she’s marrying her dad’s bestie. Then one of the guys gets blowed up real good in a boat belonging to another, raising questions as to who was really the target, along with the usual tangle of motives and suspects.
Then we get a murder among the circle of friends and supporters of an exiled African president who is angling to get back in power, unseating his brother what done him out of the top dog spot. Besides the basic whodunnit, part of the suspense here is whether we should root for him to return home, or if his brother may actually be the lesser of two evils. Next comes the surprise of Marc Ruchmann, who co-stars in the comedic mystery series that was reviewed here last week, “Family Detective”, getting bumped off in the first five minutes. His character wanted to sell the family glove factory, despite the objections of his domineering mother. The conflict opens up a can of worms over Catholic/Protestant enmity that has long divided the community. Naturally, that sets up both sides to be zinged by atheist Marleau’s delightfully (to us, not them) caustic wit.
A local annual dance festival faces derailment when one of the organizers involuntarily becomes permanently horizontal (betcha can’t get more euphemistic that!). The diva who runs the show winds up in the middle of a swirl of family psychodrama that may, or may not, explain the murder du jour. This one is arguably the soapiest of the lot. That’s followed by the killing of a rather bitchy, but well-intentioned, social worker who’s setting up a lakeside center for troubled youth. Character and conscience can come from canoeing, supposedly. This foils the plans of a neighboring hotelier to salvage his failing business by offering aquatic activities that would have required owning that same chunk of primo shoreline.
Number nine revolves around an old monastery, now being run as a trade school for young adults with problematic histories. It’s overseen by an ancient quasi-religious order of good Samaritans called the Companions of the Work. But if all went smoothly, there wouldn’t be a murder to solve, would there? The victim is an aspiring locksmith whose efforts draw the wrong kind of attention. In the season finale, a murder occurs in a town bubbling over with protests. They’ve long thrived on the ferry that connects them to the opposite shore of a lake. But a rich guy wants to build a bridge that would replace it, speeding up thru traffic at the expense of all the local merchants who rely on the wait times for much of their business.
As regular readers know, Marleau is one of my favorite characters among all the Eurofare I’ve covered in the past decade, or so. Even so, I encourage you to spread out the viewing of these ten 90-minute episodes. Her singularly entertaining shtick can lose some of its entertainment value when received in too many back-to-back doses. There’s no downside to waiting, since each crime takes her to a new locale with a different cast of cops and residents. You don’t need to recall the details of what she done before to enjoy what she’s doin’ now.
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
CAPTAIN MARLEAU, premieres May 26, 2026 in the U.S. and Canada on MHz Choice.
The long-running Austrian police procedural “SOKO: Linz” follows a special unit of the Linz police force dedicated to major crimes. SOKO is a shortened form of Sonderkommission, which means “special investigative team”. The tone of these shows is similar to our “Law and Order”set of series with rather somber, matter-of-fact scripts, spending relatively little time on the personal lives of the protagonists. This is one of several SOKO series, each set in a different city with a different set of cops, like Germany’s “Tatort” or our own “CSI” franchises.
The lead detectives are Johanna (Katharina Haizinger) and Ben (Daniel Gawlowski). Their boss is Nele (Anna Hausberg). Their youngest member is Aleks (Damyan Andrev) who provides a dimension of enthusiasm to the efforts of the veterans. Medical examiner Richie (Alexander Pschill) adds some eccentricities to the mix. Each hourlong episode is a separate crime, with virtually no carryover. The first involves the murder of a woman the German police sent to Linz under their witness protection program. The mystery is whether she was killed in retaliation for her testimony there, or due to something that went wrong in her new life and identity. The second revolves around the fate of one who designed software for a super-pervasive facial recognition program that he now regrets, since it might invade way too much privacy if it reaches the wrong hands. Maybe not so good in the right hands, either. Frankly, this one confused me a bit, but tech is mostly out of my wheelhouse. The third dives deep into social issues of international dug and human trafficking, including baby-selling, in a morally complex set of events.
Among the other eight sets of murders for our little team to unravel, a brilliant student in cutting-edge AI is bumped off just before leaving for a big-time job in the US. A new murder in the stye of a convicted serial killer raises questions as to whether it’s a copycat, or proof that they jailed the wrong guy. The next stiff is the much younger hubby of a rich middle-aged woman, found on one of the boats he sells. That’s followed by the murder of a renowned classical conductor/cellist on the eve of a concert that could make or break the careers of the students comprising his chamber quartet.
My favorites begin with a Nazi hooligan found dead at a bus stop, involving the plight of a family who tried to quit the gang, only to be harassed for years. The last begins with the killing of a woman who’d opened a pole-dancing studio to empower women who had been stuck in abusive relationships. As one might expect, that didn’t set well with many of the locals for “moral” or chauvinistic reasons.
All the scripts are solid. The lead characters are easy to like. This is the first of four seasons that have already aired abroad, and are likely to continue. Since the episodes are stand-alone crimes, they can be watched at leisure, with no advantage to bingeing. I’d expect more of the existing 49 episodes to follow these to our side of the Atlantic in due course.
RATING: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars
“SOKO Linz: Season One”, in German with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice on May 26, 2026.
Among all the European TV crime series I’ve reviewed, ranging from deadly serious to comedic, “Family Detective” (originally, “Enquete en famille”) is probably the zaniest. Claire (Clementine Celarie) and Philippe Rochette (Bernard Le Coq), who own a hardware store in Renne are thrilled when their daughter Charline (Naima Rodic) returns home from Paris to serve as a police captain. They’re overflowing with suffocating involvement in her life and career. They’re not only helicopter hoverers by nature, but avid devourers of crime fiction who stumble all over themselves and others in their unsolicited efforts to help Charline and her partner Bastien (Marc Ruchmann) solve each week’s murder.
The season is six 50-minute episodes, each with its own case for Charline and her team to handle. In a town where everyone seems to know everyone, with gossipers spreading news of crimes and developments in their sleuthing faster than any electronic medium could match, Charline is variably helped, hampered or annoyed by her parents’ well-intended, but often counterproductive or redundant, attempts to streamline her progress to the finish line.
Unlike most of these shows, the lead cop is not the star. The camera stays mostly on the parents, whose over-the-top arguments and strategies dominate the proceedings. They are likable enough, but Charline’s desire for distance from them is easy to understand. She thought she was coming home with her beau, only to find that he’d decided to stay in Paris and ignore her calls for explanation. Soon, she also learns that she’s pregnant with his kid. All this while starting a new position of responsibility.
The scripts by Bruno Dega and Jeanne le Guillou serve up a nice array of typical murders, ranging from a likely staged suicide to a murder masked by arson, to a woman shot (mistakenly or deliberately) while riding her horse through the woods, to a dead scam artist found in his hotel. The most engaging scenario is probably the magician in the familiar box who gets run through when one of the swords does what it shouldn’t hadda oughta done to him.
In each case, the crime is mainly a setup for what the parents will do, with varying degrees of help and hindrance. Claire is absurdly strident, often bordering on hysterics. Both parents have their moments of being astute and clueless, with the latter considerably more prevalent. Ms. Celarie has shined in several other productions I’ve covered, and this role is a big stretch from those more serious and low-key performances. It was probably great fun for her to overact to this extent.
I recommend the series with a caveat. A little of Claire’s histrionics goes a long way. Bingeing for review purposes became rather exhausting. Since each episode is a stand-alone, I advise spreading them out to enjoy the comedy as the producers intended. Be sure to see them in order, since relationship progressions are important. And, in case you’re as curious as I was, they did not incorporate Naima’s real-life pregnancy into the scripts. Charline’s rapidly burgeoning belly is a set of prosthetics that was planned from the get-go.
The series aired abroad in October, 2025. No decision yet on whether there will be a second season. They don’t end with serious cliffhangers, but there are questions about what may come next on the interpersonal plot threads that I hope will be pursued.
RATING: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars
“Family Detective”, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice on May 19, 2026.
THE BUTCHER’S BLADE is a martial arts flick from China that is set in ancient times – before guns. That makes the numerous fight scenes heavy on swordplay (No surprise. Blade is right there in the title), with a few novelty weapons for variety. The plot centers on Buyi (Fengchao Liu), an honest, but timid constable, who’s been cowed from using his considerable skills in the face of rampant oppression and corruption among the rich and powerful – including officials of the law above his rank. Why arrest those who will quickly buy their way out of consequences, and resume their evil deeds without skipping a beat?
When he’s framed for a major theft by his sleazy bosses and about to be executed, his former mentor intervenes and sends him and his old colleague, Li Zhen (Fufu Yuan), off to catch the real thieves and recover the large cache of silver they’d swiped. That would be the only way to prove his innocence to those higher in the ranks.
The plot is something of a bummer, as corruption is so pervasive at all levels of the culture. Local landowners gouge and physically abuse the poor, while co-opted authorities are paid to turn a blind eye. Buyi’s integrity has kept him at the lowest level of the constabulary, and just about as lonely as Jesse White’s Maytag repairman in those old TV commercials. By declining all the opportunities for graft, he’s made himself something of a pariah, and definitely not the honchos’ idea of a “team player”. This frame-up and reunion with Zhen give him the chance to grow a pair, and start nailing the bad guys, some of whom had bullied him before; others who were part of the frame-up. The two work their way up the food chain of responsibility for the robbery. But all the good guys may not be as good as they seem, giving the plot more twists.
All of that is fairly par for these courses. One watches such films mainly for the fight scenes, which are plentiful and expertly choreographed. One-on-ones and hero vs. hordes are generously presented throughout. The clashes are mostly gritty and realistic in scale, with only moderate amounts of wire work. No soaring to the rooftops; just longer hang-times in many of the moves. There are several displays of stunning acrobatics, and even a showy bit of parkour in one chase.
Those looking for plot and character development can do better elsewhere. Genre fans who groove on the action will be highly satisfied with the amount and quality of what they’ll find here. And stick around for the credits, which are accompanied by numerous clips of the fight choreography and practices.
THE BUTCHER’S BLADE, mostly in Mandarin with English subtitles, debuts on digital formats as of May 12, 2026 from Well Go USA.
The two-part French telefilm, “Fred Vargas’ The Adamsberg Mysteries” (originally “Sur la dalle”) might either be a one-and-done, or the pilot for a series of procedural films featuring police detective Adamsberg (Yvan Attal). I hope it’s the latter.
The grizzled veteran is called to a town in Brittany by local top cop Mathieu (Olivier de Benoist) for help in solving some weird serial-style killings. They’d worked together before on a tough case, so the reunion was a likely step in the sleuthing for this new challenge. The village had been home to the famous Chateaubriand as its only claim to fame. Though the family no longer owned their ancestral chateau, the last descendant, Josselin (Micha Lescot), would ponce around town in period apparel, posturing as the viscount he would have been in earlier times, providing photo ops for the tourists, and tolerant amusement to the locals.
The town’s culture was suffused with a strange superstition. Stepping on someone’s shadow would spell their doom. Some believed it with religious fervor, forming a cult of acolytes. While our cops are on the case, multiple killings occur tastefully off-camera, pointing to an arcane motive and method. The eccentric Josselin is a prime suspect. So much so that he regularly asks the cops why they’re not arresting him. He seems naïve, simultaneously taking his stagey persona seriously and recognizing its folly. Several other locals emerge as likely suspects or victims. They add up to a colorful little batch of oddballs and customs.
When Adamsberg is summoned at the beginning, we see Corinne Masiero, oft-praised by this writer for her delightfully eccentric eponymous character in the long-running “Captain Marleau”series, as a team member who is supposed to go there with him. But she bows out, barely to be seen again. She’s replaced by lovely Virginie Ledoyen as a newcomer to the squad. One supposes she’s there for eye candy but as events unfold, she proves to have a number of surprising and valuable skills to contribute. In fact, if they don’t knock out more of these movies for Adamsberg, they should consider spinning her off to a film or series of her own.
The story is adapted by Emmanuel Carrere from a novel by Fred Vargas (hence the title in the imported version). The cast is full of interestingly crafted and diverse characters; the screenplay has a suitable number of twists and surprises for such dramas, with touches of levity along the way. Director Josee Dayan makes good use of the Brittany environs, and keeps things moving at a satisfying pace. Definitely an easy and worthy watch.
“Fred Vargas’ The Adamsberg Mysteries,” in French with English subtitles, streams on MHz Choice as of May 12, 2026.
The charming French procedural “Master Crimes” returns for its third – and likely final – season, of Criminal Psych professor Louise (Muriel Robin) solving murders with Paris police detective Barbara Delandre (Anne Le Nen) and her quartet of students learning the craft from their mentor. Below is my review of Season One. Although I equally enjoyed more of the same mix of sleuthing and levity in Season 2, I apparently did so too late to review it for this esteemed publication. So, to refresh memories (including mine): https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2024/09/master-crimes-season-1-tv-series-review/
Most of the main cast returns. The aforementioned hottie (Astrid Roos) is replaced by newcomer Allyson Yang (Ayumi Roux), who brings an air of mystery about her backstory, along with a razor-sharp mind to their talented team. Louise is on the verge of finally marrying her long-time suitor, the Chief (Olivier Claverie). He’s thrilled to be making elaborate plans for a gala affair; her enthusiasm level is far short of his. Anne’s nascent relationship with medical examiner Theo (Michael Cohen) is complicated by the arrival of his newly-discovered bitchy daughter, who resents the hell out of daddy’s main squeeze. And, for one more subplot thread to run through the season, Louise’s adult son, Guillaume (Nicolas Gob, who co-stars in the classy light-hearted series, “The Art of Crime”), comes home with his tail between his legs over his failing marriage.
As to the crimes to be solved in each of the six hour-long episodes, they all provide suitable challenges with multiple possibilities for our set of protagonists. The two dozen credited writers who crafted the 18 episodes maintain consistent quality in both plotting and character development. Directors Marwen Abdallah and Amandine Bonnin, who helmed four and two episodes, respectively, made fine use of Parisian exteriors and interiors as settings, pacing the stories and sidebars so nothing ever seemed to drag.
The first begins with a woman’s body dramatically and publicly displayed. The second starts with a woman who is mutilated shortly after divorcing her oppressive hubby under the liberating influence of a self-help guru. The third victim is the Mother Superior of a convent who had made it her mission to reform criminals by bringing them into the cloisters as novitiates for God to reverse the path society had provided. Her idealistic plans did not meet with universal approval.
The fourth gives us a considerable tone shift, as Louise, Anne and the students are abducted by a man who’d just finished serving time for murdering his wife. He confines them in the home where it occurred, rigged to explode if they don’t exonerate him and prove who really did it within 24 hours. He is convinced the culprit was Anne, who’d figured prominently in his arrest and prosecution. The fifth opens with a sous chef killed and set in an elaborately staged picnic in front of the upscale restaurant in which he’d worked under his aunt. The finale revolves around payback for a rapist/murderer who gets what’s coming to him after the law did its (presumably inadequate) part.
Of course, all the crimes are solved within the allotted time, and most of the B plotlines wrap with some degree of closure. There are still a few more story arcs worthy of pursuit if the Gods of Renewal decide to smile upon this excellent series. If they do, I’ll smile along with them.
“Master Crimes: Season 3”, in French with subtitles, streams April 28, 2026 in the U.S. and Canada on MHz Choice.
Once again we return to the west Belgian town of Loveringem, with its amusingly anachronistic obsession over everything about American rural southern and cowboy culture, except the cattle for “Chantal: Season 3”. The nature of the crimes and the mix of character comedy continue as well as fans would expect. Most of the locals still cling to the sexism that has plagued our eponymous head of the small local police force (Maaike Cafmeyer) throughout the series – especially virulent among her “superiors”. No matter how many times she proves herself smarter than the honchos, they just can’t accept her higher level of skills. By now, though, many of the citizens and the small crew under her have seen the light.
As before, the eight-episode season begins and ends with two-parters, surrounding six separate cases. Several secondary plot threads run through the season. Among those, the biggest is Chantal’s romance with totally-smitten neighbor Arne (Steven Mahieu), whose aspirations for their couplehood are constantly at odds with the challenges and priorities of her job. Their intimate plans are routinely sidelined by the next crime crisis. He’s like a golden retriever, bereft each time his owner leaves for work, yet ready to please whenever she finally returns. Several other romances wax and wane in the margins.
In the first episode, “Sheriff” Rik (Dries Heyneman) shows up in the town’s bar for a celebration with a new girlfriend, Shana (statuesque Lize Feryn) on his arm. No one can believe this lifelong loser shlub could get with someone so obviously far out of his league. Every fan will also wonder what less-than-romantic explanation there could possibly be for this pairing. Then a series of burglaries points to an old brilliant and vicious nemesis known as The Fox as the culprit, even though he’s still in jail from his last round of offenses. Lieven Debrauwer, who plays the archvillain, contributes a highlight performance – especially for a longtime director and writer making his first appearance in front of the cameras.
Episode Three begins with a star soccer player kneecapped by thugs for reasons unknown. It also brings back the loathsome rich jerk (and vitriolic Chantal opponent) from previous seasons, Schiettekatte (Wim Opbrouck), who owns the team and is now running for high public office. More about him later. The fourth is arguably the funniest, as a wizened pair of neighboring brothers are locked in a feud with escalating acts of vandalism and accusations. They got along for years, until the wife of one decided the other was more of a kindred spirit, if not soulmate, and moved in with him.
By contrast, the fifth is the most unpleasant. A car wrecks a roadside memorial to a couple’s dead son, setting off an uproar of demonstrations and political posturing over who had done it. In #6, an old drunken grouch living in a rundown trailer scares off a government housing inspector, gets bonked on the noggin and then becomes the prime suspect when a dead guy is found in one of the loner’s rusting vehicles. Chantal’s kind-hearted efforts to clean up the curmudgeonly hermit and his rundown little patch may prove to be his undoing.
The final pair starts when someone blackmails the odious Schiettekatte (See? I told you more about him was yet to come.) with photos of him in the company of the aforementioned foxy Shana. This could derail his election, since he’s campaigning loudly on family values (like so many other hypocrites that come readily to mind). It also threatens his plans for a multimillion-euro construction project, overseen by a close relative of his beleaguered wife. This one delivers a slew of twists and turns that serve well as the season’s, and apparently series’, finale. It was fun while it lasted.
CHANTAL: SEASON 3, mostly in Dutch with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting April 14, 2026.
MYSTERY IN PARIS is an anthology of seven French telefilms that are completely unrelated in cast and content, but share a number of common features. All aired abroad between 2011-18, running about 90 minutes. Here’s why they fit in a nice thematic package:
All involve crimes that occurred in the 1880s-90s, with non-police female protagonists thrust into perilous situations of self-preservation. Each must overcome varying degrees of sexism, including being dismissed – or worse – by chauvinistic gendarmes and authority figures. Each primarily occurs in ritzy and well-known settings. All of them are longer on intellectual sleuthing than overt action. The focus throughout is more on the crimes and the culture of the era than on romance. Scripts are all solid, and production values are off the charts for the splendor of locations and costumes. Though I’ll summarize them in the order provided by the streamer, it makes no difference when you pick any of the titles, since there’s no carryover. There’s similarly no need to binge.
MYSTERY AT THE MOULIN ROUGE, as the title suggests, is the most titillating, though don’t expect to see any naughty bits, beyond some slight anonymous background boobage in one scene that resembles a tamer version of an EYES WIDE SHUT. Diane (Emilie Dequenne) comes to Paris to find her missing sister, who’d been a dancer at the famous club. She works her way into the lineup to learn why sis disappeared months earlier. Several of the dancers had been killed, and the hope is that sis wasn’t one of them. One might think Jack the Ripper may have crossed the Channel to ply his perversity.
THE EIFFEL TOWER MYSTERY not only gives us a heroine framed for murder (Marie Denarnaud as Louise, the daughter of one of the tower’s designers), but a script awash in the backlash and controversy about the structure in its early stages, putting it in the realm of historical fiction. The more sordid fact-based plot thread is how blithely women could be locked away in an asylum by disapproving men, and how horribly they were treated within those prison-like walls. This one also benefits from the gravitas of Patrick Deschamps in a supporting role. He’s appeared in much of the French fare I’ve reviewed, most notably as the leading detective’s distinguished father throughout the “In Tandem” series.
MYSTERY AT THE OPERA revolves around an aging diva (Mathilda May) and her up-and-coming daughter as they prepare for a major production of Carmen. Faustine (Pauline Cheviller), the daughter, is framed for the murder of one of the crew. This one comes closer to a “Real Housewives of… Somewhere or Other” course of events, with plenty of singing. Your desire, or lack thereof, for hearing operatic performance snippets will be a significant factor in the enjoyment you’ll derive. Both lead actresses excel in their roles, though their singing is dubbed.
MYSTERY AT THE PLACE VEDOME dives deep into culture and politics. Marilou Berry stars as Jeanne – the only female in the famous Ritz Hotel’s kitchen, working under probably the world’s first superstar chef, Auguste Escoffier (Charlie Dupont), and struggling against the sexism of her colleagues – even those she outranks. She gets unwillingly roped into an assassination plot planned for a huge international diplomatic event the hotel is hosting. The inclusion of Escoffier and Cesar Ritz – whose name became the eponym for elegance – and political factions and machinations reflective of the era, gives this one extra heft, while also serving up arguably the most exciting climax of the lot.
MYSTERY AT THE LOUVRE MUSEUM starts with a jewel heist gone wrong, leading to the fatal shooting of alleged master thief, Mercure, who’d become notorious for major burglaries, leaving a calling card at each scene. Fast-forward a couple of years and we meet the beautiful, mysterious Constance (Alice Taglioni), who starts planning another run at the necklace sought in the earlier attempt. It’s on exhibit for a limited time at … well, the title answers that one. This may be my favorite among the septet for its twisty plot, Taglioni’s performance, and the odious nature of the cold-blooded cop in charge of preventing the anticipated theft.
Another contender for top rating is MYSTERE A LA SORBONNE. Melanie Bernier stars as Victoire – the first female law student admitted to France’s most prestigious university. She’s loudly booed by all the other students as soon as she enters the first lecture hall, and isn’t treated much better by the faculty or staff. When a professor is murdered, she was seen at the wrong place at the wrong time and hustled off to the hoosegow. One professor reluctantly agrees to defend her, and coerces a couple of the aspiring scholars to assist. This one really showcases the bitter, entrenched opposition faced by women entering the professions, and coincides with the real-life timeline for the beginnings of their breakthrough. Besides its sociology, the plot and action pick up somewhat more than in the others, with several key twists as it unfolds.
Finally, there’s MYSTERE A ELYSEE, centered around a plot to assassinate the President of France at a major speech, due to a raging political infighting over how to deal with Germany regarding the oft-disputed Alsace-Lorraine region situated on the shared border. It opens with the intended moment for the kill in front of the presidential palace, then goes back four days to show the web of intrigue leading up to it. Clementine Celarie stars as Madeleine, the mother of Augustin (Gilbert Melki), a top aide to Le Prez. She hears something she shouldn’t have and runs around trying to prevent the killing, variably finding few who believe her, throughout a pin-ball course of careening among who to trust, and who would rather kill her to assure the success of the coup d’etat. This one spreads the suspense among many players, building to one of the more exciting climaxes.
Enjoy them at your leisure. There’s not a lemon in the lot.
MYSTERY IN PARIS, mostly in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting April 7, 2026.
