
The French TV mystery series “Broceliande” comes from a different perspective than most of what I’ve reviewed. The protagonist, Fanny (Nolwenn Leroy in the present; Rebecca Benhamour in the 2003 backstory scenes) has lived with anguish from being the only suspect in the 20-year-old disappearance of her lifelong bestie. Even worse, she has absolutely no memory of what happened on that fateful night. That woman is Laura Perrier, played in a merde-load of flashbacks by Eva Hatik. That name may evoke an association with ”Twin Peaks” baseline plot of “Who killed Laura Palmer?”, but this six-episode miniseries is nowhere near as weird as that was.
Fanny was the last among their group of fellow students to see Laura alive on that fateful night, and was widely assumed by everyone in their eponymous hometown to have killed her due to jealousy over a fellow student, Max (Arnaud Binard). He’d been dating Laura, but started having a thing for Fanny. The weight of that pervasive suspicion and animosity drove her to Paris, where she became an acclaimed plant geneticist. While receiving an award for her body of work, she gets a package from an unknown sender that takes her back to that night in the woods. The group had taken some drugs, leaving her no memory of what happened to her or Laura. No one knew if she was dead, or disappeared by choice, and Fanny couldn’t even be sure that she hadn’t killed her.
That menacing package brings Fanny back home for a rare visit, and in-your-face encounters with the lingering animosity from Laura’s still-unexplained departure. The rest of what happens would be impossible to summarize. Suffice it to say that the series serves up a ton of suspects and motives in an ever-shifting landscape of possibilities. Speaking of landscapes, the exterior locations and old buildings in France’s northwestern Brittany region, particularly the Broceliande Forest, provide the counterpoint of an idyllic setting. There’s some romance and sex (without showing any naughty bits); rather mild on the violence and gore, though there are a quite a few intense, suspenseful moments. We never see anyone killed; just brief views of the bodies afterwards.
Leroy is a singer/composer with relatively few acting credits. Based on this outing, she should be in demand for a lot more screen time. The cast is excellent all around. A trio of writers crafted and developed an impressive array of personality types and subplots to make the half-dozen 50-minute episodes go swiftly. Director Bruno Garcia moves things along at a good pace, although they might have done better with fewer redundant flashbacks. Due to the plot having more twists and turns than a figure skating competition, watching in a binge is recommended for keeping them in order.
https://watch.mhzchoice.com/broceliande
3 Out Of 4 Stars
“Broceliade”, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice beginning January 27, 2026.













