Category: TV Review

“Lakeside Murders” (Koskinen) – TV Series Review

The original title of this Finnish police procedural series, “Koskinen”, is the name of the lead detective and star, Eero Aho. The US title “Lakeside Murders” highlights the city he serves, Tampere, which is located between two lakes, providing plenty of lovely scenery, even in a snow-covered season. The ten 45-minute episodes are five two-part crimes for Koskinen and his Violent Crimes squad to solve within several wintry months. All are based on a series of novels by Seppo Jokinen.

The first centers on a cyberterrorist attack on the whole city, starting with a hack of its computerized tram system. The second features a serial killer preying on young women (Don’t they all? Well, at least the ones in movie and TV thrillers). The third starts with a jewelry store heist that turns fatal, but yields screen time to an unlikely series of heart attacks killing patients in a convalescent center. Koskinen’s former colleague Roine (Pertti Sveholm) is living there, and starts raising suspicions. But they’re the only ones who are open to the idea, and must figure it out on their own.

The fourth revolves around drug thefts from pharmacies and a trio of wheelchair-bound residents of a facility. It offers a unique look at the disabled, including the fact that they can be just as loutish as their fully-mobile counterparts. The last starts with a group of teens committing various crimes, leading to drug dealing as the unifying link among them. They work for a truly dangerous boss, whose capacity for violence was learned on battlefields. 

As such programs go, this one is relatively dry. The cast is more plain-looking than the attractive stars we choose for our prime-time fare. There’s not a lot of emotional range required for any of the cops. Little levity or banter. Most of the emotion comes from Koskinen’s wife and son who resent the hell out of his preoccupation with his work. Those two grow really annoying. The most likable character might be Roine – a rotund, bearded old-timer who has more common sense and insight than Koskinen’s younger colleagues and mostly persnickety superiors.

The series is quite somber in tone, with little violence until the climactic confrontations in each duo. Some romantic subplots, but no nudity. The four episodes dealing with the elderly and disabled add an extra shot of social relevance to the mysteries. One switches formats by letting us know who the perp is long before the cops figure it out – like a “Columbo” episode. Besides his wife’s nagging, Koskinen must deal with recurring nightmares about a traumatic incident, and his loathing of paperwork that is heaped upon him after a midseason promotion. The dude is hard-wired for the field, not the office.

Caution – This season ends with a major cliffhanger. Normally, I’d resent this, as our regular readers know. But the show has already aired in Finland for four seasons, and I don’t expect a long wait for #2 to stream here.   

“Lakeside Murders”, in Finnish with subtitles, begins streaming on MHz Choice on March 17, 2026.

“Cassandre: Season Six” – TV Series Review

GWENDOLINE HAMON
ALEXANDRE VARGA

Fast upon the heels of the late January streaming release of “Cassandre: Season 5” (review), here are another quartet of light crime dramas from French TV for our eponymous homicide cop and her squad to solve in 90 minutes, apiece, comprising Season 6.

Most of what I’ve written before still applies to cast and tone. This season might tip the scales somewhat more towards individual character arcs in proportion to the crimes du jour. The romance between Cassandre’s (Gwendoline Hamon) son Jules (Luca Malinowski) and Pascal’s (Alexandre Varga) newly-discovered daughter, Lili (Fanny Ami), becomes a source of drama, along with the lighter sidebar of Pascal’s struggle to figure out how to be a good papa on such short notice to a strong-willed adult. And, of course, the will-they/won’t-they tease between the two stars continues, prolonged mostly by Cassandre’s waffling, and some bits of bad timing.

The other two members of the squad – Nicky (Jessy Salomee Ugolin) and Jean-Paul (Dominique Pinon) also have bigger developments in their off-duty lives. Pinon gets some particularly poignant moments in a couple of episodes, and nails them like the old pro that he is. Even the new prosecutor (Soren Prevost) who oversees their efforts with the genre-standard dose of fussiness shows some other sides to his mean-boss persona.

Major Kerouac (Emmanuelle Bougerol) who holds down the fort at the station also proves she may become as valuable in support as her predecessor. (Digression – I’ve been wondering why a major is subordinate to the captains and lieutenants of the detective squad. In French police hierarchy, a major is the highest ranking non-com, running the admin side – akin to a master sergeant in our army. It’s a separate chain of command from the officers of the detective side.)

As to the murders, the first opens with a burned sailboat drifting along the coastline with the charred remains of a young woman, and the guy who should have been at the helm missing. The second swirls around the death of a jerk who sabotaged a local organic farm by secretly using pesticides that cost them their prized designation and most of their business. The third involves the latest star triathlete from a family of triathlete stars of both genders who is found strangled on his running path. This one goes particularly heavy on clashes and resentments among the rest of his relatives, with more emotional complexity than usual. Series co-creator Bruno Lecigne and two other credited writers, Thomas Griffet and Jean-Marc Taba, deserve special mention for this script. The last begins with a young woman coming home to find both parents fatally shot, with plenty of possibilities to explore as to which of them may have been the primary target, and for what reason(s).

As always, individual cases are closed and personal story arcs progress, leading to Season 7, which seems likely to also follow in short order. That and Season 8 already aired abroad, with #9 having just begun its first run. I’m in for the duration, and think most of you who watch it will feel the same.

“Cassandre: Season Six”, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice on March 3, 2026.

2 1/2 stars out of 4

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/cassandre/season:6

MURDER IN… Season 15 – TV Series Review

Barbara Cabrita Quentin Faure

The title “Murder in … (Season 15)” applies to a wraparound for an anthology of 90-minute French crime telefilms that all feature different casts and locales. The common thread is that each murder mystery occurs in a new picturesque locale with protagonist cops of varying types and combinations dispensing justice, after sorting through a handful, or more, of suspects and motives. The lovely, plentiful transition scenes are noteworthy for showing why each site “du jour” – mostly coastal – attracts vacationers. One almost wonders if the national tourism board underwrites the productions to spread the business around the country. 

These TV movies have been running for about 15 years as stand-alone dramas. There’s little repetition of characters, though some actors may recur in other roles. MHz Choice streams them here under the” Murder In… “ umbrella, mostly adding the city or town for each to the title. This release is eight cases, all of which work well for those who like intelligent procedurals with relatively little blood and gore. The array of plots is as diverse as the range of settings. And since none relate to each other, one can watch them in any order, and without any need to binge – unless you’re pushing to screen them all in time to write a review in time for the first of the eight weekly releases.

They open with a Dutch ex-soldier found dead in a strange pose on the French side of lush Caribbean isle of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten. That gets resolved after a brief jurisdictional turf dispute between the two counties that share dominion there. The one set in CATALONIA begins with the murder of an aging flamenco dancer who is trying to revive her career. In CONCARNEAU, the body of the owner of a fleet of vessels washes ashore in a wet suit, though no one knew why he would have been in the water. The surly lead cop here, Gabriel Riviere (Guillaume Arnault) is the least likeable of the season’s crime busters, seething with old grudges.

In PERIGORD, a woman is crowned queen of a territory that still maintains a mostly-symbolic royal lineage. Her reign lasts only a couple of hours before she’s assassinated. I suppose it counts as one, rather than just a garden-variety murder, since the title comes with a mansion on valuable property, a nice bundle of money, and a multi-generational tradition of supporting Chile’s Mapuche Indians as its main cause.   This struck me as one of the more interesting plots.  Next, we go to the BALAGNE area of Corsica with a citadel surrounding much of the town. That’s important since the stiff that triggers this case was ostentatiously hanged from the top of its high wall, overlooking the busy harbor. This one really delves deeply into the emotions of the principals, as the lead cop came there from Paris for her late husband’s memorial service before being roped into the investigation. Very solid, moving character drama.

AUDIERNEflirts with the supernatural. Local legend has it that ancient ruins are buried under the sea just off the coast, and that church bells can be heard by some as a warning of impending danger. Of course, that becomes a tourism lure, with dive cruises to find it, as other entrepreneurs do in many places with their local “haunted” houses. As far as I know, this is the only one that starred actors (Evelyne Bouix, Jeremy Banster) as protagonists who’d paired in those roles before. Twice.

REGULUS CAVES plied more familiar thematic territory, with a guy found on the cliffs by some ruins, fatally stabbed and posed just like a woman’s body had been 20 years earlier. That murder remained unsolved. Are they related? Anyone who’s ever seen even a handful of crime shows knows they must be. But the process of making the connection is still well played by perhaps my favorite pair of sleuths of this lot, played by Shemss Audat and Antoine Hamel.  

The last one is set in a tennis tournament taking place in Paris, on the Roland Garros’ clay courts that host the French Open. The most promising young woman in the competition is found dead on Court 13 just before matches are scheduled to begin, unearthing a web of rivalries and issues among the teen players, their parents and staff members. This one is noteworthy for the presence of former pro star Yannick Noah in a significant role. It also stars an engaging pair of cops played by Florent Peyre and Roxanne Roux, who might deserve their own series.

Bottom line – not a clunker in the bunch. Each offers pleasing visuals. All are typically restrained on displays of violence and number of shots fired, as in most European procedurals. Casting directors made fine choices all around, even including the dude I didn’t like. Genre fans will vary as to which they prefer, but none will be disappointed with these relaxing bits of mystery escapism.

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/murder-in

“Murder in… Season 15”, in French with subtitles, begins streaming on MHz Choice on February 24, with one release each week thereafter.

“TOM AND LOLA” – TV Series Review

Dounia Coesens (Lola Briand) Pierre-Yves Bon (Tom SERINO)

The French procedural series “Tom and Lola” leans into the dramedy realm, with lighthearted relationship subplots offsetting the murders they solve in less than an hour, each week of this twelve-episode first season. The eponymous police detectives, Tom (Pierre-Yves Bon) and Lola (Dounia Coesens) have a long, shared history before having gone their separate ways. Years later, he’s reassigned to her unit. Though she’s the boss, he’s equal in rank, making for ongoing amusing competitiveness between them over who will be in charge of what, and who will figure anything out first. Both actors are charming and appealing, individually and as a will-they/won’t-they duo. She epitomizes the wholesome girl-next-door image; he’s got the looks of one who has warmth to give, and lives up to that presentation, at home and with suspects. Tom and Lola were BFFs as kids, and still frequently act like playful siblings, providing comic relief from their stresses, and for our amusement. 

Since they’d been apart, she’s had two kids with two dads, neither of whom is paying the ordered support, leaving her on the verge of eviction. Tom moves in with his own surly daughter to share expenses while he desperately hopes to reunite with wife Cynthia (Blandine Papillon) who is divorcing him.  He’s a methodical neatnik. She’s more frazzled and disorganized. He follows rules and procedures; she’s more of a maverick. And Gaelle (Elodie Varlet), the attractive medical examiner who is Lola’s bestie, has the hots for Tom, and hopes his wife becomes his ex. All that sets up quite a swirl of character comedy. And, unlike several other series that blend large doses of family matters with the primary crime-solving, the screen time allotted to brattiness among their offspring, rather than body count is refreshingly low. Throughout the season, their combined teen and pre-teen trio cause far fewer problems than most of the police progeny in similar series.   

The murders occur in familiar plot territory, ranging from a variation on the locked-room mysteries, to a seemingly impossible fatal stabbing while the victim is flying solo in his hot-air balloon. One involves an old woman who believes her late husband is trying to kill her from beyond.  Setting the series in Toulon, on Southern France’s Mediterranean coastline provides several plots that begin with bodies turning up in those seemingly friendly waters for a variety of reasons. Coroner Gaelle – the most engaging character among the supporting cast – even gets her own featured episode (the 9th) when she’s accused of murdering a guy whose corpse is found in her morgue, though he was quite healthy when he strolled in. The 12th gives us a self-styled vigilante, who actually catches some baddies before problems arise.

The appeal of the cast and the visual pleasures of Toulon and its environs make these a set of nice breezy ways to spend an hour. The main plots are stand-alone, but should be viewed in order for the relationship progressions.  No cliff-hangers, though questions remain about what may be coming in Season Two. That dozen aired abroad late last year, and will surely follow this entertaining intro to our side of the Pond. You’ll like them! You’ll really like them! 

“Tom and Lola”, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice on February 10, 2026.

3 Out Of 4 Stars

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/tom-and-lola

“Cassandre: Season 5” – TV Series Review

Gwendoline HAMON – Alexandre VARGA – Dominique PINON – Jessy UGOLIN

In “Cassandre: Season 5”  All the regulars return for another quartet of 90-minute light crime dramas to be solved by our intrepid quintet of coppers in this ongoing French TV series. Review of Season 4 HERE.

The will- they/won’t-they love tease between Cassandre (Gwendoline Hamon) and Pascal (Alexandre Varga) continues on its rocky course. The other three principals in the homicide squad also have several romantic and personal developments claiming some screen time.  One particular new arrival complicates life for the stars, in a plot thread that might wear thin on some viewers.

The individual murder cases are generally up to snuff with their predecessors, though the second relies a bit heavily on coincidence, and the third might turn out less surprisingly than series fans would expect.  Series creator and main writer Bruno Lecigne splits the script creation duties with Mathieu Masmondet and a slew of others keeping a steady balance between the humor and crime-solving sides of the episodes.   

No need to binge, but watch them in order for relationship progressions. I’d also recommend spreading them out a bit. Screening them back-to-back for review purposes left me a bit irritated with the ratio of soapy subplots to more substantive elements, and impatient with the stars’ avoidance of many things that should have been said or done sooner. Or maybe that’s just symptomatic of my progressive curmudgeination (My word, but feel free to use it on any old crabs in your lives.).

Despite these freshly-picked nits the season was enjoyable enough to keep me ready for the rest of the series to cross the Atlantic. They’ve already aired three more seasons, with a few more episodes scheduled for later this year. I would have liked for Dominique Pinon’s Jean-Paul to be featured more, but there are plenty of episodes left for him to enhance with his unique charm.  

“Cassandre: Season Five”, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting on February 3.

3 Out Of 4 Stars

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/cassandre/season:5

“BROCELIANDE” – TV Series Review

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.

“Camilla Lackberg’s Erica” – TV Series Review


A Swedish author named Camilla Lackberg wrote five (thus far) novels about a mystery writer who solves crimes in the real world, similar to a Jessica Fletcher. All were made into telefilms in Sweden. This miniseries, “Camilla Lackberg’s Erica”,  is a set of three of them, adapted for French TV. They play out like a slightly more adult version of our Hallmark Mystery Movies, as I will explain.

As the first opens, Erica (Julie De Bona), a successful crime novelist living in Paris, returns to her picturesque seaside hometown to settle up estate matters from her recently-departed parents. Her married sister Anna (Maud Baecker) still lives there with her hubby and two cute kids. Erica hasn’t been back much, or remained as close with sis as they had been. Upon arrival, Erica runs into a former bestie. They make plans for dinner at the friend’s house that evening. Erica arrives only to find the woman lying in a tub of bloody water, wrists slit in what looks like a suicide. That’s what the cops, especially lead detective Patrick (Gregory Fitoussi) insist, resenting her proffered facts that point towards a staged murder. Guess who’s gonna be right, and who’s gonna come around to appreciating whom?

That episode introduces an assortment of family and romance issues dangled, for the next. As both of those fronts ramp up, the second case revolves around the killing of a young tourist, which leads to a family with three generations of zealots claiming, to varying degrees, the ability to heal, though the results haven’t been there.  In the third, a young girl is almost drowned and the Good Samaritan who tried to save her is beaten to death for his efforts. That leads to another set of dark complicated familial backstories.  In these latter two, Erica has been accepted by the cops as a useful ally/resource. All the plots by Lackberg and three other credited writers, are reasonably suspenseful.

Now for the Hallmark reference. The fictional seaside town is idyllic, shot in Hossegor and the Landes region of southwestern France. The views we get show why it thrives on tourism. Erica has the earnest intelligence and charm of Hallmark heroines like Candace Cameron Bure’s Aurora Teagarden. She’s longer on curiosity than common sense, plunging foolishly into situations of danger. The series spends more running time on romantic and family sidebars, and miscellaneous warm fuzzies than on the principal crimes, including the inevitable rocky romance with Patrick.  There’s one early scene with nudity, and a bit more action and depravity among the baddies than the typical Hallmark fare, but still pretty bloodless.

Each of the trio of mysteries is presented in two 45-minute episodes. See them in order, since those secondary story arcs are progressive. I was entertained enough to hope they adapt Lackberg’s other novels, as well.

2 1/2 Out Of 4 Stars

“Camilla Läckberg’s Erica” premieres in the U.S. and Canada on MHz Choice on January 20, 2026.

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/camilla-lackberg-s-erica

“Sophie Cross” – TV Series Review

WANJA MUES, Alexia Barlier, Thomas Jouannet

The French trio of procedural dramas, “Sophie Cross” (a/k/a “Crossroads”) starts with a tragedy. The 6-year-old son of a lovely couple, Sophie (Alexia Barlier) and Thomas (Thomas Jouannet) vanishes from their beachfront backyard. She’s a lawyer; he’s a police commissioner. Their frantic search is fruitless, and she can’t emotionally continue to handle her career.

Cut to three years later. Still no sign of the child, and Sophie has just finished training to become a police detective. Obviously, much of her motivation was to continue the search, despite the shrinking likelihood of ever finding him… or his body. Relationships with her new squad start off rocky. She’s not used to being a team player, and oversteps her rookie status – including ignoring direct orders to back off. But she’s really smart and intuitive, so over the course of the episodes, she earns her stripes.

The first case starts with a murdered doctor, followed by the identical slaying of a drug dealer. Are they connected? The second begins with a teacher killed in the school parking lot. He’s got an ex-wife and daughter who are bitter from his leaving them to shack up with one of his teenaged students. The student’s dad is far from thrilled about it, too, landing him in the suspect pool, with plenty of company. The third starts with a private eye fatally shot with the same gun that was used in a diamond robbery five years before. That casts doubt on whether the guy convicted of the earlier crime was really the perp. He was a known bad guy, but was he nailed on the right charge?

All three principal stories are satisfyingly complex and twisty for any murder mystery buff, with solid casting across the board. As usual, not a lot of shoot-em-up action, though there are a handful of intense moments. Each is presented in two 45-minute segments. The search for their son runs as a continuing secondary plot thread. It’s not necessary to binge, but the three stories should be viewed for the progressions to make sense. The episodes are helmed by directors Frank van Mechelen (Salamander) and Adeline Darraux (Tom & Lola).

I’ve mentioned that most of the European TV series I’ve covered feature more realistic levels of attractiveness than our domestic prime-time producers typically serve up. This one’s a bit of an exception. Barlier resembles Claire Danes, and Jouannet can hold his own against most of our series’ leading men.  The mysteries are all solved, but some personal subplots are left open, leading to a fervent hope for a Season 2.  

“Sophie Cross”, in French with subtitles, streams on MHz Choice on January 13, 2026.

3 Out Of 4 Stars

https://watch.mhzchoice.com/sophie-cross

“Backwoods Crime” – TV Series Review

A scene from the Austrian TV series “Backwoods Crime.” on MHz Choice. Courtesy of MHz Choice

Some time ago, I reviewed ten mostly-unrelated tele-films from Austria, streaming on MHz Choice under the umbrella of “Backwoods Crime.” The casts, plots and locales are all different, just sharing the common thread of murders in the boondocks being handled in an intelligent, modest-action manner by whichever cops are called upon. All were worthwhile, to varying degrees. Not a lemon in the lot.

“Der Schutzengel” is the first of nine now being released for streaming under that heading. This one opens 12 years before its main action, with young Martin (Michael Steinocher) having his marriage proposal deflected by his girlfriend. She says they’re too young, but doesn’t fully close that door. We learn she disappeared shortly thereafter, with her whereabouts still unknown.

A dozen years later, Martin returns to that town as a police officer, planning to move into his old house with his new squeeze. But he starts having flashbacks to the unfinished business of that dangling proposal. Those mainly consist of the eye candy we get from Martin having recorded his then-topless intended, expecting a yes to be preserved for posterity.

Martin’s first case involves the long-term housemaid of the local gentry found dead in the pond where she regularly swam. It looks like an accident, but that wouldn’t give us 90 minutes of story line, would it? Once they determine it was murder, despite any apparent motives,questions arise as to whether it relates to that earlier disappearance, which has been gnawing at Martin ever since.

The case is overseen by Detective Paul Werner (Franz Karl), who methodically and calmly unravels the mystery(ies). There’s nothing glamorous about the process, but Karl’s low-key performance, balancing the sleuthing with sensitivity, is a pleasure to watch. He’s apparently played cops before, but this character deserves more chances to shine. Give the dude a real series, folks. Then be sure to send it along for streaming on our side of the pond.

The consistency of the quality throughout these ten gives good reason to expect more of the same from the other forthcoming nine.

That’s my last review for 2025. Happy New Year, everyone!

“Backwoods Crime: Der Schutzengel,” in German with English subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

A scene from the Austrian TV series “Backwoods Crimes.” Courtesy of MHz Choice. Copyright: ORF/Mona Film/Tivoli Film/Helga Rader

“Good People” – TV Miniseries Review

A scene from the French/Belgian TV miniseries “Good People.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

“Good People” (“Des Gens Bien”) is a French/Belgian miniseries that plays out as a droll dramedy arising from a scam. The title denotes the fact that good people can do uncharacteristically bad things with what seem like good intentions. They can also rope in other good people who mean well.

We start with watching Tom (Lucas Meister) stage an auto accident in which he barely survives, though his wife, Linda (Berangere McNeese), is burned to death. We soon learn why he did it – extreme financial hardship. Then about halfway through the six episodes, we learn how. The motive is to cash in on a big life insurance policy but events, as they must, soon spin out of control.

One cop, Philippe (Michael Abiteboul), smells a rat, suspecting the accident wasn’t what it seemed. But his boss, Roger (veteran character actor Dominique Pinon), who knows Tom very well, refuses to let him investigate. Roger had lost his wife in a similar crash around that same stretch of roadway, and is completely closed to any other explanation. There’s also an obstacle of cross-border jurisdiction limiting Philippe’s efforts.

Linda and Tom owned a tanning parlor that was failing. They were on the verge of losing that, plus their home and cars, having exhausted the limits of their credit. The members of a local church kicked in a lot of money its members could little afford to help them stay afloat by updating the equipment but it wasn’t going to be enough. Thus was the plot hatched… with the best of intentions.

Among the things that go wrong, Philippe won’t give up his probing. Linda’s cousin Serge (Peter Van den Begin), a hulking thug recently paroled from prison, tumbles onto the plan and forces his way in for the payoff. Tom’s highly devout sister (Gwen Berrou), who’d convinced the churchgoers to help him and Linda, sees something she shouldn’t, and a high-profile person accidentally involved in the intrigue brings far more attention to the case than anyone could have expected.

The tenor set by the series’ trio of writers can best be described as a darkly comic, slowly unfolding farce. The cast is excellent all around, especially shining as the plan unravels and actions become more desperate. The plot includes a few surprises in what happens to whom. Van den Begin really dominates in his scenes presenting Serge’s stupidity and conscience-free brutality. Pinon, who has been such an asset as a regular in the recently-reviewed cop series “Cassandre, gets too little screen time in this one. There’s also a brief role for Corinne Masiero, who headlined one of my favorite light crime series from ANY country, “Captain Marleau.”

My frequent complaint about series that run longer than needed is mercifully NOT applicable to this one. The half-dozen 50-minute episodes befit the material. The series ends without major cliffhangers but does leave a few open questions. One source indicates they meant it to run three seasons, which may not occur, since this one aired in 2022. I’d welcome more if that happens, but am quite satisfied with where they ended this production.

“Good People” (originally “Des Gens Bien”), in French with English subtitles, begins streaming MHz Choice on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.

A scene from the French/Belgian TV miniseries “Good People.” Courtesy of MHz Choice