Tag: Mark Glass

“Jana, Marked for Life” – TV Series Review

A scene from the Swedish TV crime series “Jana, Marked for Life.” Courtesy of ViaPlay

This Swedish procedural miniseries ”Jana, Marked for Life” is well-written in terms of plot suspense, but falls short in developing personalities of the principals that inspire engagement with them. Jana (Madeleine Martin) is the daughter of a wealthy, respected judge who is about to retire. At a posh party in His Honor’s honor, Jana spoils daddy’s evening by announcing that she’s starting work as a local prosecuting attorney, rather than accept the prestigious job he’d arranged for her with a leading firm in Stockholm.

Day one puts her on a murder case with detective Peer (August Wittgenstein), with whom she has a history. She also must work with a female officer, Mia (Moa Gammel), who resents the hell out of this privileged lass walking into a better job than hers, and immediately asserting her own ideas about the case too vigorously. Jana has more knowledge about the victim than she acknowledges to the others, and is also haunted by dreams and flashbacks to a troubled youth that she doesn’t actually remember. Apparently, she was adopted after a tragic early life with all conscious memory blotted out. She also has inexplicable fighting skills that show up in an emergency.

The murder victim was about to blow the whistle on a major criminal ring when he was whacked by someone looking like a small, lithe ninja. Not exactly standard for Nordic criminals. Through six hour-long episodes, we gradually learn more about Jana’s backstory and how it may relate to the current crime she’s working. Those efforts are hampered by issues with her junkie kid sister Jojo (Sigrid Johnson); her father and former shrink withholding information about those nagging origins; and Jana’s refusal to share what she’s learning with the cops like a proper team player would. That’s rather annoying, especially when she repeatedly puts herself in positions of danger without any notice to the others. Nor does she make things easier for her troubled sibling by explaining that her bitchiness is job and history-related, not disapproval of Jojo, who takes Jana’s aloofness personally.

As the good guys stumble their way through the maze of possible crimes and perps, old and current, Jana’s chosen secrecy and autonomy wear thin. Most such dramas thrive on the likability and/or empathy factor of their protagonist(s). Jana is as off-putting to the viewers as to the other players in her family and work circles. She’s smart and usually correct in her suspicions, but frustratingly closed off in how she pursues the essential answers.

The season ends in a complete package without significant cliffhangers, though it does leave some residue for a second season. Since it originally aired in 2024, that remains as a distinct possibility. If so, perhaps Jana will have purged enough of her devils to play more nicely with others on the next case. That would make an upgrade for them and the viewers.

“Jana, Marked for Life,” mostly in Swedish with English subtitles, streams on ViaPlay starting May 9, 2025.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

“Deadly Tropics: Season 3” – TV review

Sonia Rolland in French crime series “Deadly Tropics.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

Regular readers know I’ve reviewed dozens of streaming TV series from a number of European countries over the past few years. The light-hearted cop show, “Deadly Tropics (Tropiques Criminels)”, based in an idyllic (other than the requisite murders and assorted felonies) Caribbean locale has been one of my favorites. That made the 18-month gap between the domestic release of the first two seasons and this next one seem even longer.

To bring everyone up to speed, here are the links to those reviews on We Are Movie Geeks 

Season 1

“Deadly Tropics” (“Tropiques Criminels”) – TV Series

Season 2

“Deadly Tropics” Season 2 – TV Series Review

Although each of these eight episodes features a different crime, it’s advisable to watch the series in order, due to evolving relationships among the regulars, and a few recurrent plot-lines and supporting players that are better appreciated if one knows the context.

Season 3 picks up shortly after the last one. Gaelle (Beatrice de la Boulaye) is about to be married, but only via a chaotic course, as one would expect from her. Melissa (Sonia Rolland) has a number of romantic and family sidebars, as well. As before, the early episodes contain more humor in the mix; forensics maven Phil (Valentin Papoudof) gets even ditsier than before as a reliable source of comic relief. The later tales shift the balance more to the dramatic side; one even ventures into the supernatural realm.

Fans of other imports from MHz Choice will also enjoy seeing Francis Perrin, the eponymous star of the charming French mystery series “Mongeville” in a small, yet important, role in the first episode.

The sharply different personalities of the two leads continue to energize the series and complement each other in the tradition of Riggs and Murtaugh, Cagney and Lacey and many other cop-buddy pairings. Melissa’s default setting is serious and laser-focused; Gaelle remains irreverent but extremely effective, with method in her façade of madness. Episodes 6 and 8 are particularly dramatic and emotional in tenor, and to good effect. Some of the season’s crimes involve broad social issues like sexism in the military, the growing dangers of designer drugs, and the far-reaching consequences of spousal abuse.

As before, the season ends (thankfully) without cliffhangers but with several story arcs open for further development in Season 4, which aired abroad earlier this year, and should be destined to also cross the Atlantic. I just hope the wait won’t be as long for that next round of adventures with this delightful set of characters in their picturesque setting.

“Deadly Tropics (Tropiques Criminels): Season 3,” mostly in French with English subtitles, streams on MHz Choice starting Tuesday, Nov. 21.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Béatrice de la Boulaye and Sonia Rolland in “Deadly Tropics”

“Varg Veum” – TV series review

Trond Espen Seim stars as the title character in the Norwegian detective series “Varg Veum,” streaming on Topic. Courtesy of MHz Choice.

“Varg Veum” is the eponymous title of this Norwegian crime series. The star (Trond Espen Seim) is a former social worker turned private detective due to frustration with the failings of public service agencies. More accurately, he was fired for beating up a drug dealer who was pushing product to kids he was trying to protect. In classic genre style, Varg is a scruffy fellow with a marginal income trying to do some meaningful good for people and the community between times he has to tail cheating spouses to keep his business afloat. The Norwegian series aired from 2007 – 2012 and must have been popular in its homeland, since Seim returned as the same character in about a dozen movie incarnations filmed during and for several years after its run. Topic is releasing its six-episode first season for streaming here.

This is one to enjoy without having to binge, since each episode is a new case. It’s advisable to see them in order, since progressive relationships between Varg and the cops – mainly detective Hamre (Bjorn Floberg) – and another acquired colleague also follow tradition as trust and respect among them grow, albeit rather slowly. That and a few other sources provide bits of comic relief in the mostly serious proceedings. Though less violent than our typical domestic fare, Varg does tend to recklessly put himself in danger more than one with his limited fighting skills should attempt. Unconsciousness is no stranger to Varg, though it’s somewhat offset by the occasional upswing in his romantic life.

The stories are diverse and generally well-written, maintaining suspense and tension in most episodes. Industrial pollution, financial and political corruption, robberies, murders and infidelities are all fodder for these scripts. One admirable aspect of the series is the moral complexity of its tales. Good guys and bad guys aren’t just cookie-cutter types. Exploration of characters’ characters makes these play out with a richer texture than many, with a number of highly intense dramatic moments. If you also find Episode 5 to be relatively weak, fear not. Episode 6 was the strongest.

Varg Veum winds up being a character most fans of crime fiction should find a satisfactory repository of empathy. If so, there are six more episodes in Season 2, and all those movies floating around somewhere.

“Varg Veum: Season One,” in Norwegian with English subtitles begins on Topic on Nov. 9, 2023, with two episodes streaming on Topic on that date and with two more released each week thereafter.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

“Pagan Peak: Season 3” – TV Review

A scene from Episode 1 of German/Austrian crime drama “Pagan Peak: Season 3.” Courtesy of Topic.

The German/Austrian crime drama “Pagan Peak” is back for its third and final season, but it is fairly essential to understanding this final round to have seen the first two seasons, due to the substantial carryover of main characters and key issues shaping their current actions and attitudes. To help out, here is the link to my earlier review of “Pagan Peak”:

“Pagan Peak,” Season 2 – TV series review

Once you read the review (or watch Seasons 1 and 2), you’ll be caught up. Now that you’re up to speed, be prepared for a radical tone shift from a suspenseful dark procedural into something much creepier. More Lovecraft and Lynch (that’s David, not Jane) than Dalgleish or Sherlock in this final season.

The drastic change caused me to check the creators’ credits. Sure enough there was a huge behind-the-cameras overhaul with completely new writers, directors, cinematographer, and composer, among others. The contrast is jarring. The prior episodes seemed a bit slow. This year’s action unfolds at a glacial pace, replete with a surfeit of foggy exteriors and long contemplative stares into the void.

There’s a new serial killer, again with border-spanning elements to the crimes, requiring the joint efforts of cops from both countries. Ellie (Julia Jentsch) and Gedeon (Nicholas Ofczarek) are back but far from working in tandem. She believes he hid evidence from the previous murder of their colleague, Yela Franziska von Harsdorf), and tries to prove his complicity with her usual degree of determination, even while working tenuously with him on the new cases. Both lead detectives are viewed as damaged goods by their superiors, with Gedeon’s declining health also looming large.

One of the returning baddies is a family of wealthy local developers, trying to build luxury homes in a conservation area over the protests of environmentalists. They may also be involved in this new round of killings, many of which have particularly gory, ritualistic methods that may be due to a resurgent cult of Satanists. And for kickers, a neo-Nazi and child molester of yore add even more suspects and subplots to the package. It seems as if the new writers had stacks of rejected pilot scripts for a variety of productions and agreed to toss all of them into this one, leaving it to the editors to merge them coherently.

That adds up to more territory than eight hour-long episodes should have to cover, especially while spending so much time on maintaining mystical, menacing mood rather than plot advancement. Beyond that, the tale unfolds in a non-linear format, including many scenes that could be real, memories or hallucinations without much distinction among those possibilities. Bingeing is recommended as an aid to retaining who’s who, who did what, and why they did it. Far more concentration is required for Season Three than the first two. The good news is that viewers get closure on all matters with nothing of import dangling that calls for more episodes or a telefilm.

“Pagan Peak: Season 3,” mostly in German with English subtitles, streams on Topic starting Thursday, Oct. 26.

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars

BAD CITY – Review

Hitoshi Ozawa (center, white hair) as Torada, in BAD CITY. Courtesy of WellGoUSA

The subtitled Japanese crime flick, BAD CITY, delivers the goods on two essential counts – an atypically complex plot with a handful of switches and double-crosses, building to an adrenaline-satisfying series of hard-nosed fight sequences. This is the second feature from director Kensuke Sonomora, after nearly 20 years of steady stunt work, including many gigs as stunt coordinator or action director. Experience shows, as this film seems more cohesive and focused than his first crime drama, HYDRA, while still dishing out the mayhem that motivates most potential viewers.

Disgraced police captain Torada (Hitoshi Ozawa) is granted parole by an idealistic prosecutor to go after the city’s most powerful tycoon/criminal, Gojo (Lily Franky), who’d just been undeservedly acquitted on racketeering charges. Gojo’s tentacles reach high into every branch of government and law enforcement, making regular attempts to nail him futile. So Torada is put in charge of an off-the-books force of a few trusted detectives to finish the job. The plot centers around a major construction project Goro is pushing that will displace many citizens in favor of a sprawling resort casino. That involves one or more Yakuza families and the local branch of the Korean Mafia.

It takes some concentration to follow the story, as many players turn out differently than they begin, or seem. There are several fights scattered through the first 80 minutes, with much greater time allotted to character and plot development. Ozawa anchors the proceedings with the world-weary gravitas of a Takeshi Kitano; or more familiarly for most U.S. audiences, an unsmiling 60-ish Gene Hackman or Brian Dennehy. His landing in jail for what some believe was a frame-up, also landed him afoul of the Koreans, since he supposedly killed the son of the dragon lady running that organization.

But all of that is prelude to Sonomora’s payoff purpose. The last 25 minutes are filled with gritty, fast-paced battles among the various factions in the tangle of conflicts. As in HYDRA, there are few guns. The damage is inflicted mostly with fists, baseball bats and occasional blades. Stunt performances are stunning in the mass encounters, as well as in a bunch of exciting one-on-ones. No wire-work or CGI enhancements. Minimizing the background music highlights the audio of every strike and all the times people are hurled against a floor or wall. That element is comparable to the impressive stunt fighting I’ve relished in many recent Korean action flicks.

When you’re looking for relatively realistic action (nobody could *really* take that many punches and keep going), with a bit more of a mental component than average, this one’s a solid choice.

BAD CITY, in Japanese with English subtitles, is available digitally on-demand starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray starting on Sept. 19.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

THE ISLAND – Review

Michael Jai White in the action-film THE ISLAND. Courtesy of Saban Films

To be honest, Michael Jai White headlines a lot of action flicks that many would consider beneath their taste level. But he’s really good at these things and always fun to watch when you’re in the mood for a good guy kicking a bunch of bad guy butts in a vehicle that allows your higher cerebral functions to relax and enjoy some time off from their usual duties. THE ISLAND is another from his formulaic wheelhouse. Among the many movies and TV series that have borne this title before, this one will rank as the most… recent.

White plays an L.A. cop who grew up on a tropical island. When he learns that his brother was killed, he returns to find the one what done done him in. After he’d left to graze in a bigger pasture, the island had been taken over by a psycho mega-thug (Edoardo Costa), running a full range of illicit businesses that gave jobs to many but put all in fear of their lives, and rendered the police hopelessly over-matched. Costa quickly establishes shockingly sadistic methods for ruling his empire, never hesitating to dispatch any underlings who let him down.

So anyone who has seen any of these action opuses (or is it “opi”?) knows what must happen from there. Some good people will be threatened and/or killed en route to White’s vanquishing the Evil among them as he, Scott Adkins, Mark Dacascos, Olivier Gruner, Dolph Lundgren, et. al. have done so many times before. What matters is that White reliably delivers what his fans expect.

The action sequences are frequent and gritty, with a slightly above average gore component, as these things go. The tropical setting is another asset, providing a lovely backdrop for the decidedly UN-lovely things that occur thereupon. Plus a sidebar of made-up exotic local culture in this made-up exotic locale.

Now that you know what you’re getting, skip it or adjust your brain downwards for this 90-minute piece of guilty-pleasure viewing.

THE ISLAND opens Friday, July 21, in theaters and is available on demand and on digital.  

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

NIGHT OF THE ASSASSIN – Review

Shin-Hyun Joon stars as Inan, in the South Korean action film NIGHT OF THE ASSASSIN. Courtesy of WellGoUSA

South Korea has been exporting a lot of high-octane action flicks in the past several years. They tend to emphasize hard-hitting stunts and gritty, dynamic fight choreography, largely eschewing the enhancements (or detriments) of CGI and fanciful wire work. That’s been consistently true for both period pieces and contemporary crime fare. This title, NIGHTOF THE ASSASSIN, led me to expect another dose of slam-bang action. The reality turned out to be more contemplative for much of its running time, before wowing viewers with the inevitable climactic battles in grand style.

In this pre-gun era costume drama, Shin-Hyun Joon stars as Inan who is a rural region’s top assassin – all business, efficient, no ideology or emotions. The film opens with his collapsing after another swift success, and learning that he has a life-threatening heart defect which can only possibly be treated with an extremely rare herb. His cardiac condition leaves him so fragile that he not only must quit his career, but even avoid vigorous sex. He wanders to a remote village, trying to hide his identity and live a peaceful life. He takes a menial restaurant job working for a widow (Lee Jung-Min) and the orphaned lad she’d adopted. Unfortunately, a large vicious gang brazenly rules the area, enabled by police and local officials who give them free rein to reign due to bribery and/or fear.

As must be the case in such movies, though Inan tries to remain anonymous, circumstances force him to respond to an imminent threat with his old skills. But it comes at a cost, since his heart keeps letting him down in key moments. The early going is slower, with more levity than expected, before the rest of the plot kicks it up several notches, with a slew of baddies presenting various types of menace for an exciting buildup to the epic final act. The fights are skillfully designed and performed in a package that’s more athletic than gory.

Inan’s flat affect serves well for establishing the persona of an emotional outsider with an evolving, underlying noble concern for the oppressed villagers around him. He’s got a code honor that means everything, including finishing whatever he promises to start. At any cost. The rest of the cast competently fill standard character slots on both sides of the law and economy. Writer/director Jeong- Deok Kwak only teases the action to come for quite a while before cranking out a bunch of genre-satisfying sequences, mostly wielding swords and knives skillfully. Not the start-to-finish thrill ride of many others, but a solid example of the first-rate camera and stunt talents finding steady employment in Korea.

NIGHT OF THE ASSASSIN (aka THE ASSASSIN), in Korean with English subtitles, is available streaming starting Friday, July 21, on Hi-YAH! and will be available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray starting on Aug. 8.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Almost Paradise: Season 2” – TV Series Review

(L to R) Art Acuña, Christian Kane, and Samantha Richelle star in “Almost Paradise.” Courtesy of Amazon/FreeVee

Christian Kane has played essentially the same character in four delightful light crime series. In “Leverage” and its successor, “Leverage: Redemption,” he was Elliot. In “The Librarians,” he was Jake. In this incarnation, “Almost Paradise: Season 2,” he’s Alex. All have some sort of military or intelligence background to prepare them for the current undertakings. Each time Kane’s character is smarter than he looks, does his thing with a grim sense of humor, and is tougher than all he must oppose. Underneath the surface of surly, he’s noble, loyal to his colleagues, and hell-bent on helping whoever needs it. He’s always reluctant to use violence but in just about every episode of each, he has to. And does it well. 180 times, collectively. Yet even after all those cloned outings, Kane’s character is still fun to watch.

Dean Devlin was the creator and/or producer of all four series. The two make a dynamic duo without infringing on superhero turf. In both generations of “Leverage,” the crew conned rich, slimy assholes who’d bilked the helpless, undoing the harm the crooks inflicted. “The Librarians” was sci fi-fantasy, grounded on Earth, with a mission to protect civilization from dangerous supernatural forces. This offering places Kane more front and center than when he was part of a team.

Kane plays an ex-DEA agent who tried retiring to a peaceful life in the Philippines but winds up having to help the local cops with more crime and threats than a small resort town would have anywhere but on TV. “Season 2” brings ten more 45-minute episodes, maintaining all the qualities that made the first successful. Scripts consistently deliver challenging crime scenarios with bits of warmth and levity, generally non-lethal action, and evolving relationships with several excellent supporting characters.

Kane’s character works, often reluctantly, with two police detectives. Samantha Richelle’s Kai is beautiful, tough and smart. Arthur Acuna looks like a bookish schoolteacher but his Ernesto is deceptively skilled in martial arts. A running theme is the department trying NOT to involve civilian Alex in their professional duties but eventually doing so, one way or another.

No pressure to binge, since each episode is a stand-alone case, though a couple of minor characters and plot threads recur. Best of all, the season ends in a way that will satisfy fans if the series ends there, while leaving the door wide open for a third round. In these days of surprising non-renewals throughout the broadcast and streaming industry, that type of season finale has become increasingly important to those who crave closure for any set of characters we’ve chosen to spend considerable time with. Like this bunch.

“Almost Paradise: Season 2” streams on Freevee/Amazon Prime as of Friday, July 21.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Makari” Season 2 – TV Series Review

(L-R) Ester Pantano as Suleima, Claudio Gioe as Saverio and Domenico Centamore as Peppe, in Italian crime TV series “Makari.” Courtesy of MHzChoice

“Makari” Season 2 brings three more cozy light crime dramedies from this Italian TV series. It’s named after a Sicilian coastal village (Macari) that provides the lovely setting for a season of three mysteries in which our set of amateurs become involved. The star is Saverio (Claudio Gioe), a fortyish writer who’s lost his high-profile political press-agent gig due to an even higher-profile screw-up. Tail between his legs and nearly broke, he returns to the village where his father still owns a run-down vacation home, and tries to start a new life in safe, familiar environs.

He’s greeted by old pal Peppe (Domenico Centamore) – a lovable, overly chatty lug who variably helps and annoys our putative hero as he settles in. Saverio’s next acquisition is a girlfriend. He meets a charming, bright waitress, Suleima (Ester Pantano), interrupting her architecture studies to earn money during the town’s tourist-laden summer, and gradually wins her over.

Saverio is no action figure, nor does he go out of his way to get involved in these cases When he does, it’s to be helpful to others, and possibly provide material for the novels he’d meant to write before the call of journalism and politics changed that game plan. His sleuthing is mainly dependent on his friendly, approachable demeanor and intellect. Suleima is helpful, albeit largely from a distance. Peppe is the more active cohort, though his big, friendly puppy nature tends to provide more comic relief than useful support.

The tenor is akin to Terence Hill’s “Don Matteo,” or more familiar British series like “Father Brown” and “Doc Martin,” in the way it’s fleshed out by casts of locals we get comfortable with. Gioe’s Saverio is quite likeable. Pantano’s Suleima is a real gem, looking just beautiful enough to realistically fit the rest of the premise while showing intellect, independence and street smarts to make her an engaging character. Centamore’s Peppe is sort of a cross between Italy’s late, great Bud Spencer, and Zorro’s buffoonish Sergeant Garcia.

Season 2 picks up shortly after the events of the first quartet. Saverio has been back in his eponymous hometown for about a year and isn’t thriving financially. His last book didn’t sell. The publisher is delaying the release of the novel he’s trying to finish, forcing him to accept a gig writing and hosting travel pieces for the web. He needs the paycheck, and raising his profile via the exposure should also boost book sales whenever he finally finishes the one he’s been blocked on for months.

This season again mixes comedy (largely surrounding Peppe) and romance with the easygoing mysteries. Saverio’s relationship with Suleima is strained by geographic distance, exacerbated by how closely and constantly she works with her boss, Teodoro (Andrea Bosca), who seems like a guy few women could resist. He’s handsome, rich, smart and almost unbelievably altruistic. He envisions creating a huge multi-purpose facility that could greatly benefit Sicily’s economy and culture; all meant for the good of the regular people, not the fat cats. Since Saverio is at an all-time career low, his insecurities flourish.

His first assignment is an archaeological dig of great import, overseen by a professor widely considered at the top of the field (no Indiana Jones to compete with in this version of the world). On the eve of announcing whether newly-unearthed stones come from the ruins of an ancient theater scholars have been seeking for centuries, he’s killed. Saverio lands in another sleuthing challenge for himself and Peppe. This death at least brings the unforeseen upside of giving his videos far more hits than expected.

Episode 2 takes him to a tourism village hosting a conference aimed at reducing Mafia influence in Sicily. Two of its leading advocates are valued former colleagues. When one is found dead, Saverio first has to convince the cops that it was murder, rather than the work-avoiding suicide they initially assumed. Were Mafiosi trying to squelch their critics? Or were there other players and motives to consider? The third involves a death that looks accidental, but must be otherwise, or we wouldn’t have much of a story. This one poses a threat to Teodoro and Suleima’s grand project. Again, Saverio has to convince the police not to settle for easy answers, and spearhead the path to solution.

This round is one crime shorter, offering three 110-minute episodes, with less sex and violence than our usual prime-time fare. It ends without cliffhangers, leaving the protagonists in suitable places if it proves to be the end, without precluding a third season. Since these aired in 2022, that remains possible, and would certainly be welcome.

“Makari” Season 2, mostly in Italian with English subtitles, begins streaming on MHzChoice on Tuesday, July 18.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Captain Marleau” Season 4 – TV Series Review

Corinne Masiero in “Captain Marleau” on MHz Choice

One of the perks of increased time at home for the past few years has been discovering a slew of police/detective TV series dramas from about ten European countries. Their protagonists tend to be less action-oriented and more cerebral/intuitive than ours. Most also have some sort of family baggage or tragic backstory, making them moodier and more complex.

But in “Captain Marleau” (“Capitain Marleau”), we get a French super-cop who breaks the mold in a highly entertaining manner. Corinne Masiero’s eponymous troubleshooting Inspector Marleau has been solving knotty crimes for several years on French TV. Season 4 of her career is about to be released in the U.S. and more of her weird brilliance is just fine with me.

Tall, lanky and looking more like a forest-dwelling hobo than a cop, Marleau thrusts herself into each crime scene with the caustic wit of Dr. House, and the annoying persistence (or persistent annoyance) of Lt. Columbo. But she’s always using her abrasive in-your-face approach quite strategically. Each episode is self-contained, so it didn’t matter that I hadn’t started with the series’ 2014 debut. Those I first watched were from 2017 and 2019, as one could tell from various references and asides mentioning recent real-world events. This new quartet aired in 2022.

Each show has Marleau deployed to different villages, allowing her to irritate new sets of colleagues and parties of interest, while unraveling a mare’s nest of suspects and motives in solving their murder du jour. Though starting at the beginning is desirable, opening with these four new episodes would pose no continuity problems. The only differences from before are that her hair is grayer, and their running time is somewhat longer at around 110 minutes.

The first of these opens with a poisoned hairdresser connected to a local theater company with far more tangles among them than in all of the hairdos she’d coiffed. Their current production is “Othello,” which the script cleverly intertwines with the offstage murder. The second case gives up more of what makes Marleau tick, as she fends off department-ordered time with a shrink, ducking the doc’s overtures while nailing another killer. The third mixes financial and familial motives, both current and entailing echoes of old wounds, among the principals. The fourth stems from the actual killing of an officer in the middle of a town’s annual meticulously costumed and staged reenactment of a Napoleonic era battle, when a dueling pistol’s blank charge was given the old switcheroo with live ammo.

Though some of these might seem to have been stretched a bit to fill their time slots, the scripts still consistently deliver first-rate mixes of suspense and humor. Beyond that, it’s Masiero’s personality that makes this series stand out from the rest. The shows are generally low on overt violence and gore, and joyfully spiced up by her eccentricities. Masiero and the show have been nominated for several awards in France. She created a refreshingly engaging character who should thrive with genre fans on this side of the Atlantic as well.

“Captain Marleau” Season 4, mostly in French with English subtitles, is available streaming on July 11 on MHzChoice.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars