Tag: police procedural

“Tandem: Return to the Past” – TV Series Review

Astrid Veillon and Stéphane Blanca as Soler and Marchal (center), in the French TV series “Tandem: Return to the Past.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

“Tandem: Return to the Past” (“Retour vers le passe”) is a long-running light French police procedural that draws to an end after 85 episodes that aired from 2016-2024. I reviewed the first dozen or so long ago, and don’t feel I’ve missed a lot of character progression in the interim. The squad and families have remained largely intact. Ex-spouses and colleagues Lea (Astrid Veillon) and Paul (Stephane Blancafort), the lead cops in the series, are getting along well and are possibly on the verge of re-tying the old knot. Their son Thomas (Titouan Laporte) has also become an officer. Things are going smoothly all around.

Well, that changes dramatically when a floating body turns up in the nearby river, minus one arm. Lea and Paul are vacationing with the whole family in the boonies when they find what turns out to be the missing appendage – miles from the other remains – perched atop a cairn, imbuing it with even greater significance.

They soon learn that both parts of the stiff came from a woman who was Lea and Paul’s bestie at the academy 20 years earlier. She was believed to have committed suicide. But the way her remains were unearthed and arranged, followed by the corpse of one of their old instructors found lying in her open and recently-vacated grave, point to our protagonists being targeted to revisit the old case, since someone apparently has an ax to grind, and thinks they’re the ones to handle it. Or, they might even be getting targeted, in a more menacing sense of the word.

Events in this two-part episode move along at a good pace, with humor and a few subplots fleshing out the complete picture and moving all towards closure. The scenery is lovely, as are the old buildings featured in much of the action set in Montpellier and its surroundings in southeastern France. The cast is almost overrun with likable characters. Lea and Paul’s faces – especially when smiling – radiate warmth and sincerity that works well with colleagues, witnesses and suspects.

I’m sure all who saw the previous 84 will feel as if they’re saying goodbye to old friends. I’ll probably go back and catch the ones I’ve missed. (Since writing this, I already have watched most of them; good stuff continued in the interim.)

No more coming without spoilers. Suffice it to report that all wraps up in a satisfactory manner, with no cliffhangers or unanswered questions.

“Tandem: Return to the Past” (originally “Retour vers le passe”), in French with English subtitles, begins streaming MHz Choice on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.

Stephane BLANCAFORT (Paul Marchal), and Astrid VEILLON (Lea Soler), in the French TV series “In Tandem: Return to the Past.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

“Petra” Season 2 – TV Series Review

A scene from the Italian TV crime series “Petra” Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice

It’s been three years since I reviewed the earlier episodes of the entertaining Italian procedural, “Petra.” This round not only provides a pleasant return to its picturesque Genoa setting, but gives us an engaging evolution of the eponymous star. Here’s the usual refresher link: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/11/petra-tv-series-review/

We rejoin Petra and Antonio after they’ve been on a long (by US standards) vacation. She stayed home alone with her pet tarantula – as would, of course, be her wont. He indulged in the uncharacteristic luxury of a long cruise, meeting a woman he adored (Beatrice, played by Manuela Mandracchia). But middle-aged shlub that he is, Antonio felt under-qualified to keep it going on land, since she was one of the VERY wealthy elite of the community. The class gap seemed to bother him, far more than her.

A more significant change manifests in Petra. She’s finally unpacked all those cartons from her move and filled that drab apartment with nice furnishings. Yet there’s still no artwork adorning the institutional gray walls. Baby steps towards normalcy. She’s opened up her personality appreciably, smiling and joking more than before. She’s still relationship-averse, assuming anything serious would end badly… again.

This second season has more heart, with greater emphasis on character development and personal story arcs, romantic and otherwise. Besides the spider, Petra continues another idiosyncrasy that fans of our “Quincy” series will recognize – keeping a memento from the clues at the end of each solved case.

But now to address the main course – the murders to be solved. As before, each 90-minute episode addresses new crimes, so bingeing isn’t as important for following the proceedings. In the first, a guy she meets from the web for a “zipless… shall we say, boink” turns up the next day as the season’s first murder victim. She keeps that one-nighter a secret for a while, so she’ll be allowed to stay on the case. It turns out that he was married with two kids and a complex set of personal and business activities, leaving a whole lotta motives and possible murderers to sort through. The second episode begins with a homeless guy in an alley being killed by a bullet, then brutally kicked by skinheads. Are those loathsome louts the culprits? Or was there more in the man’s pre-destitution life that caused his demise, along with others that followed?

The third episode begins with the murder of a dude in a jester costume during the colorful festivities of Carnival. Since everyone frolicking in the crowded street was in costume, ID’ing the killer wasn’t helped much by footage from surrounding street cams. The solution had to be extracted from old business with old friends/frenemies as well as recent events. The last episode revolved around sex trafficking and prostitution – mainly affecting the lives of minors.

Though there are moments of levity along the way, these are all handled as dramas, without the comedy side of other Italian favorites like “Detective Montalbano,” “Makari” or “Monterossi.” Three of the four cases were harder to figure out than one. It would be interesting to know which episode any of you find to be the weakest mystery link in the chain. Perhaps your mileage will vary.

What I’d previously described as a miniseries turned out to be two four-episode seasons that end in a satisfactory place for most of the principals (i.e. no cliffhangers), but leaves the door open for a third season. Since this quartet aired abroad in 2023, which was three years after the first foursome, it’s quite possible that more will follow. Fine with me if that’s the way the renewal winds blow.

“Petra” Season Two, mostly in Italian with English subtitles, begins streaming on MHz Choice starting Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Riviere-Perdue” Season 1 – TV series review

A scene from French TV crime series “Riviere-Perdue.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

The six-episode police procedural miniseries from France, “Riviere-Perdue,” covers a related series of crimes in six 52-minute episodes. Its tone is more somber than most of the European TV fare I’ve reviewed – almost Nordic in tenor. But the setting is a village nestled in lush mountain greenery that makes it a visual treat, including all the standard driving transition scenes with overhead shots well above average on the beauty scale.

The star is Captain Alix Berg (Barbara Cabrita) who specializes in juvenile cases. She and an older homicide colleague, Commissaire Balthus (Jean-Michel Tinivelli), come to the eponymous town because two 11-year-old girls, Anna (Charlotte Lacoste) and Lucie (Camille Petit), went missing five years earlier, but staunch public pressure to find them endures. Their parents aren’t wealthy, and no ransoms were demanded, making some sort of perversion or trafficking most likely.

Ferrer (Nicolas Gob), the local lead cop, is still kicking himself for not realizing there had been a crime from the get-go, possibly making the recovery harder than it became. There’s a lot of anger and suspicion among the two families and others who may have been involved. The whole town is up in arms about the lack of resolution. The upside for viewers is that quite a few cast members get to display a wide range of their dramatic chops.

Some new evidence leads to the suspicion that an abduction from seven years before this one might have been done by the same perp or perps. Anna is rescued by a trucker in the early going but says little about her five years in captivity, including how much of the time she was with Lucie. Some of that may be due to emotional trauma and a head injury, but she also seems more secretive that she should be – especially since Lucie’s whereabouts remain unknown. Most of the running time centers around the search for Lucie, as the three detectives ricochet among a number of suspects, pursuing each clue that pops up regarding the old and new cases.

MHz Choice subscribers may recognize Gob from the light mystery series “The Art of Crime,” and Bruno Debrandt from the episodic procedural drama “The Traveller.” I’ve enjoyed both series, as my reviews of them reflect. This one is more serious and mystifying than those others. That’s partly due to the nature of the crimes running through the season, and all the dicey reactions and shifting relations among the principals that ebb and flow at a high and often extreme rate. As usual, there’s no nudity and relatively little on-screen violence. Beyond that, the less you know of the details, the more you’ll savor the suspense and its handful of plot twists.

“Riviere-Perdue” Season 1, mostly in French with English subtitles, is available via on MHz Choice starting Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

Barbara CABRITA (as Alix Berg) Nicolas GOB (as Victor Ferrer) Cyril GUEI (as Marc Vidal), in a scene from the French TV series “Riviere-Perdue.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

“The Traveller” Season 2 – TV Series Review

A scene from French TV series “The Traveller” (“Le Voyageur”) Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice

It’s been over two years since I praised Season One of this fine and unique French procedural “The Traveller” (“Le Voyageur”), The protagonists were sequential disenchanted cops who went rogue – and native – to solve their choice of cold cases, often finding previously undetected links among multiple murders or abductions. Here’s the link to my coverage of Season One to prep for Season 2: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2023/03/the-traveller-review

Season Two consists of eight more 90-minute episodes along the same lines, but even better written than before. I thought the improvement must have been due to added writers, but Herve Korian is the only credited author for the whole series! Kudos to Herve for upping his game from what was already very good.

Bruno Debrandt returns as iconoclastic Kandinsky, still going case-by-case, living in the same old van accompanied by Emy, the same helpful former police dog. His involvements in each new town are met with varying degrees of resistance or appreciation by the local authorities.

As before, his unofficial investigations are unhampered by usual police procedural constraints, and supported by Elise (Maelle Mietton), the judge who provides intel and legitimizes his efforts when needed. They and Emy are the only regulars, since each episode is a new crime or set of crimes in a new locale. Many of these unmask serial killers who’ve been flying under the radar by spreading their crimes over time and multiple jurisdictions.

Each “whodunnit” episode unfolds in a linear presentation, except for episode two, which begins at the end, and is brought up to date in progressive clips over the preceding year to reach that point. In many of them, new crimes relate to previous ones – some decades before and across borders – that Kandinsky’s broader, detached perspective reveals.

Though he’s still living off the land, there are no more scenes of his bare butt while bathing in whatever lake or river abuts the spot where he’s camped for the night. That’s a plus or a loss, depending on your preferences. The series makes excellent use of rural and small-town exteriors, with lush greenery, picturesque vistas and picture-postcard old streets and buildings.

The course of the season reminded me of “The Fugitive” TV series, since Kandinsky has an easygoing, empathetic nature that allows him to make friends easily with witnesses and other locals. His need for odd jobs to cover his meager expenses also lets him be as helpful as Dr. Kimball was in his travels. The main differences are that Kandinsky is doing this by choice, and there’s no Lt. Gerard on his tail.

The last of these programs aired abroad in May, 2025, which means there might well be more to come. I certainly hope that will be the case, even if Herve just writes at the same laudable level, without any need for further improvements.

“The Traveller” (“Le Voyageur”) Season 2, in French with English subtitles, debuts streaming on MHz Choice on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, with staggered releases of episodes through early August.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

A scene from French TV series “The Traveller” (“Le Voyageur”) Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice

“Public Enemy” Season One TV series review

A scene from the Belgian TV crime series “Public Enemy.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

I believe “Public Enemy: Season One” is the first Belgian crime series I’ve covered, and it’s a pretty good intro to the country’s production of police procedurals. Chloe (Stephanie Blanchoud) is a big-city detective who has run afoul of the brass. That’s why she’s assigned to escort a serial child killer, Guy Beranger (Angelo Bison), who has served 20 of his 30-year sentence, to his parole placement – novitiate to the monks at a small-town monastery. She also has to stick around for quite a while to oversee security. Chloe is probably the worst choice for the gig for reasons we gradually learn during the season.

The village locals are up in arms about having this notorious scumbag in their midst; many of the monks are equally displeased. The villagers fear for the safety of their children. A few, primarily publican Patrick (Philippe Jeusette), have another reason – big plans for a tourist-attracting development that Guy’s presence threatens. Ain’t nobody gonna be comin’ to hang out at a resort with him in the vicinity. It would seem as appealing as taking ice-carving lessons from O.J.

Shortly after Guy’s arrival, a young girl disappears. Everyone assumes he’s back to his old sadism, though the logistics cast doubt. During the season a couple of further events along those lines further stir the pot. Throughout, Bison’s Guy evokes comparisons to Hannibal Lecter. Not for his dietary preferences, but for the calm, controlled intellect that keeps his culpability ambiguous while manipulating others via mind games.

The first four episodes are slow sledding, and Chloe is a less engaging protagonist than average for the genre. But the pace of the plot and the level of physical action pick up nicely the rest of the way. The other principals with significant story arcs are local detective Michael (Jean-Claude Dubiez) and the young monk in charge of Guy’s acclimation to their cloistered life, Lucas (Paul Galliano). Both add noteworthy value to the product. Bison, and Vincent Londez as his psycho son, deliver superb and varied forms of villainy.

Despite the tedium of the early going, the nine credited writers have crafted a suspenseful season with a surprising denouement (Well, surprising to me, who hopes not to be the only one that didn’t see it coming.). More seasons have aired abroad, and will surely join this fine start in streaming on our side of the Atlantic.

“Public Enemy,” mostly in French with English subtitles, begins streaming on MHz Choice starting Tuesday, Mar. 18.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars



“The Bridge: Seasons 2 & 3” TV Series Review

A scene from the Swedish-Danish crime TV series “The Bridge.” Courtesy of Topic

Back in 2011, the Scandinavian crime series, “The Bridge,” was not only hugely popular in Europe but spawned quite a few remakes and derivatives on both sides of the Atlantic. The now oft-used premise is that a body is found straddling the national border of a bridge joining Denmark and Sweden, creating jurisdictional confusion. That gets worse when they discover that the top and bottom halves are from two different women. Successor series have been set on the US/Mexico, Singapore/Malaysia, Greece/Turkey and the Russia/Estonia borders. A France/England version used the Chunnel in the same way. That list may be more illustrative than complete, since variations exist under non-bridgey titles. In each, a cop from one side partners with one from the other, despite cultural and personal differences that add tensions and friction to the whodunnit component.

This original paired Sweden’s detective Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) with Denmark’s Martin Rhode (Kim Bodnia). Since all cop duo dramas or comedies must begin with irritating differences, Saga is somewhere on the high-functioning end of The Spectrum – brilliant, hyper-focused, feeling virtually no emotions in her professional or personal lives, and blunt with everyone about what she’s thinking – unable to use normal sensitivities in any conversation. What she thinks will be what she says.

Martin is the grizzled, world-weary Dane who can be soft and supportive when the situation calls for tact. The two don’t particularly like or understand what makes each other tick, but mutual respect evolves during this somber season of shared sleuthing, weaving their way through a maze of political and financial motives and suspects.

Season Two opens 13 months after the first and introduces some new detectives before settling in with the first pair. This year’s plot escalates from the realm of crime to international terrorism. Even so, there’s a significant carryover from Season One affecting roles and actions in the new case. Without providing details, the season ends in a way that might preclude the two sharing any other cases.

Season Three, another 13 months later, pairs Saga with a younger Danish partner, Henrik (Thure Lindhardt) and returns to the more familiar realm of civilian murders, with a serial killer dispatching victims in apparently ritualistic, attention-seeking displays. Really gory, too, with each posed differently. Both seasons are filled, if not overrun, with characters and subplots, giving viewers more of a challenge than average. As usual, I recommend starting from the beginning to understand the carryover elements. Bingeing each season is advisable for keeping their plots and players in mind. As one expects from a Scandinavian drama, the tone is somber – longer on mood than action, and even lower on moments of levity. Both sets do a pretty good job of living up to Season One’s level of quality in scripting, acting and production values. A final fourth season aired abroad and is sure to follow here shortly. Stay tuned , as they say…

“The Bridge: Seasons 2 and 3,” mostly in Swedish and Danish with English subtitles, streams on Topic starting Tuesday, Dec. 26.

RATING: 3 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”

“Homicide Hills:” Season 2 – TV Review

Sophie Haas (Caroline Peters, r.) and Bärbel Schmied (Meike Droste, l.) found hash in Schönfelder’s car, in an episode of the German TV show “Homicide Hills” Season 2, © ARD/Frank Dicks. Courtesy of MHzChoice

“Homicide Hills” comes to the U.S. as a novel treat – a light-hearted TV police series from Germany! A country not exactly renowned for humor (Google Robin Williams on that point) gives us its equivalent of charming shows like England’s “New Tricks,” France’s “Sharif” (previously reviewed here) or Canada’s “Nurdoch Mysteries.” In this case, Sophie Haas (Caroline Peters) is a tough, brash cop in Cologne who thinks she’s up for promotion. She’s right… in a way. The brass doesn’t approve of her bold tactics, seemingly irked by her gender and unmatched success rate. So they ship her off to become the chief of a sleepy German village’s force far from their turf.

Upon arrival in quaint, quiet Hengasch, she finds a staff of exactly two, with a caseload that’s almost nonexistent. Everyone knows everyone, and no one commits any serious crimes. Or so it seems. Haas keenly notices details and patterns that others haven’t. In the opener she connects several old fires to other presumably benign, unrelated events that turn out to be part of an undetected murder. After proving herself in that case, the outsider starts earning respect and acceptance from those who resented her intrusion. That adjustment is eased by the friendly presence of her charming father (Hans Peter Hallwachs) – a retired surgeon who moved there with her. In Season One, We got to know the key players and the village in thirteen 50-minute episodes, each with its own crime to solve.

If this set-up seems familiar, you may also be a fan of one of my favorite darkly comedic movies, 2007’s HOT FUZZ. But the delightfully sinister underbelly of that English hamlet is not to be found in this one. That shift better suits this medium, since the weird challenges Simon Pegg had to face wouldn’t be sustainable throughout a series. Hengasch is more like a Mayberry, with an array of variably amusing and/or annoying locals. Petra Kleinert, as the omnipresent wife of Officer Schaffer (Bjarne Madel), elevates the nosy, meddlesome neighbor to an art form not seen here since Gladys Kravitz in “Bewitched.” The show ran for 45 episodes in four seasons from 2008-22, earning a handful of awards and nominations for Peters and the program.

For its second season, “Homicide Hills” has upped its game on the comedy side, based on the six of 13 episodes made available for review. Sophie is about to leave the too-peaceful hamlet for a more challenging job with the Cologne police when her dad’s heart attack keeps her stuck in the boonies. That also introduces a new character – the charming live-in nurse, Danuta (Karina Krawczyk) to care for what might become ALL of his needs. This plot line is still evolving in the first half of the season. Sophie had a fling with rival cop Andreas (Max Gertsch) that ran its course rather quickly …perhaps.

Within the three-member Hengasch police department, conflicts continue amusingly between mousy Dietmar (Bjarne Madel) and his overbearing (and scene-stealing) wife Helga, especially when his old unrequited crush turns up in Episode 3 and has him rather mesmerized with memories and unfulfilled dreams. As before, Helga provides a mix of help, hindrance and just plain nuisance as the town’s leading busybody. Barbel’s (Meike Droste) eagerness to learn from Sophie – her sensei, shifu or mentor, depending on your genre preference – continues charmingly. She’s not quite up to emulating Sophie’s seductive tactics in working a witness or suspect. But she is catching up on the sleuthing skills.

Between oddball characters and situations, the requisite murders and mayhem continue with varying degrees of whimsy on the side. In Episode 2, the town is in upheaval from someone blowing up ceramic garden gnomes and critters. The pot-growing mystery of Episode 4 is probably the funniest of this half-dozen offerings, with the clash between locals and a gang of middle-aged, middle-class bikers over the noise they make in Episode 5 running a close second.

Bottom line: Season Two seems even more enjoyable than the first from a combination of settling in with now-familiar regulars, and scripts containing more mirth while maintaining the mysteries to be solved in each outing. Nice to know there are more seasons yet to come.

“Homicide Hills: Season 2”, mostly in German with English subtitles, is available streaming on May 16 on MHzChoice .

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Mongeville” – TV Series Review

Francis Perrin as Antoine Mongeville, in the French crime series “Mongeville.” Courtesy of MHzChoice

The title of the French procedural series, “Mongeville,” is not the name of its town. That’s Bordeaux. Rather, it refers to retired judge Antoine Mongeville (Francis Perrin), who for one reason or another winds up unofficially assisting the local homicide bureau in each week’s murder. In the first of two three-episode seasons being released together, he helps Detective Axelle Ferrano (Marie Moute), greatly to the consternation of her department’s head, Commissaire Briare (Pierre Aussedat), who deeply resents any input from that particular source. The gents have a history.

In the second three-episode season, Ferrano is replaced by Valentine Duteil (Gaelle Bona), who remains for the rest of the series’ 26 episodes. Briare’s resentment continues to seethe, despite Mongeville’s growing track record of consistently providing valuable help. The tenor of the series changes significantly with the arrival of the new co-star.

In Season One, the crimes share running time with the backstories and personal issues of the two leads. Mongeville is haunted by the disappearance of his adult daughter a few years earlier, continuing his search by whatever means he finds. Ferrano is emotionally wounded by a recent affair that ended badly, tainting her image within the department, and creating serious trust issues in all aspects of her life. But the two work well together in solving her assigned cases while working on their respective collateral problems.

The first trio of episodes begin with an apparent suicide the two find more suspicious than everyone else does, pitting them against The Brass, as well as the perp. The other crimes taking about 90 minutes to solve start with more obvious murders but require delving into a mare’s nests of old crimes and evil-doings. All three are well-written, providing complicated scenarios as we build relationships with the protagonists. And a considerable dislike for Briare, who takes the a**hole boss trope to new levels of a**hol-lery, and just might turn out to be as corrupt as he is a**hol-ish by nature.

While the first three are rather serious in tone, the arrival of Duteil, changes the series into something lighter. She’s as perky as Ferrano was troubled, but deceptively as tough, smart and intuitive as her predecessor. The scripts continue to contain interesting sets of facts and players to be unraveled, with the principals’ personal issues occupying less of the stage. Another useful levity addition comes from Mongeville’s enlisting the special skills of a charming old burglar, Sylvestre (Marc Depond), he’d befriended during his years on the bench, whenever investigative tactics are required and warrants are not obtainable.

Mongeville is a character to admire and get comfortable with. As is typical of European crime series, the cast is less glamorous and the stories unfold with less violence than our typical prime-time domestic fare. The first six end without major cliffhangers, but leave me eager for the next round of releases.

“Mongeville,” Seasons One and Two, mostly in French with English subtitles, streams on MHzChoice starting Nov. 1.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

“Cherif” Season 5 – TV Series Review

Abdelhafid Metalsi in ‘Cherif’ on MHz Choice

Season 5 of the light-hearted French TV police drama “Cherif” opens where Season 4 left off. Adeline (Carole Bianic) had been set up by her nemesis, Commandant Sylvie Delmas (Catherine Marchal) for a murder, with the evidence against her looking pretty solid. First order of business is for Captain Cherif (Abdelhafid Metasi) to whip up one of his off-the-wall game plans to save his partner. I won’t say how, but we all know he does.

My review of previous seasons of “Cherif” on this site was posted on June 6. Please scroll down through that review for background for this season.

As Season 5 progresses, Adeline’s ordeal throughout Season 4 has taken a toll. Despite her blossoming romance with Cherif, work is no longer the source of satisfaction it had always been. This leads to her departure, and puts Cherif into a funk. But a new homicide squad member, Roxane Le Goff (Aurore Erguy), arrives, who might fill the professional void, if not the personal one.

As before, each episode poses a new murder to be solved, with Cherif usually adapting clever ploys he’s memorized from American TV crime series. He gleefully cites the show and episode number when starting to spin those wheels. This season also sees more comical touches from flirting with the fourth wall almost as blatantly as in one of Cherif’s favorites, “Moonlighting.” Those in the know will particularly appreciate a return visit from his Grandmother’s spirit that allows him to read most women’s’ minds in Episode 4. But the year’s highlight comes in Episode 7, when a concussed Cherif hallucinates an amazing guest appearance from one who both annoys and helps our hero. ‘Nuff said about that.

As always, the scripts are solid on the crimes and the humor component. Many supporting cast members are given enough screen time to enhance the atmosphere and the stories. The introduction of the beautiful Roxane is handled particularly well by making her married with a couple of kids, so Cherif isn’t thrust into another will-they-won’t-they dance so soon after losing Adeline. Unlike the previous season, this one ends WITHOUT a serious cliffhanger, allowing fans to relax for the next month, or so, until we get the 6th and final season of this delightful series.

“Cherif,” Season Five, alternatively titled “Captain Cherif,” mostly in French with English subtitles, is available for streaming on MHz Choice beginning Tuesday, July 12.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars