Braquo Season 1
The latest critically-acclaimed entrant
into a genre that can seemingly do no wrong - think Headhunters,
The Killing, Easy Money and Spiral - European crime
drama Braquo is as lean, gritty and uncompromising as any of its
thematic forbears. And it likewise makes for riveting viewing.
Comparisons with The Wire are
unavoidable, and largely justified: like that series, Braquo
(French for heist) is the brainchild of a former police officer turned
screenwriter, and both offer unflinching depictions of the inner city
and its seamier inhabitants. In this case the creator is Olivier
Marchal, whose previous directorial credits include the excellent Gerard
Dépardieu vehicle 36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004) and the solid but
oft-overlooked serial killer noir MR 73 (2008). Drawing on both
his law enforcement background and his previous cinematic experience,
Marchal has created one of the most unforgettable police dramas of
recent memory.
Like many of its characters the series is
violent, brutal, ugly and unstable. Just when you think an equilibrium
has been maintained, something happens to shock you out of your comfort
zone - this is a show which features a bare minimum of down time. It
isn’t a relaxing view in the typical, but if you can immerse yourself in
its grim milieu it is an eminently rewarding one. The characters are
fresh, well-drawn and uniformly realistic - drug dealers and other
criminals are shown as rounded, human and conflicted, not as two
dimensional narrative props, and police officers are frequently as
disgusted by the crimes that confront them as the viewer is. In the
opening scene, for instance, a detective is so sickened by the details
of his crime that he interrogates a rapist by jamming a biro into his
eyeball, and it’s as worthy an introduction as could be envisaged for
this unvarnished and frequently challenging series.
Beyond Home Entertainment’s two disc set
includes all 8 hour-long episodes from Season 1, and is a must see for
fans of exciting, realistic and impeccably crafted drama.
Bonus Features
Non, none.
