I watched 4 episodes, so I gave this a real shot.
Let's start with the good. The show itself is a regular crime per episode with an underlying back story tying the main character into some larger mystery. The setting is beautiful, the people are beautiful.
Unfortunately, that's where the good ends. A sulky, work obsessed female lead broken down by a charming male counterpart is becoming a little overdone (and was.definitely done better in Mallorca Files), and this barely plays with the formula enough to set itself apart. The back-story itself is just too slow burning and the individual crimes of each episode just don't feel very well built.
I feel awful typing this, but I do feel that if the French actors were able to speak in their native tongue, their acting would feel far more convincing and their personalities would shine a little more. As it stands it feels forced in a lot of ways, and it's made worse with the contrast to Jamie Bamber's "upper-class" English accent. The chief of police I'm still not sure isn't dubbed even after watching so much.
Enough of that though. All around, I think it's watchable so I'm not going super low on the rating, but there are far better examples of the genre to go to before you get to this.
Let's start with the good. The show itself is a regular crime per episode with an underlying back story tying the main character into some larger mystery. The setting is beautiful, the people are beautiful.
Unfortunately, that's where the good ends. A sulky, work obsessed female lead broken down by a charming male counterpart is becoming a little overdone (and was.definitely done better in Mallorca Files), and this barely plays with the formula enough to set itself apart. The back-story itself is just too slow burning and the individual crimes of each episode just don't feel very well built.
I feel awful typing this, but I do feel that if the French actors were able to speak in their native tongue, their acting would feel far more convincing and their personalities would shine a little more. As it stands it feels forced in a lot of ways, and it's made worse with the contrast to Jamie Bamber's "upper-class" English accent. The chief of police I'm still not sure isn't dubbed even after watching so much.
Enough of that though. All around, I think it's watchable so I'm not going super low on the rating, but there are far better examples of the genre to go to before you get to this.