Anthracite (2024) User Reviews

Thriller Mystery that keeps you guessing

[sideratosn · 7/10 · 13 April 2024]

The Ida character in the beginning does take some getting used to (she can come across as annoying in the first episode) but by the second / third episode the story and characters start to unravel.

A few good plot twists that were unexpected and keeps you guessing till the end.

Six episodes in length also ensures that the story / series is not drawn out with pointless plot fillers and dialogue.

Some negatives: some characters are annoying and some aspects of the plot are not fully explained or seem pointless.

The series delivers just enough to keep you invested. Good watch overall for fans of thriller mystery genre.

Intriguing Thriller

[wskwas · 7/10 · 13 April 2024]

This series has just enough intrigue to keep you interested to watch the next episode. As another reviewer said the title character takes some getting used to but that is part of her charm. She is living on the edge due to her personal and health issues so this might seem she is frivolous but really is excitable and determined to prove her points.

I felt the acting was good. I really enjoyed it enough to see it to its finish.

There are a few scenes that were a bit out there but taken as a whole the series of 6 episodes was just enough to tell the story without dragging any one plot line to much.

It was worth my time to see it thru to the end.

The "Ida" character ruined this series for me.

[skitl-45453 · 5/10 · 11 April 2024]

I stopped watching this series at the beginning of the second episode. I couldn't bear to watch anymore of it because of the out-of-place silliness of the character "Ida", portrayed here by actress Noémie Schmidt and the overuse of the song "What Is Love" by Haddaway, which I always associate with the SNL "Roxbury Guys" sketches. I liked the other parts and characters, just not hers.

It would have been nice to have the main actress portraying her character in a more serious manner, due to the deadly serious themes of cults, murder, mental illness, cancer. I'm not sure whose idea it was to make this character so annoying.

A fun above average mystery

[americafirstly · 6/10 · 29 April 2024]

A girl goes looking for her disappeared father and finds out major secrets about herself and a city. Plenty of twists and killings, but for the most part the characters maintain more of a lighthearted borderline comedic vibe.

This show isn't great but its better than the average in several ways.

Ida is a star and lights up the screen in her scenes! She is mainly outrageous and hilarious, but also shows darker sides of personality. The show would have been 1 star without her performance/character.

The setting/scenery is another major plus for this show. The show avoids the pale/dreary stereotypical look of euro crime series. It also shows many beautiful mountains, drives, buildings etc, putting the viewer deeper into that region more firmly than most shows.

The pacing of the show could have been better. The show starts strong then glides a bit and then they packed too much into the final episode, could have added one more episode or paced it better to fit.

Good serie, Ida isn't that bad as the bad reviews say.

[krhfvxf · 7/10 · 8 May 2024]

Most people that get annoyed by Ida didn't even watch further then the first 2 episodes. Don't get mislead by all those bad reviews, if u are looking for a new serie to watch try this one.

I myself didn't get annoyed by Ida, I don't know why so much other people do. It was clear for me from the first few episodes that see had a fatal sickness, they also explained why her personality was that way mostly because her bad social skills because she hadn't a lot of real life contact with people only over the internet.

I give the serie 7 stars. I like the characters and in 6 episodes u are able to learn about them. There are some random things that were unnecessary, from the top of my head one where Ida gets visual emoijs out of nowhere that don't really add something and they didn't do it often enough to let the viewer really get it.

The serie is about a cult and it has a few deeper meanings that are really fun to get when u get further into the series, really fun plottwists. I did get the feeling that the last few episodes had a big increase in pace, it didn't feel rushed so it isn't a bad thing but u could not really lose your attention otherwise u could miss something important in the story.

It's of course ur own choice if u want to watch this serie, but please don't get influenced by the bad reviews. It isn't that bad as they say. Serie is a good choice when looking for something to watch, only 6 episodes, try to get to 4 if u don't like it by then I don't know what went wrong.

Annoying character impossible to watch

[reviewerB · 1/10 · 11 April 2024]

Not sure if this series is supposed to be taken seriously. Does it want to be a thriller about mass suicide in a cult investigated by a woman who is recovering from cancer? Does it want to be a funny slasher movie with a goofy anime-inspired teenage girl as the protagonist? Seems like many Hollywood tropes and genres have been copied and randomly inserted in the French plot. But what makes it unbearable to watch is the annoying main character and the equally annoying camera work. Who goes on a mission to save their own father and behaves all happy go lucky like that? Even when the car is steering towards the precipice she is half laughing. Her dialogue lines are spoken too fast and too joyfully for the context. Besides behaving like an airheaded teen, she dresses like one, although the actress is obviously a grown up woman. I was expecting a thriller and this is a silly, annoying mess.

Twists and Turns that keep you guessing

[tanyanka · 8/10 · 14 April 2024]

Before you start watching, make yourself aware that this is a french series. Which means, you most likely watch some kind of dubbed and/or translated version. Secondly, different countries have a different way of storytelling and a different sense of humour.

I agree that the main character of Ida takes some getting used to, but to me, it all made sense in the end. Who knows how I would behave with a supposedly fatal illness; I might choose to screw conventions and expectations, too! Nevertheless, we are still talking about fiction here, so allow the writers some freedom.

I was reminded of the movie "Les Rivières pourpres" in places, but maybe it was just the gorgeous mountain setting. The story took twists and turns and kept me guessing. It was very dark in places. It's a good thing there were only 6 episodes, so it never got dull and was easily watched in a weekend.

For me, well worth watching.

Unfortunate Crime Mini-Series with a Lead Character Dressed As Clown

[mariya_mirabella · 1/10 · 20 April 2024]

This could have been a really interesting crime series, but for me, it got completely ruined by the strange choice of the lead character "Ida"- a tall 25-35 year old woman dressed in ridiculous clownish clothes and acting like I would imagine a very immature teenage girl would like to act in order to appear "cool". I was gripped to start with but I simply could not continue watching it, the contrast between the grim storyline and Ida's appearance and behaviour was way too grating.

Shame, really as the story itself, from what I've seen, is quite gripping - involving a cult, a disappearance, a kidnapping and a mysterious cave - and the rest of the characters came across really well - so Anthracite is something I would most definitely watch and enjoy - just to give you an idea how irritating this lead character is.

Killer Cult In The Alps

[Pairic · 8/10 · 15 April 2024]

Anthracite: 1994, a murderous cult commit mass suicide in Levionna in the French Alps, the only survivor being the cult leader. 2024, a journalist who had covered the original story is apparently kidnapped, his web sleuth daughter goes to Levionna to investigate. Another body turns up, are the cult active again? This series involves many plot twists and may well be a tad too lever for it's own good. It's worthwhile sticking with Anthracite though, convoluted as the plot is it involves many interesting tropes. A pharmaceutical company which may be carrying out secret tests on the local populace, a possible serial killer responsible for many disappearances over the last ten years, strange abandoned coal mines which are being reopened by the pharmaceutical company. There are some soap like elements to the plot and who is whose father/mother brother/sister theme which makes you hear dueling banjos playing in the background. It has enough, tension and action to keep you interested as gory violent scenes accumulate plus a nurse who could give Nurse Ratchet a run for her money. Directed by Julius Berg, Written by Fanny Robert, Maxime Berthemy, Sophie Lebarbier, Mehdi Ouahab. Six episodes in Netflix. 7.5/10.

Ruined by obnoxious lead character

[suecann-37695 · 1/10 · 11 April 2024]

This sounded like a great storyline and should have been a good thriller. Sadly it was completely ruined by the utterly unlikeable lead daughter character. I think if this character were male the writers would never be permitted some of the lines and actions for this part.

I got through the first two episodes but then gave up watching in disgust at the point where the horrible annoying daughter climbs into bed with Jaro and insists on sex with him just because she can't get to sleep.

Such a shame as all the other actors were very good and otherwise this could have been a great potential thriller.

Maybe a little brightside for French Tv shows

[noz254 · 4/10 · 18 April 2024]

Let me be clear, this is a mess.

The premise is quite interesting and some scenes are quite beautiful and breathtaking and some of the actors are actually believable (kudos to Hatik in particular).

I grew up watching French TV shows and they act like they are on stage and it's either over the top or not acting at all in general...

But with a Netflix budget and actually believing on some of the cast and crew it looked passable.

There are so many faults in the scenario and gaps in the story and it's super annoying... But I did finish it. That's like a plus... Not great, but better than the usual.

I loved it

[irishfairyring · 8/10 · 19 April 2024]

I loved all of the characters but especially loved Ida...l thought she was refreshing and played well off of the the other characters. The story was compelling and held my interest with all of the twists and turns. Having it set in the mountains was a great idea along with the mines and bio lab. It kept you guessing as to whether it was horror or something that could really happen. The cult was quite accurate as to how cults work l found all of the possibilities intriqing. Having been in the alps several times ,the mysterious feeling in the ancient villages can be quite eerie .l highly recommend this series as l binged it all in one day.

Almost everybody needs acting lessons

[fdsci · 3/10 · 17 April 2024]

Let's start with the lead character, your father is kidnapped because he was a journalist reported on or wrote about a cult that all committed suicide, she writes for some online blog about solving mysteries, murder, suicide, kidnapping, and another amount of other supposedly serious unsolved crimes. She comes off over the top in any encounter she has with people, but her script is vague and shallow, which she somehow thinks she can overcome, wild facial expressions and some weird tattoo on the bottom of her eye. This is uninterest and actually could've been epic if they had gotten someone who knew how to direct someone who had to act And something more than a grade School drama.

I am so glad I gave this show a little more time because in the very beginning, I was kind of character like Ida usually irritates me

[eprusulis · 9/10 · 20 April 2024]

It's hysterical because the character like Ida would usually make me not want to watch a show and it almost made me not wanna watch the show but then I gave it a little more time and she's actually my favorite part of the show. She's my favorite character she's grown on me and then some, actually actually really good. The storyline is really good. It's a little hard to keep following because it's got two different time frames but three episodes in and I give it a solid nine it has been huge thriller, where you don't know who the villain is when you find out some people are part of it , shocks you. It's really cool. Has her own bunch of sleuths online. Where she could put a piece of information down and because she's got thousands and thousands of people that help her helps her solve cases solve cases a on top of it. Her character is just cause she's a little weird while she's really weird, but David explained it in the story Because she's used to being on her computer at home she's not used to doing this being out talking to people in real life, but she usually makes me laugh at least once like I love the fact the show like the first 20 minutes. I almost shut it off to now I am watching , it religiously first 20 minutes Ida couldn't stand her now. I can't get enough of her.

Just....no

[luka-novak78 · 1/10 · 18 April 2024]

Total waste of time. While a premise sounds interesting the execution is a mess. Most of characters are annoying enough you want to strangle them (and those are just the protagonists), story takes forever to get going and with 6 eps that leaves ending rushed. Show tries to use red herrings about main villains but rather than "oh, nice trick" end result feels more like writers brainstorming various ideas and then not wanting to drop any they came out it (and all are so cliche), the twists and revelations from the past are not surprising but just there for the shock value and because such show needs to have them.

Show even failed to create a proper atmosphere. The town is neither creepy nor "so picture perfect it's creepy".

French TV has managed to produce good shows with "secrets form the past resurface when a new crime is committed in small, out of the way village/town" theme but this one is not one of them. Best to avoid it.

So. MANY. twists!! Watch this!

[christinapoole-71382 · 9/10 · 21 April 2024]

This is weird, twisty, story rich of past and present.

This series represents so much under one theme... Never, make assumptions p, particularly in a town that seems sleepy.

This series centres a round a cult, that was within this sleepy town. However in modern day it is clear the remnants of its impacts still lingers on.

Within the story of the cult, weaves another story of corporate assumed experimentation.

Broken family story, incest, abuse, depression, miscommunication, mental abuse and murder.

This series has it all. There are a lot of reviews that have an issue with Ida, one of the main actors, but I'm not sure why.

Theacing is OK. But the story keeps you hooked.

Not superb but a great, disturbing, memorable watch. Watched it all in one sitting.

Eccentric and dark

[suse-04098 · 9/10 · 29 April 2024]

Anthracite is dark and eccentric and it's so easy to become invested in the setting the intriguing set up of a cult and belief system gotten out of control.

With Ida, this show is led by an eccentric, head-strong young woman who sometimes misses social cues. Soon a counterpart lead role is established: Jaro, who actually really just wants to live in peace and not be dragged into this dark traumatizing case surrounding the suicide of his mother twenty something years ago. Roméo, Jaro's colleague and friend, is an awesome addition as supporting role -- and arguably my most favorite character in this show.

While the show seems to be starting off fast, throwing us into the events immediately, it's actually rather slow. Just like the characters, e.g. Ida, Jaro, Roméo, but also the police, the viewer is finding out information bit by bit. We however have one big advantage on the characters -- we get to know all sides and information, even what they don't share.

Too much, too little - no, still much

[tibor-60061 · 4/10 · 29 April 2024]

Too much ususal topics mixed in this series with usually commonplaces, but leading nowhere in the end. A killer cult with an honest but misunderstood leader, a benign mass killer, and a real killer, who is by the way pedophile. Almost everyone is insane or unstable at least. The evil pharma company is not a killer in the end. There was also a hateful priest, but did not do anythimg against the cule. The whole story line is confusing, with a lot of only purposedly mileading scenes.

The young lead actors did not grow up to the role. A musician does not actually can play. The director coped Ida of Barbie - too soon. We like funny French girls, but mot like this.

A quirky "thriller" ruined by manic pixie girl trope

[mtlincoln-48202 · 1/10 · 2 May 2024]

Honestly, it could have been a decent rainy day, watch casually little movie. But they decided to stretch it past a tolerable mystery movie into a mini series stocked with characters so annoying it ruins any possibility of enjoyment. I'm looking at you, Ida.

I imagine their reasoning behind the lead female character's behavior is her health issues and unconventional upbringing. I don't think it would be beyond rational that such a person would learn to act normally once exposed to society. Not this time.

Maybe someday this will be made with better characterizations and less trendy techniques, all inserted solely to appeal to some vague idea of what someone wants to watch.

I doubt it.

Fun but chaotic and amateurish

[yuliyagalycheva · 5/10 · 6 May 2024]

A weird mix of horror, masculine coming of age, girl power, crime story and family drama packed into a unique, hasty and quirky tv. Electric feel that soon enough feels over-the-top and jerky..

Worth watching if you want a gory but not too realistically gory entertainment. The references to the online culture pop out suddenly and unevenly, but do bring a spark; the decision-making of the inhabitants of this cold world is strange and the quantity of villains feels like it's a story hosh-poshed by an eccentric storyteller by the fire.

The actors are mostly good and some acceptable.

Fun watch but in all I this isn't the kind of film I'd call a chef d'oeuvre. Yet on a bright side - this is an excellent opportunity to up your French language skills...

Fun gothic suspense!

[Guanche48 · 7/10 · 15 May 2024]

Anthracite is set in a small village in the Alps, that was shaken to its core in 1994, when the collective suicide of a sect called Les Ecrins hit the headlines.

Don't let Ida's character irritate you at the beginning of the series, she will change quickly and is much more bearable.

The plot moves around quickly, while the beautiful surroundings of the Swiss Alps make for a great visual backdrop, and the cast makes the most of the many twists and turns that the series has to offer. It delivers a great blend of suspense and humour, making it really intriguing.

Anthracite is the kind of big hamburger full of sauce and ingredients that you know will stain you. And even though there are times when it seems unclear where the show is going, it skillfully keeps things moving forward by adding really good turns and surprises, making for an engaging and exciting story.

The series explores dark themes, leaving the audience intrigued, it is worth the watch!