That's how the continuity announcer described it and she's right. The atmosphere is from Se7en, the structure is from Murder One (and, I know now I've watched to the end, so is the main plot). There's an ongoing plot tracing two Romanian girls, one dead in horrible circumstances, one missing. Every episode there's a subplot - always involving children suffering. The cops, lawyers, criminals and suspects are tangled up with each other through attraction and too much knowledge of horrors. The women are all deathly pale - and that's just the living. It's shot in tones of sepia and grey in a semidocumentary style. Even French speakers might need subtitles as the cast mumble in slang without moving their lips. The characters are compelling: the bed-hopping Laure who pretends not to care, the unblinking silver haired judge, the pinup "Monsieur Procureur". The director has drawn powerful performances from everybody down to the last minor villain glimpsed in the corridor of the Paris nick. It's now running on British television on BBC4 and I seem to be the only person watching. Well, the teeming millions are missing a compulsive masterpiece. Bring on the next series. C'est moche!
