Spiral Scratch

Just finished watching  series 3 of 'Spiral -The Butcher of La Villette' - on BBC Four.  It didn't quite fill the hole left by the excellent Danish thriller 'The Killing' but it was another example of gritty European television, full of flawed but believable characters that refused to give us a neat and tidy conclusion.

Quite a few similarities between the two though, strong female leads in Sarah Lund (played by Sofie Gråbøl) and Laure Berthaud (played by Caroline Proust).  Both obsessive about their case to the point of bloody mindedness.  Both scruffy and apparently unconcerned about their appearance.  Both drive their colleagues and bosses to distraction, with their refusal to follow any sort of rules or protocols.

All good so far and of course both benefit from being set in cities - Paris and Copenhagen - that lend themselves to being filmed and have uniformly strong supporting casts. (The acting in 'The Killing' in particular, is exceptional.) 

Both series also seemed to take great delight at unpicking the flaws where politics meets the judiciary and law enforcement.  In fact that's a common thread you can trace back to 'The Wire'.  Which I suspect influenced both programmes and probably explains why they work so well, even without a detailed knowledge of the French or Danish penal systems. 


Spoiler Alert - don't read on if you've yet to finish watching both season 3 of 'Spiral' and season 1 of 'The Killing'.


But there are differences too. While 'The Killing's' Lund character sacrifices her personal life and career to find her killer, Berthaud in 'Spiral' is quite willing to use her sexuality and happily jumps into bed with a fellow officer / rival when it suits her.


While we're on the subject, 'Spiral's' amoral lawyer Joséphine Karlsson (played by Audrey Fleurot) is my new favourite TV character.  Gorgeous, cynical and ultimately caught between her corrupt past and her desire to do the right thing.

'Spiral' has one other great character in Arsene Wenger, sorry, Judge François Roban (played by Philippe Duclos), who seems to have not just the look of a certain Premier League manager, but the same doomed obsessive principles.  He just needed a red faced Scotsman with a fondness for the horses as his nemisis! 

Ultimately, my love for Joséphine (can't believe her real name's Audrey!) isn't enough to persuade me - 'Spiral' doesn't quite match 'The Killing'.  Perhaps it's unfair to compare a first series with the third outing of 'Spiral', but 'The Killing' wins hands down when it comes to maintaining the suspense, offering up copious red herrings and leaving you convinced you know the killer, only to be proven wrong the very next episode.

Both programmes certainly left you wanting more and anxious for next week come round.  Perhaps the best thing about them is that they are such good pieces of television that far from the subtitles getting in the way, they made you watch, really watch each minute of each episode, with the rhythm of the native language adding to the viewing experience.

'The Killing' is already getting an American makeover, which I will be interested in watching.  I suppose we should be grateful that it's not just being dubbed!  

One last similarity was in the climax, with neither killer making it to trial, while the viewer is left to work out where all the bits of the jigsaw fit together.  Although the lack of surprise in the 'whodunnit' element of 'Spiral' would be my main criticism, but then the twists and turns of 'The Killing' made it an exceptional piece of television.  Having seen one season, I'd put it up there with 'The Wire'.  The question now is can the standard be maintained?

We'll find out in the autumn apparently, as BBC Four will be screening the second season.  Meantime I hope they act on the interest in 'Spiral' and re-run seasons one & two.