How sad is this?

Expected more

Absolutely Fantastic

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There is much to commend this french police drama series set in suburban Paris - interesting characters, intense drama, mostly realistic feeling. However, my strikes against the series are: excessive focus on gruesome corpses - just too much; complete absence of any operational co-operation with the uniformed gendarmerie - surely unrealistic; very casual and disrespectful relations between the detectives of different ranks - improbable; security in the police station is so careless that lawyers wander freely unescorted gathering intelligence useful to their clients, and it is a wonder that half the suspects don't simply escape by running out; nearly all politicians are shown as corrupt - typical french intellectual prejudice. I don't believe this is a spoiler, but my final criticism against this series concerns when an undercover agent is planted in a gang at great personal risk but continues to frequent the police station base at high risk of being seen by dubious gang lawyers, gang suspects or other criminals brought in, any one of whom could blow his cover, causing his death. This was so ridiculous I found it hard to continue watching. In reality, once an agent goes undercover, all interactions with the originating force are managed with the greatest possible secrecy and precautions. Nevertheless, if you can stomach the excessive gore & violence, there is plenty of substance to sustain interest.

I've finished season one and was immersed for every moment (save a few). American TV writers could take a few (many!) pointers from the people who created Engrenages since it could survive solely on its story and character development.The suspense doesn't seem contrived and it really doesn't let up. I found my palms sweaty and heart rate elevated while sitting in the hotel chair glued to the laptop screen.The characters are mature (mostly), well developed, and believable. There hasn't been any argument about who is sleeping with whom. They don't bicker about petty events since they have bigger problems to deal with. Even the drug problem of one of the characters is limited to only a few minutes per show. In America they would have an entire show dedicated to some petty **** such as that. (I'm not knocking all American shows since there are some brilliant ones, but they are as plentiful as vitamins in a candy bar.) Two of the main characters sleep with each other and virtually no petty drama follows! I love it! I'm not usually a fan of police dramas, but if you are then you could fall in love with this one. You just have to be able to read subtitles and follow along at the same time. Unless you want to watch a dubbed version. *shudder* There really are no current American police dramas that can touch this one.

Read about Engrenages and got hooked from the first episode.I only saw season 4, the only one available on Netflix, but could not stop watching it. I grew up in France and French TV dramas are usually boring compared to their US counterparts. This series is different and so much better than the packaged US shows (CSI comes to mind) because no one is completely clean, no one owns the truth, no happy endings. This looks like real life and goes against the stereotype of cool, beautiful Paris. The depressing, "noir", side of the show is actually a real depiction of Paris, a grey city, with grey weather and depressed people (I lived there too). The grime estates and sinister characters - including the stars of the show - reflect the troubled state of French society at this point in history. The depiction of the French judicial system is extremely accurate and can make British and American audiences shiver. This is great TV with great actors (you love to hate and hate to love Capitaine Laure)and the language spoken there is nothing like what you learned at school - but certainly more like what's spoken on the street. One word: Bravo!!

Peculiar strong personalities, naturalistic depiction of crimes, officers with serious personal issues, racketeering and nepotism in politics, etc. - these are the features most of the world's crime fans attribute to Danish and Swedish crime series. But the first episodes of Engrenages appeared around 9 years ago! Having seen all the seasons by now, I agree with them who believe that it should deserve far more attention than so far, more promotion and broadcasting on major channels. Realistic atmosphere, strong acting (particularly Caroline Proust as police captain Laure Berthaud, Philippe Duclos as judge François Roban, Audrey Fleurot as lawyer Joséphine Karlsson), versatile and intertwined events make the series enjoyable to watch - in spite of rather so-so start; unlike most of longer series, here we can say that Series 1 is least interesting and most uneven, although still better than related US series. For me as a non-francophone, it was pleasant to listen to the French language and get to know the problems in French society.Well done! I am already looking forward to see Season 5, currently under filming.