Hello friends!
It's Friday again, and you have to think about resting, disconnecting and enjoying yourself, and I also bring a recommendation for those who want to watch a #TVshow.
In this case it is a particular series and probably not very well known or popular because it is a French TV show, but I have been able to see it here dubbed into Spanish. And I liked it very much.
What TV show is it?
The art of crime (in original French: "L'art du crime") and mixes suspense and investigation with art and art history, oh and some romance in a funny way. It is original and cool.
And what is it about?
The series is about the investigations of the French police specialized in art crimes (thefts but also related murders). For them, the department has a new police captain (Captain Antoine Verlay), with a lot of character and quite a grumbler, who is assigned an art advisor to help him better understand the works and thus give him clues that can guide them to the culprit, and it is about a talkative and passionate about art (art expert Florence Chassagne) who works in the most famous museum, the Louvre in Paris.
In fact, many of the cases they investigate have this museum as their main setting, but also others such as the Pompidou museum, the Rodin museum, but also others such as the famous Molin Rouge cabaret, or some other emblematic place in this artistic city.
What do I like the most?
It is an original mix between suspense, investigation, crime, murder, mystery, but it is also an art lesson in each chapter and from another perspective, because they not only tell you about some famous works but especially about the artists who created them but they also tell details about their lives, and some curiosities that we did not know.
And the way of doing it, with a certain psychological touch, is also different because it is Florence, the art expert who suddenly talks with these artists who appear to her from her time to talk to her and tell them those things about their lives that perhaps she help solve the crime they are investigating.
Each chapter deals with a work and/or an artist, who I'm sure many of you know...
Leonardo Da Vinci (this time with a little-known painting), Watteau, Géricault, Monet, Courbet, Bosch, Degas, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Claudel (not so well-known but a sculptor who had a dramatic affair with the famous yes sculptor Rodin), Delacroix (and his iconic work "Liberty Leading the People"), Manet or Munch (yes, the one in the painting "The Scream" although they mention other of his works here as well).
Just as if sometimes it were a little bit of the Da Vinci Code, saving the distance, they put together clues, messages they find, hidden meanings, obsessions and investigations that lead them to solve case after case.
And the characters?
It is another important point. Because there is chemistry, well it doesn't seem like it at first but in reality it is quite predictable, although both with different characters. He was very closed off, obsessive, serious and somewhat grumpy, and she was happy, crazy, passionate and with a touch of naivety, and also with a sometimes very Parisian look.
Little by little their relationship improves, but it changes over time, and funny misunderstandings also occur, just as they change as other characters appear. But as the slogan says: "She has the art, and he has the way". They become complementary to each other.
A character who is always patient but diligent is the boss, commander Pardo, who decided that the captain needed technical help when he was transferred to the art department without knowing anything about art. But he becomes one more.
Then there are others in the central police station who little by little are having more weight and appear more, like another assistant Adéle, or when they decide to replace the expert with another police officer... [spoiler].
There are two other characters, on the one hand Florence's father Pierre, an erudite man also an expert in art who certainly transmitted his passion and study to his daughter, and sometimes in a histrionic way he also collaborates in the cases.
And since Florence lost her mother when she was a child and talked to a painting, and now she talks to the artists of the past, she goes to the therapist, and both the first and especially the second one whom she regularly visits also occupy a prominent place in the most emotional part of the TV show, in the connection between her and the captain, love, etc... And her many fast thoughts!
Final Thoughts
It is a light Tv show, without pretensions, although it has won some awards in France (as it appears on the IMDB page) and it is definitely a fun, curious, intelligent and entertaining TV show.
While interesting cases are investigated, you learn about art, about curiosities of the works, about personal details of famous artists in history, and at the same time, there is suspense, mystery but also crazy moments, discussions and funny dialogues, strange and almost comical situations that make us smile, and little by little we grow fond of the Louvre expert with an intense personality and even the police captain who sometimes gets angry and loses his patience. What a couple!
They form a strange team, but one that they like, even in the end themselves, and although as I said there is a lot that is predictable, being surrounded by all those art lessons, everything is more balanced, beautiful and inspiring.
It is enjoyed in a calm way, it entertains us, we smile and we wait for what we want to happen to happen. Among beautiful sculptures and impressive paintings in the Louvre, or in any other part of inspiring Paris.
So if you like investigation and suspense TV shows, with a touch of humor and above all with a lot of art, I recommend it.
More information about the TV show and all the shared images here: IMDB - The Art of Crime
