User reviews

14 years years ago I started to be fascinated by an American TV series produced by the HBO which was called The Wire. The action took place in Baltimore and was centered around a team of cops using informers in order to penetrate the milieu of the drug dealers. Besides being very well written and enjoying the participation of a cast with many remarkable actors who build heroes I could identify with, it painted a very realistic image of the Baltimore suburbs, of the crime culture, of the weak layers of the society, an image full of violence but also of humanity and compassion from a very unexpected point of view. It remains until today one of the best TV series that I have ever seen, maybe the best in the category of crime series.

The French series Cannabis which premiered with six episodes on the European (Franco-German) TV channel ARTE reminded me in many moments the quality of the American series (that lasted five seasons). It is lacking almost completely the cops dimension and rather focuses on the worlds of the dealers with the big shots living luxury lives in haciendas in Morocco or Spain, enjoying classical music and top medical services, and of the poor people in the suburbs of cities like Marseille who are obliged to take crime as a way of life in order to make ends. Yet, viewers come to know soon a collection of characters that are are very well built, with credible motivations, with passions and weaknesses behind their tough appearances or violent behaviors. The story line is credible, the social environment is more that just background, it plays a role in describing a world where crime becomes part of the daily lives.

One of the big advantages of TV series in general is that they can put fresh faces to the 'small' screens especially if they do not employ 'big' screen actors who are looking for extra employment in some kind of semi-retirement or tentative for a comeback. This is the case of the film created by Hamid Hlioua and directed by Lucie Borleteau . Acting is very precise and many characters exceed the stereotype dimension so characteristic to many of the lesser quality TV series. I can suspect however that after these series names and faces like the one of Kate Moran will be better known. Story telling and pace are admirable. The ending leaves enough characters alive and enough story threads unfinished in order to justify a second season. I hope that the producers of Cannabis will not resist the temptation of making it.

Had enough of the usual formulaic schlock schlock you are fed on mainstream and, increasingly, on cable TV? Want something different from the standard story lines, plots, characters and situations you know so well you could write them yourself (well, you almost could)? Well, give Cannabis a whirl.

I have to say that I have been watching it through Anglo-Saxon eyes and experiencing it with Anglo-Saxon sensibilities, for which read US/Northern European eyes and sensibilities. So if you are French, Spanish, Italian, North African or from somewhere where the days and nights are hotter (so I might as well include you guys and gals from South America) you might well tell me Cannabis and its almost grand guignol melodrama is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff and you see it on your screen seven nights a week. Well, we rather more reserved, not to say damp-souled lot up in the North don't: so Cannabis is a very refreshing change.

I like that there are no good guys or bad guys, no good girls and bad girls. I like the oh-so utterly convoluted storyline which keeps you guessing and then some. I like the lack of grandstanding, the lack of posturing, the feeling that many of the characters seem - I have to say 'seem' because this is, after all, fiction - quite true to life. I like that, as in real life, the wrong people get killed and even the heroes aren't immune. Above all, I like the moral ambiguity.

At points your credibility might be stretched and the filming is not as polished as it might be, but the whole shooting match is carried off with such panache that you really don't care. So if you want far spicier fare than your more usual diet of plastic men and women we are served up all too often on TV, give Cannabis a go. I doubt you will be disappointed.

Will Lucie Borleteau be the next French Kathryn Bigelow? We'll see, but in the mean time, this mini series looks like a pure man and brutal piece of work. Not as great as THE WIRE, of course, but for a French series, it's not bad at all, especially if you consider the mostly unknown actors, except Jean-Michel Correia, the former bank robber in the real life. He is here outstanding, although he has not the lead role. But the least he has is more than convincing. It's a story about drug traffic between Spain and French ghetto, with plenty of violence and betrayal, passion and revenge, with no real good guy nor bad dude either. A story of survival and hopeless dreams. It could have been a TV stuff made by and for Canal+ channel.

Corking characterization strongly-defined well-acted performances from all the main players multicultural multilingual Irish actress here speaks awesome French AND Spanish most of the others are bilingual tri in the case of Casablanc actually he speaks ENG at one or two points and that is fine too

moving through 3 countries 4 if we count Ireland but not really there i thought the title of the piece was lame as .... and still do and really some of the violence/cruelty could have been toned-down altho probably realistic sadly not a lot here i would expect to have been done better

AWESOME acting from all top players here REALLY highly recommended. Caught it on Arte in replay. Do not know if available elsewhere but really worth tracking It is nice to be surprised by this level of quality on all scores.

6 hours of my life I'll never get back.

Shallow script, C to F rated acting. Lots of sodomy and sick deranged scenes. This is Cannabis, not Narcos' European Edition.

Quite unrealistic, the story drags, the characters are shallow, it's labored, delayed and clichéd.

The scene in the last episode where the doctor is shot after giving birth is especially perverse.

The drama is the worst bit, there is no depth. It's shallow and misses the mark every single time.

Absolutely nothing saves this series, even the cameos do nothing for it. The characters are pretty bone headed in their actions too, even for stoners. Very unrealistic. There is no reason to watch this series, whatsoever. The lead "French" protagonist has a terrible accent when she speaks that's grating for even my non-French ears. I kept thinking it was going to get better but it never did. So bad.