User reviews

I just watched my last ever episode of Engrenages. No more, supposedly, will be made. I've seen every single one over the years and watched the characters grow and change as well as the new ones introduced.

It's showing a harsh reality of the underside of glamorous Paris. Corruption, poverty, slavery, immigrant crime, drugs, murder and robbery. Having used the word "reality", one mustn't go overboard. The series requires a hefty dose of acceptance of the absurd to be able to believe in the plot. Cops, judges and lawyers don't act like this in the real world. Some of the coincidences are contrived. However, the excellence of the acting and the overarching plot lines mean that one simply forgets about the inconsistencies and exaggerations.

Everyone has to have their favourite characters in the series and mine was Judge Roban. I missed him in the final season, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I don't think he would have put up with some of the shenanigans that the two new judges allowed.

Of course, without the character of Laure, there would be no series at all. It's hard to imagine another actress pulling this off throughout the seasons. And the disaster zone of Gilou simultaneously ruining and solving investigations.

The series could not have been about dry police procedure only and therefore opened out onto the private lives of the characters. Usually this is done in a cosmetic way to add some purported human interest, but here the personal meshed with the professional and drove the plots along in unforeseen ways.

The producers weren't afraid to kill popular major characters off either which was a definite plus. It added a frisson and new blood to the overall story. And neither were they frightened of losing sympathetic minor ones either that other series might have shied away from. These deaths weren't wasted as they were drivers of the plot and development itself.

All in all, a super series that kept the tension up for far longer than many others could have. So many are burnt out after two or three seasons but not Engrenages. I'm perfectly devastated that it's all come to an end.

This is a review of Series 1 and Series 2 (total of 16 episodes) of the French police investigation TV series called 'Engrenages' in French but called 'Spiral' in English. ('Engrenages' does not actually mean 'spiral' but is not particularly translatable. It embodies a complex concept within a single word, referring to a vast web of interlocked and enmeshed gearings of events and personalities, which perfectly describes this incredibly complex and intriguing body of simultaneous and interrelated stories.) This is a sensationally compulsive and gripping series, full of well-rounded leading characters whose evolving personal tales are just as interesting as the crimes they are perpetually solving. As is usual with French crime films and series, they struggle against the octopus of French political corruption on a continual basis, as they cope with crime after crime and try to do their jobs against all the obstacles artificially created by powerful 'high-ups' and stony-faced bureaucrats. What is so remarkable about this series is the extraordinarily vivid and compelling characters which are created, and the magnificent acting. It is not really accurate to describe this as a 'police' investigation series, because under the French system, judges, magistrates, and prosecutors work side by side with the detectives on a daily and hourly basis, and this is what makes this series so fascinating. Major characters also include corrupt defence lawyers who are in the pockets of drug dealers and thugs. There is only one thing wrong with this series, and that is that someone high up in the production team (writer, director, or producer) is responsible for a disturbing and revolting streak of sadistic necrophilia which recurs time and again. We have to sit through numerous prolonged sequences where the camera lovingly dwells on mutilated or burnt corpses, which have clearly been expensively and meticulously produced by the props department. This is part of the contemporary trend of 'being tough on screen' by showing pathologists at work, a sickness indulged in also in British television at the present time, but really it is disgusting and whoever is responsible for including all that in this otherwise wonderful series should be taken to the nearest vivisection room and done away with. The main star of this series is the extraordinarily versatile and talented actress Caroline Proust. In the first couple of episodes she was a bit up tight as she settled into the role, but by the end of Series 2 she had so grown into it that she was spontaneity itself, and very endearing as she jumped up and down like a gleeful child when cleared in an internal investigation. As a detective captain, she epitomizes the dilemma of the modern woman, forced to do a man's job in dangerous circumstances and be as tough as a man, while coping with love pangs, loneliness, personal isolation and no lasting partner, dreaming of having kids but knowing there will be no chance, and frustrated at being the victim of continual gender bias and persecution by men who view themselves as alpha males. She is a delightful and sympathetic presence on the screen. The other woman dominant in the series is Audrey Fleurot, an eerily beautiful redhead covered in tiny freckles who epitomises the descent into evil. In episode after episode, we watch her progressively sell her soul to the devil as an increasingly corrupt advocate, betraying everything and everyone for money. Rarely has a reptile in human form been so successfully and compulsively portrayed. Really, Fleurot has achieved classic status as a villainess, and you simply cannot take your eyes off her because she is so wonderfully strange. My favourite character in the series is Judge Roban ('Monsieur Juge'), an investigating magistrate played by Philippe Duclos. He is quirky, eccentric, brilliant, intense, and a perfect joy to watch. The main investigating prosecutor ('Monsieur Procureur') is played by Gregory Fitoussi. He is a bit of a French 'pretty boy', ever such a good person, but also psychologically limited. Also compulsively watchable, exasperating and endearing at the same time, is the remarkable Thierry Godard, who plays the police detective Gilou. There are countless fascinating supporting characters, such as Guillaume Cramoisan, who plays Benoit Faye, the childhood friend of Fitoussi who is always getting mixed up in something dodgy and thinks all rules exist to be bent. Then there is the chilling psychopathic pervert who is personal assistant to a minister, Arnaud Laborde, played by Scali Delpeyrat, Daniel Duval who plays the ghastly and horrifying Me Szabo, Reda Kateb who plays the terrifying drug dealer Aziz, and the gallery of characters just goes on and on. Many of the Arabs and Berbers in the stories are amazingly good as actors. There is never a dull moment for hour after hour, the tension never slackens for an instant, and Series 3 must be impatiently awaited by hordes of viewers, amongst which I number myself as a dedicated enthusiast. This series is really an incredible achievement. The 'creators' are Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin; this is her first project, but he is a highly experienced French TV writer with a background also as an actor. They have been assisted by Virginie Brac and three other writers and there have been four directors, all splendidly creative. Everyone is excellent, and everything is superb except for all those horrible corpses. Interwoven throughout the series are highly intriguing miniature stories of puzzling crimes which are solved side by side with the main continuing investigations, in order to show the complexity of detective work, and how life is never dull for an instant. These are never just padding but are always interesting, and often bizarre. Everything about this series is highly charged, full of astounding energy and creativity, and it is really a triumph of sustained television drama. The amount and level of talent shown by everyone connected with this series is astonishing. The series really does deserve lots of awards.

I stumbled across this looking for to improve my French, I've ended up being gripped by the characters. There is a unifying theme but every week there is more blood and seediness and sub-plotted nastiness. It's enough to put one off Paris, however, you do get a vivid impression of reality as in "NYPD" and such work as Steve Bochco is famous for. The photographic effect is nearly monochrome, in keeping with the subject matter. Believe me this not a laugh a minute show, but it is a correction to the romantic view of France that Francophiles like me have. As a cop show it works, although there are enormous differences in legal procedures from those I know. There is also a cynical view of the wielding of power, both judicial and political. Aside from the action there is an indefinable Parisian gloss on the actors, it's no wonder falling into bed happens so easily, all the main leads are good looking and even the cops have a certain "je ne sais quoi".I am hooked on this series to find out what is going to happen to the main characters both good and bad.

Engrenages is a Paris-based police procedural making no concessions to the easy-viewing requirements which deaden its English speaking equivalents. Dowdy police, incompetent lawyers, crims in grey shading into the deepest black. Acting, camera-work, lighting and print quality is imaginative and thorough. Each episode had an exemplary cliff-hanging or shock ending. The rather delayed and somewhat cryptic sub-titles make it tough for non-native speakers, but it has done wonders for my bog-French. Sheer pleasure: the news that they are shooting a new series is excellent. Lets hope it goes out again on BBC3 or 4 - much too demanding, even for BBC2.

Fast-paced, like NY in the 70's, dirty cops with hearts of gold, people you despise but grow to love, there are car chases, bombs, gangs, vice, serial killers, very little glamour, nothing fake (like US TV) - colleagues, family, friends, bereavement, retirement, freemasons, wrong steps, putting the wrong steps right. Oh la la - so much going on and it just keeps on going on, not one slow episode as far as I can remember. I just don't know what I'm going to do when it all ends in a couple of episodes. So sad to be no longer spending my evenings with Gilou, Laure and Josephine.

Series 1:

Magnifique! - gritty French police procedural buried on BBC4, each episode enmeshing you in a darker and darker world of crime, pain, and - as everywhere - a convoluted legal system that is best summed up by a brief exchange mid-series: "It's cruel." "It's only justice." With great performances and a coldly verité mise en scene, this holds its own among the best US & UK police/legal dramas. Oh, and need I say how refreshing it is to see a non-US drama on British screens? A large cast perform excellent dialogue, an engrossing single theme backed up by numerous sub plots, each one driving the characters forward as all the best drama should. The lead characters are attractive/repellent as required, but always interesting, without looking like an advert for a shampoo. In fact there's none of that slippery high-gloss (where every 'goodie' is always right, and never makes a mistake) that has marred some US series. Spiral attracted a good deal of support on BBC comment pages and is already being replayed on BBC4, with series two on the way. If it doesn't get a showing here there may be a riot.

Series 2:

Now season two is over - all too quickly - I'm left actually gasping for more. It's the kind of show that makes the rash of 'CSI' type programmes looking plastic and rather basic. Is it because I'm so cynical that this show suits my way of thinking about the world so well? That dark, messy, morally ambivalent universe they live in is recognisable even past the cultural differences, such as the astonishing blurring of the boundary between investigative police work and judgement – it's not so much uniquely French as uniquely modern. I recognise this world: you could find desperate council estates and desperate police departments just like it all over the less photogenic parts of London and the UK. And as for the relationships – they're as fleeting, unresolved and problematic as everybody's are.

I wasn't sure if they could top the tour-de-force complexity and classy storytelling of season one; and I'm not sure they did; but it doesn't matter - the quality is still so high, and the series-long story arc so engrossing, that you don't waste too much time comparing them. Some familiar faces, and some new characters, keep things ticking along nicely. My only criticism really is that the 'villains' (as if it were really possible to separate them from anybody else!) of season one were so nasty, so venal, so atrociously amoral, that it was always going to be difficult to find new villains that didn't make you wonder where the bad stuff was happening. This lot were kind of old school. The final episode did leave me slightly confused and was I think underwritten in the haste to get to the end. Isn't the crucial difficulty of policing - everywhere - precisely that no one ever does really have that last minute change of heart, so that les flics must tread their dirty path alone?

The title in French "Engrenages" literally means 'gears'. However this word is also used figuratively to mean 'complications' (apparently by Jean Paul Sartre). The English title "Spiral" doesn't carry anything like the same power. The story is immensely complex and dark with interlocking relationships, corruption and deceit. How does "Spiral" even begin to hint at this? I would have liked a better attempt at an English title. Some of my own suggestions are "Convolutions", "Wheels within Wheels" even "Enmeshed" or "Cogs". Can anyone else come up with a better idea? Apart from this quibble, I am completely gripped by the series and have had to reschedule my life around the late programming. I never fall asleep during the program and on occasion lie awake thinking about it afterwards.

I've seen many - American, British, Canadian, French, Bulgarian, German, Russian, etc.

This one is the best one. It is better than Law and Order (although very different), better than Undercover (Pod Prikritie), better than Luther, the Bridge (any of them), the Killing (any of them) and so many others. Do not compare this to Braquo - Engrenages is way better.

The first season is a bit amateurish, but as the show goes on, it comes onto its own.

The characters are brilliant and the performances are perfect. The story is great, as are all the subplots. The relationships between the characters are so rich and complex that it does not feel like it's a TV show at all. It's suspenseful, dramatic, funny and sad.

It is not perfect in every way - there might be minor production imperfections here and there, the music/soundtrack is not all that, but the quality of everything else overshadows any minor blemishes.

Simply put - this is the new gold standard for police dramas.

This 8 part French detective serial is going out un-publicisied on BBC3 in the UK. It has some resemblances to the very darkest American cop shows, but is really grimmer and dirtier. There are unifying themes and tangents which may work into the main plot. It's impossible to explain how different things are from a UK police drama. The legal system is very different and it's fascinating to follow - who has power to do what to whom. The Police and Prosecutors aren't exactly corrupt, but in a way they can't help being. The police look like criminals and work out of what seems like a run-down basement. A brilliantly convoluted thriller, with all the fascination of a really alien legal system, Paris backdrop, washed out colours, general decay. Final episode on BBC next week, but you should be able to see it somewhere. I see from Amazon France that there's a second season.

I've just binged the full 7 seasons, 76 episodes, 57 hours. And every hour, superb.

This highly complex police drama from France is incredibly good. The plots are complex and tightly written. The production values increase with every year, and camera work is very good by season 3.

I love that the police and judges are often flawed, and make sometimes terrible mistakes. In particular, the lead, Caroline Proust, takes incredible stress and presents it on screen wonderfully. I also love how the writers provide redemption for the characters when they are broken or in danger, often through unexpected twists.

There are often amazing twists in the season plots, and each year is constantly fresh and new-feeling. It's extremely rare to see any plot event or dialogue that doesn't ring true.

This is extraordinary television. It's no wonder it's moving now into it's eighth season.

Must see.

While the approach is not new, the execution is excellent.

Firstly the stories interweave and become more engrossing with their machinations, the "engrenages".

Secondly the pace is engaging so its impossible to foresee the next part, and that is because it's well written and intelligently for the viewer; not disguised by quick cuts to dazzle the eye but then frustrate by its tedium or obviousness.

Thirdly, the cast is right and well directed. Characters are alive with a range of human flaws. Maybe Albert Camus was the script editor overseeing the lines of each character's arc.

Unlike some police dramas this one doesn't pull its punches - quite literally - and for those of us all too bored with the US legal system, the presentation of the way the French one does its business, is another interesting aspect to the show.(Along with all the slang.) And finally, watching Caroline Proust and Audrey Fleurot (the former plays a strong brigade police captain; the latter plays a lawyer without morality) is the coup de grace.

Forget formulaic shows posing as violent, dark and gritty. Spiral shows how the genre should be done. The French title means cogs or gears which trap the characters into ever more convoluted situations. No good & bad here - the naively honest prosecutor facing his first job is drawn ever deeper into a conspiracy which forces him to make increasingly dangerous compromises. The initial mystery underpinning the entire series, unfolds each week to offer us more fascinating pieces of the puzzle. Even the weekly murder - often solved within the episode - has repercussions that continue on. This is compulsive viewing – the end of the hour feels like ten minutes.

Tho' shot in colour, the drab settings and costumes often give the impression of black & white, till a bright handbag or scarf pull us back to reality. The mood is edgy and challenging. Caroline Proust and Philippe Duclos give particularly outstanding performances. Although a police lieutenant, the stunning Proust (as Laure Berthaud) has the direct wide-eyed look of a bewildered naïf. Duclos' Roban, looking somewhat like an ironic vulture, is the judge determined to unearth the truth despite sinister political pressures.

Spiral is uncompromising in its presentation of violence including sexual paraphilias (tho' I thought the French might have had their own word for Laure's "fist-f**cking?") Despite the graphic violence & frequent coarse language, which is only noticeable in programmes with sub-titles, this 8.30 pm free-to-air show - competing with the very tame "Gil Mayo Mysteries" still only attracts an Aussie M (parental guidance), not an MA (over 15).

It's the characters who are in tears and there's not an ounce of sentiment we're asked to give to any of the characters.

I've almost no business writing anything about this wonderful series. While I lived in Paris for a brief time, I never saw this side of what must be in every urban landscape. For those who think Caroline Proust's character is "unrealistic and over-the-top," I'll only ask: Did you have the same objection to Gene Hackman's work as Popeye Doyle in "French Connection I & II"? Laure Berthaud, captain of a police investigative unit, has all the flaws, strengths, drive found, in any "gritty" police drama. The fact that she's dimutive (in stature), she manages to fill the screen with an impossibly damaged character who is hungry for justice and will stop at nothing (I mean nothing) to get it. In charge of an equally flawed group of investigators her compassion and willingness to protect them from the scrutiny of even more corrupt higher-ups is what propels the drama.

While each season has a major crime that is (usually) solved in the season finale, each individual episode brings in smaller crimes that aren't linked to the major investigation. Fast-paced, violent, often literal in its depiction of the violence inflicted on others (and on the autopsy table), the real moments where my stomach churned was the corruption that is rife throughout the judicial and law enforcement system. Everyone is on the take and can bargain their way out of most situations by hook or crook, until Berthaud lowers the boom and dispenses justice in both traditional and untraditional ways.

Grégory Fitoussi as a disillusioned magistrate who decides (more or less with little other choice) to step down and join the ranks of a defense attorney hooking up with perhaps the most complicated character in the show, Joséphine Karlsson, wonderfully and convincingly portrayed by Audry Fleurot, who steps in an out of blatant law breaking without a blink of the eye. She's pitted against Captain Laure Berthaud who read each other with great perception and battle their way to a temporary conclusion of their rivalry until it starts up all over again in the next season. Together, they're wonderful to watch.

Because, as many have pointed out, this is a series about individuals set in the back drop of a very sordid criminal world of Paris, it's the characters not the plot that are compelling. The camera races back and forth through empty hallways and the viewer never knows what it will reveal. When the door at the end of those hallways open whether it's good or bad, it's a fascinating series and a rare original in the canon of television crime drama on both sides of the Atlantic.

The poetic infusion of nature that Scandinavian crime procedurals bring is totally absent. Not only do the characters in "Engrenages" need a bath and a quick on the fly meal after each episode, the viewer feels just as sweaty and dirty...and exhausted. I'm so glad I found this particularly during the time of a worldwide quarantine where quality entertainment is often elusive.

Saw episode three of season 2 last night and I can vouch that this one is turning into a real potboiler like season 1. The series works on the basis of one big plot line and a series of more minor ones which link together. Sometimes, a new minor case is solved in a single episode like the "echangistes" (wife swappers) or the gay test pilot last night, or it is carried over to the next episode. Again, like last season, the police are morally fragile like the criminals but invariably come good, the defense lawyers are on the crooked side and the crims vary between violent, amoral wrongdoers and vile, completely sadistic and downright evil wrongdoers. There are some brilliantly funny moments too. As for 'racial stereotyping' commented on earlier, grow up! That's absolute b*llocks. Lots of non-white people live in Paris so some of them will be criminals n'est ce pas? Watch out for gorgeous moneygrabbing redhead Maitre Carlsson who is getting involved with helping arch criminals and getting paid 3000 euros per case instead of 300 and buying loads of new outfits. Expect a big showdown between Laure and her before the end of the season. This is great TV, far superior and much less formulaic than CSI NY/LV/Miami. Give it a go. I for one, am hooked.

Engrenage is the most exciting, powerful, and dynamic Police drama you are likely to watch. Central to the plot is the unseen, to tourists, underworld of Paris. There are many different cases going on during one season, investigated by the flawed and dedicated team, with a strong female Captain. As an ardent fan since 2005, I was happy that the BBC have recently put the complete 8 seasons to stream again. Don't miss!

There are tons of police shows, and quite a few good ones, but this could be the best one.

This show has been called "The French Law and Order," a reference to the iconic American police/legal show of the 90s and 00's. That is a fair comparison, although Engrenages is better.

I called this a police drama as that is the more common expression, but that is technically incorrect.

There are police shows, such as 19-2, Southland, etc. that focus on law enforcement officers, usually uniformed or patrol officers, or SWAT teams, etc. Although this show has that component, it is not a major part of the show.

Then there are detective shows. Law and Order SVU, The Bridge, Luther, Line of Duty, True Detective. It's all about solving a mystery and catching a criminal.

Then there are legal dramas. There's Silk, Suits, Boston Legal, The Night Of, etc.

Engrenages is between the three. In that sense, it is similar to Law and Order (the original) but few other shows. But unlike Law and Order, the cases last more than one episode. This show is not a procedural, it is a serial, meaning, they don't get new cases and close them in 44 minutes. It takes them a season.

This show shows all the layers of the cake. It takes the time to show us the criminals and their crime, the detectives and their investigation, the prosecutor and his case, the judge and his rulings and finally the legal defense team and their strategy. Other shows focus on one - starting with a dead body and ending with an arrest or starting with an arrest and ending with a trial. This one goes all the way, from crime to judgment.

It's not just the scope of the show that makes it great, it's the interactions of all these cogs and gears. This show doesn't present these parts in slices, i.e. it's not "part 1, crime, part 2 investigation" - it's all interconnected. There are crimes committed during the investigation, suspects are arrested and released, cops dance on the grey area of the law and so do lawyers, private and public life get mixed, personal and professional gets blurry and there simply are no easy answers.

It's funny, sad, thrilling and enraging.

A must watch. This show is golden age quality.

I think it's the lovable yet vulnerable characters that make this show. Storylines in all series have always been current and believable. Just sad that we've just watched the last ever episode/series that there will be and I'll miss these folks so much especially Laure.

Having binge-watched all eight seasons over the last few months I can only say, whew!

I nearly didn't bother after season one, so annoying was the cinematography (particularly the clunky announcement of each new scene by zooming into some window). However, I am very pleased to have stuck with it: the production became vastly more professional, allowing the lovability (!) of the characters to shine through.

It's not so much a French "Line of Duty", more a French "The Sweeney". CID Chief Inspector Laure Berthaud shares many characteristics with Jack Regan: in her driven zeal for nailing the baddies she never saw a regulation that she didn't want to drive a coach-and-horses through, never met a superior for whom she didn't feel utter contempt and is, above all, fiercely loyal to her team.

Unlike Regan, however, Laure is too tiny to duff up the perps herself, which is where Inspector Gilles Escoffier ("Gilou") comes in. Beefy Gilou is stuck to Laure like glue (in fact, for years it's only the two of them who can't see that he is hopelessly in love with her), and whenever a suspect needs a little persuasion, Gilou is ready to oblige. His default interview technique is to snarl into the perp's face from a distance of inches, and then smack the miscreant around the head a bit.

It's astonishing how lovable we actually find Gilou, especially when you throw his propensity for prostitutes and recreational drugs into the mix!

Our third Musketeer is quiet family man, Inspector Luc Fromentin (TinTin). TinTin is slightly excluded by the tightness of Laure and Gilou's relationship, and is constantly appalled by their recklessness and their disregard for regulations and the law. However, he is diligent in the cause and, whenever lies and cover-ups are (regularly) required in the interest of keeping Laure and/or Gilou in the force and out of jail, he shares their fierce loyalty to the team and invariably (if reluctantly) obliges.

The team reports to a Superintendent who changes several times throughout the epic. Each one begins the job as a straight-laced by-the-book fellow (think Haskins from The Sweeney). Herville is obsessed with achieving results which will reflect well on him. Cerebral Bekriche comes in from the Fraud Squad and is discomfited by the casual violence of gangland Paris. Both of them are appalled by Laure's insubordination, her recklessness and her chaotic methods. However, they are both eventually won over by her infectious zeal and her wide-eyed loyalty to her team (it obviously helps that she's rather sexy too).

Clearly these are not the only cops in Paris, nor in the CID. Other notable flics are the smouldering Sami, who comes and goes to competently and calmly perform the most dangerous undercover work, and who manages to throw Laure's prolific but chaotic love life into even greater turmoil. Superintendent Brémont is the chief of CID's fierce rival, the Crime Squad. He starts out as, seemingly, an utter creep but steadily grows into a solid character with a major influence on the plots (his development seemingly signposted by an increasing reluctance to shave). And sensitive Ali Amrani is a late but very welcome addition to Laure's squad.

This dysfunctional team of cops would be quite enough for most crime dramas, but not Spiral. There is another parallel but often intersecting drama based around some heavyweight legal characters.

In early seasons the handsome young prosecutor Pierre Clément appears to be central to the entire show. However, his idealism is sadly misplaced and leads him into big problems in his chosen profession.

The ageing, equally-idealistic, and rather melancholy examining magistrate, François Roban, whilst being dedicated to solving crimes above all else, has all the experience Pierre lacks and is not above using trickery to get his way when it is called for.

Pierre and Roban both deal often with Laure and are equally fond of her, albeit in different ways.

The cynical, ambitious, avaricious young defender Joséphine Karlsson is another kettle of fish entirely. Quite ruthless, she is not averse to the use of threats and blackmail to advance her career and her bank balance. She does, however, learn some harsh lessons along the way and, despite always being clever and manipulative, she seems to always end up doing the right thing for people who need her help.

Joséphine crosses swords with Laure often. They are NOT fond of each other.

Joséphine's cynicism leads her to throw in her lot with other, equally unpleasant defenders, such as the irredeemably ghastly and thoroughly crooked Szabo, and subsequently Joséphine's male alter-ego Eric Edelman who, just like Joséphine, has a habit of doing the right thing whilst still seeming to be an utter reptile.

Odious, ambitious and deeply political Prosecutor Machard is Roban's bitterest enemy and (rightly) sees Roban's profound integrity as an existential threat. The two of them spar politely but viciously in the middle seasons.

As you would expect there are convoluted plots and an endless parade of grim villains and hapless victims, too many to get into and, anyway, it would be impossible to do so without spoilers.

I think it is fair to say, though, that Laure's team's recklessness is matched only by its comical incompetence, particularly when it comes to the raids and stings they mount seemingly several times every episode. The perp almost invariably escapes, usually through some exit route that the cops failed to notice and cover. It reaches the point where, when they are planning their next raid, you are muttering to yourself "What could possibly go wrong?"

Paris itself, The City of Lights, is seen in Spiral to be a city of darkness with much of the show set in the grim northern banlieues, beyond the Périphérique, which no tourist ever sees. A travel guide to the highlights of Paris it is not!

I watched the final episode with considerable sadness. It's one of those shows which gets under your skin and you can't help but fall in love with the characters. I for one shall miss them.

I've watched 5 seasons. The series began with very good scripts and strong characters. But as the series progressed the storylines have become erratic. But the major problem is the lead character Laure, the captain, who the actor is playing as if she's an hysteric. Her interpretation of the role is implausible. A police officer wouldn't last long behaving the way she does. Shouting and screaming at her colleagues. Going off in huff when things don't go her way. Throwing tantrums and having casual sex with strangers. Roban, a prosecutor, has suddenly changed from being a protagonist to a bad guy. It's a shame because it's well photographed and there are some excellent performances-Escoffier being one of them.

The review about forgetting all your previous concepts of TV police is on the mark. Even Bluebloods, which I love and which reminds you that the police are people too, has slips now and then. But Engrenages has you right next to all the people involved, trying to make sense out of what you see, wondering if involvement leads to danger, questioning whether what they're saying is true or an attempt to divert or entrap. I am not a viewer in a chair watching them. I'm there with them, almost through the whole episode. There has never been any other show where I was drawn in so completely. I look in amazement, going back to the days when there was only the radio and movies for me to watch, wondering how, with so many brilliant writers, directors and actors, nothing like this was ever done before. A remarkable tribute to French creativity.

I am normally Spiral's biggest Scottish fan but this series has been awful in my opinion . So boring and lacklustre i just sat there thinking ' so what ? '.