It’s a long time since I did any reviews of TV shows. Season four of Bron/Broen (The Bridge) was the last one I did, and I haven’t done any Spiral ones since season 5. Throughout lockdown, I’ve watched shows and said mid-way through that I should have blogged this, but never got round to starting it. The magnificent Spiral has got me going again.
My joy at the return of Spiral was tempered by the knowledge that this would be the final season. With all the Christmas TV dross over, we finally get back to the good stuff.
While our friends from Scandinavia tend to stop their series at number 3 (The Bridge’s four was unusual) we have been able to stay with Laure, Gilou and co for 8 seasons of the French classic. The first series was shown on BBC4 in the summer of 2006.
We left season 7 (season 7 spoiler alert) with Gilou taking the fall for what he and Laure had done, i.e. taking seized cash to try and find their previous boss’s killer. Judge Roban retired, Edelman was arrested for aiding and abetting a criminal and Laure looked like she was finally going to make a go of being a mother to baby Romy, after being deprived of her lover Gilou. Tin-Tin now works for Internal Affairs and sorry ladies, handsome Pierre is still not coming back.
Season 8 begins with a laundrette owner arriving at his shop to discover that someone has broken in. Two youths who were sitting inside the washing machines run for it when the owner enters, and they make a ‘clean’ getaway. One kid, however, is still in the machine and does not respond when the owner kicks his protruding legs.
In their office, Laure, Ali, Tom, JP and Nico are not happy. Despite Spiral suggesting that the whole of the police service in France are corrupt, the hullabaloo with Gilou seems to have put them on the blacklist and they have little to do. (Nico and JP are playing darts in the office and Tom is doing a crossword).
Ali is clearly fed up with the situation, telling boss Commissaire Beckriche that he wants to move up and if not in his current Division, elsewhere. Ali’s wife is also just about to have a baby.
Laure and Ali go to the laundrette as observers as the boy in the washing machine/tumble dryer is dead. (At least I think it’s a small boy. He may have been in there for ages and shrunk). Laure tells the police already there that her Division will take the case. Without clearing with Beckriche first. He takes a bit of convincing that they should take it but relents eventually saying that they shouldn’t get bogged down and to solve the case quickly. He hasn’t seen Spiral before has he?
Gilou has moved prison cell to share with a shifty looking paedophile, who makes models of things with matchsticks. He made Gilou a cake for his arrival.
Commissaire Bremont (who is the other parent to Laure’s baby Romy) visits Gilou in prison and we learn that he moved cell to get on the same block as prison kingpin Cisco. Bremont believes that Cisco ordered the killing of a former associate, Darmont, who was responsible for Cisco being sent to jail. He wants Gilou to try and find out who did the killing.
Laure and co. manage to track down where the dead boy was residing. It was a migrant area where undocumented minors lived together. Here they discovered a heavily drugged boy by the name of Souleymane, who confirmed that the dead boy had been sleeping there. He referred to him as “Shkun”, which is Arabic for “who’s that?”. With Souleymane only speaking in Arabic, Ali is able to translate.
Edelman is representing Gilou as his lawyer and is trying to persuade his client to change his story as the judge is prepared to reconsider his charges if he admits that Laure was also involved. Gilou isn’t up for that and tells the judge he acted alone, despite facing seven years for blackmail and extortion. And hello new judge! Roban is going to a big loss, but the new judge, Lucie Bourdieu, is certainly very pretty. She does, however, think Laure was involved.
The pathologist advises Laure and Ali that while Shkun had drugs in his system, it wasn’t an overdose he died from. He had suffered a brain haemorrhage from a blow to the head.
Back at the prison, Gilou is meeting with what appears to be some kind of counsellor who moonlights as a careers officer, who is suggesting he should consider retraining for another job whilst in prison. Gilou suggests he could become a golfer or a prima ballerina. British viewers will know that his next job could be in cyber. He just doesn’t know it yet.
The many fans of the unscrupulous lawyer Josephine Karlsson had to wait nearly 40 minutes for evidence that she would be appearing in season 8, and she is now living with the beautiful but unstable Lola, with whom she shared a cell in season 7. Lola is staying with her until the case where her stepfather raped her, with Karlsson representing her.
A break for the gendarmes as Shkun’s fingerprints are on record for stealing a bag, under the name of Amir Fekar. Until they see the same prints are also under the surname of Salah and Neymar. Clearly a football fan.
The police responsible for the multiple names explain that they have loads of Moroccan kids that they arrest for stealing things. They have no idea, so just have to take what the kids give them. The number of times this happens means they have no time to check if the fingerprints are already on file. The kids say they are under 13 so they have to let them go.
After finding CCTV footage of Shkun stealing a bag, they see that after he did, he had a fight with Souleymane. The now dead boy got the better of the encounter, but Souleymane is seen running after him. Without jumping to any conclusions, Laure and Ali decide that he caught up with him and hit him over the head, causing the injury that Shkun later died from.
When there is a report of a break-in at the same laundrette Shkun was found in, Laure and Ali find Souleymane there. He threatens them with a metal bar and Ali asks him if that is what he hit Shkun with. He makes a run for it, but Ali rugby tackles him to the ground.
Laure and Ali took Souleymane to hospital to have a medical and a bone test to find out how old he is. If he is under 13, they only have 10 hours to question him. A doctor tells them he is too busy to do the bone test when he has patients to treat. When tests are finally done, the doctor reports that he is a little over 14, with a margin of error of 6 months. This is the way I will tell people my age from now on, although with a much larger margin of error.
Karlsson becomes Souleymane’s lawyer and while the boy tells the police he didn’t catch up with Shkun, Karlsson asks the translator to remind him that he can stay silent.
Much to Karlsson’s annoyance, they force Souleymane to unlock his phone using facial recognition. There is a picture on the phone from the night of the murder with him playing laser tag. CCTV footage shows him carrying Shkun’s bag out of the laser tag place. Souleymane says he didn’t fight with him again. Karlsson points out that when he was read his rights, Ali translated, but as he is not a sworn translator, it is a procedural violation. She would therefore ask for the custody to be rendered void.
Gilou is beaten up by Cisco’s men but refuses to grass on who did it. He’s soon back for more though as he returns to the prison library where he saw Cisco using a hidden mobile phone. This time, Gilou picks a fight with Cisco and manages to take the phone from him as the guards break up the scuffle. He does so between him being searched and Cisco, meaning the guards don’t discover the phone.
After Karlsson’s intervention, Laure goes to speak to the judge responsible for Souleymane’s case to ask that her team continue to work on the case. Much to her annoyance, she finds out that Judge Bourdieu has been given the case. The judge asks Laure if she has anything more to say about the Gilou case and when she doesn’t, she tells Laure that she does not think they can work together. The case will go to the Juvenile Squad.
When Souleymane goes in front of Judge Bourdieu, Karlsson points out that the bone test is not 100% accurate and has primed Souleymane to say that it is him in the photograph he has in his possession, even though it is his little brother. This makes ‘him’ 12 years old. As he is the chief suspect in the murder, he will go into child protection. As they exit, the little toerag responds to Karlsson in French. He’d had a translator at every meeting but could speak the language anyway. The petite merde.
An angry Beckriche goes to see the Judge to complain about the case being taken from his team. He tears into her without even a bonjour or a je m’appelle. She explains that she was going to keep them on but changed her mind after speaking to Laure. Beckriche convinces her by saying he will report to her personally. Ali is annoyed that Laure didn’t tell him that it was the Gilou situation that took them off the case and they argue. Ali tells Beckriche that he wants to move departments and he is taking his paternity leave. His annoyance at the way the Department is being run sees him finally fully replace Tin Tin.
The pathology reports arrive and show that Souleymane couldn’t have killed Shkun as he was at laser tag when the fatal blow was struck.
Gilou returns Cisco’s phone after furnishing Bremont with the number. He tells Cisco that since he was getting out soon, Gilou didn’t want to get him in trouble so he could see the back of him. Gilou is rewarded with a steak.
The judge wants to see Souleymane again, but when the police go to pick him up, he does a runner and gets in a white van with several other kids. When chasing him, Laure is attacked by one of the kids who smacks her in the face and steals her phone.
Laure leaves a voicemail for Ali to tell him that it wasn’t Souleymane who killed Shkun and that she is sorry.
With Cisco getting out in two days, Bremont is going to try and get Gilou released too, so he can continue his infiltration.
Two episodes in and I already have the feeling that a few of our favourites won’t be seeing the end of the season.
Comments and issues
- The Levi’s ads seem to have got a lot darker since Nick Kamen was in them.
- Another new office for Laure and the team. It seemed like they had just moved.
- JP had lines!
- There must have been a buy one get one free sale on beards within Paris. Tom, Ali and more than his usual stubble Gilou, all sporting facial hair.
- Loose translations for a British audience abound, with translations including “wilco” from a police officer on his radio.
- Are the subtitles usually this big?
- Would they allow so many matchsticks in one cell?
- French prison seems a lot better than I expected. And free cake! (Depending what he made the cake with).
- I’m guessing it’s just me who thinks of the 2000 hit “Thong Song” every time Cisco’s name comes up?
- It took a whole 16 minutes for the first ‘putain’ of the season, with Ali having the honour. It only took a minute until the next one.
- The giant teddy in the picture with Shkun looks pretty sinister. Could it be responsible?
- The judicial building looks very like a nuclear power station and in particular, Torness on the east coast of Scotland.
- Edelman appears as Gilou’s lawyer. Edelman was arrested for aiding and abetting at the end of season 7. So now he’s out and practising law again three months later??
- What happened to the judge’s offices that Roban resided in? Marvellous old building with wooden panels and narrow corridors. It looks as though the judges are now working from a school. (Admittedly, the new judge looks young enough to be still at school).
- Lovely timing for Ali’s wife to go into labour as he is looking at a dead child’s body.
- Hang on, you can go to prison in France for up to six months and still be a police officer?
- That was some size of a glass Karlsson had for her wine. Pint of wine anyone?
- It might have been easier for Laure and Ali to find something in the complaints files if they put a light on!
- Another great translation when the police are looking for Souleymane at the camp and Laure says “Nada”, with the translation going for “Nowt”. Who knew Laure had Yorkshire roots?
- Interesting to see Laure give Ali parenting advice, given how she was with Romy.
- Karlsson has an interesting way of choosing clients – ‘he looks like a little shit, I’ll defend him’.
- With Souleymane having been in Sweden, I’m hoping Saga from The Bridge will come to France to help.
- Only in Paris would a boy living on the streets be dressed in Givenchy.
- Karlsson has clearly bumped into British tourists abroad, as when speaking to Souleymane in a language she thinks he doesn’t know, she just speaks slower and a bit louder.
- Great line from the judge to Beckriche – “Are you talking to me like this because I’m young, or because I’m female”.
- Would the French say “I shouldn’t have lost my rag”? or “That was dodgy”? or “dobbed in”? Subtitle man/woman is having fun this season.
- Bit of flirting there between Beckriche and the judge.
- Anyone playing the ‘take a drink every time “putain” is said will be very drunk every Saturday night.
- Cake AND steak in the prison. If I’m going to commit a crime, it will be in France.
- “Sound but messed up” is a marvellous description of Gilou.
- Laure with a new phone already and has it working. Takes me weeks.
- The book Gilou was reading ‘Nana’ is the story of a Parisian prostitute who destroys every man that pursues her. Remind you of anyone Gilou?
- Will Gilou admit Laure was involved so he can continue on the Cisco case?
- No Roban or Tin Tin.
- Does anyone have a telescope to read the credits at the end?
Thanks for reading!
wandywatson 