jeffovie

Bluffing French political fiction. Everything is excellent. Scenario, acting, suspense, realism.The real political intrigues French are thinly veiled. But above all, the episodes pass without our attention is released. We are kept in suspense from the beginning to the end. And the second season is even stronger. Bravo, we ask for more!

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qui_j

Of all the French series of this genre ( Men in the Shadows, Spiral etc) that I have watched, this is by far the worst of the lot. The first episode makes the viewer feel as if they have been dropped into the middle of an already ongoing story. There is no time taken to explain who the characters are or their relationship to one another. Those key facts the viewer has to figure out for themselves. Choppy editing doesn't help at all, nor does the obtuse, philosophical dialog that is so common in French films. As is common to all French films like this, there is a lot of desktop sex, the usual "May December" relationships between old guys and young girls, and heavy cigarette smoking. There is overuse of the hand held camera technique that follows the actors around as the walk down corridors and hallways. It becomes very tiresome after a while. In many of the scenes, there is a lack of continuity. Events occur with no explanation or logic to them but the viewer is expected to just take that in stride. This series would obviously resonate better with an audience in France, one more familiar with the strangeness of French elections, the myriad parties represented, and the changing alliances between them all. Seems like coalitions are the usual result and the President ends up constantly has to chase up the various factions to find out what's happening. With that kind of confusion at the highest level, it's a wonder anything gets accomplished. This was really not a particularly enjoyable series

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Bene Cumb

/refers to Season 1/Works based on political struggles and intrigues are always tricky as the proportion of fiction and non-fiction is not often clear and people within and beyond daily politics have inevitably different views and conceptions. Here, in Baron Noir, the "shadows and demons" of politics are revealed through left parties, with a certain involvement of trade unions and business organisations that are traditionally strong in France. Things, events, ideas and partnerships change fast, and the whole course of events is like based on proverbs and sayings, e.g. "desperate times call for desperate measures", "all's well that ends well", "process is more important than the result" - to name a few... Friends and allies come and go, people entangle themselves in the network of lies and injustice, and you ponder on and over how all this would end. Well, the end solution is not bright and clear, as Season 2 is already planned...As for performances, they were rather intense and deep, the French spirit and attitudes fully included, but most of the cast, incl. Kad Merad was unfamiliar to me - although I have seen several French films and series in recent years. In my opinion, Niels Arestrup as Francis Laugier had too limited opportunities to show his talent; the president was limited time on screen and in unvaried surroundings and circumstances. Well, Baron noir is not House of Cards to the full, but comparable to e.g. Borgen and Les hommes de l'ombre. A good watch - unless you are too involved in (leftist) politics somewhere...PS Season 2 is more about political technology and apparently less interesting to those far from politics, but... And the creation of Season 3 is not excluded either.

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