I loved the first episodes of the the series. Set in Paris, it features a french police brigade.It has some nudity, violence and action with a French accent and flavour. Nice and refreshing since most shows are about the American or English reality. Unfortunately, the crudeness that was interesting and refreshing in the first episodes goes on and on. It is as if the plot is always the same, a group of hard policemen and women that fight crime not really caring about the law. They kill the villain. Then comes another.... So, murder after murder and law violation after law violation, the cops always get away with it. It gets unbelievable.... It should have lasted one or two seasons and give it a good finale as a prize. Some characters manage to disappear from season to season without much explanation, probably the actors weren't available...

A long time ago I used to watch a TV learning series called French in Action about a young boy and girl living in Pars. It was for mid-level students of the language and dealt with basic situations and presented grammar in context. Braquo is nothing like that series. The language that the cops and gangsters speak has little to do with school French. It's like the writers have gone way out of their way to create a unique language that is nothing but slang, profanity, and guttural shortening of words. The dialogue reminds me a lot of Elmore Leonard in that it's so ungrammatical and riddled with slang that it barely qualifies as French.First of all, this series is a gold mine of cool French slang words beginning with the name, Braquo. What the hell is a "braquo." On the website it says "Caught in a deadly spiral they must pull off a braquo (armed robbery, heist)." So "braquo" ain't in no dictionary and was found in a French rap song.Next there is the intro music and credits to the series which are very cool…and not too long. I loved The Wire, hated the intro music, ditto that for The Sopranos, True Detective, and a lot of other series.The casting is top-notch and everyone looks like who they claim to be. I especially like the figure of Lemoine, a slimy little gangster tough guy. The internal affairs cop is another skeezy piece of work. Most of the actors have a distinctly un-Hollywood look to them; most would be considered too scuzzy for USA movie work.Crazy action scenes and realistic while running at a breath-taking pace. The show basically took its style from The Shield which was more or less the same theme of bad cops running wild. Braquo has some cliffhangers guaranteed to keep you up way past your bedtime so be warned that any attempt to watch a single episode may be all but impossible.

If you like Spiral, if you like De Niro's Ronin, if you like The Shield or any other really dark criminal situations with messed up people, drugs and guns, then you'll simply adore this.For me the far N Europeans do the best thriller's such as The Bridge or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but you cannot beat the French for very realistic gritty, brooding criminal based dramas.Great characterisations, a sensible mix of personal life issues and work issues all with a feeling it is about to go horribly wrong yet again! I've yet to watch season 2 though I have it, I hope it is as good as season 1 which is remarkably good IMO.Season 2Just finished watching it and thought it as good as Series 1. It finishes leaving the opening for series 3... if it ever gets made.

Olivier Marchal, series's creator, screenwriter and co-director, has been a cop for many years before he became the now acclaimed director we know. He always said he used his own knowledge of the field for his movies. "Braquo", one of the latest Canal Plus TV production (see also "La Commune"), tells the story of a Police Group which crosses the line and uses rough methods. Which will draw the attention of Internal Affairs, as they start investigating the Group. The Group, leaded by Eddy Caplan (Jean-Hugues Anglade, who stared in Marchal's first movie "Gangsters"), will go deeper and deeper in its dark path, using the very same methods that the gangsters he's after. The tagline "Gangsters have changed, police too" gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect: nothing but the tough reality. The story is really breathtaking and makes you end up dying for the next episode.This mini-series has also a political background, referring to the use of french police by the government for political purposes. It's also a reflexion about police methods and morality.The two directors, Marchal and Frédéric Schoendoerffer (son of Pierre Schoendoerffer and director of "Truands" amongst others), made a wonderful job: great acting, appropriate photography, thrilling score... to make it short, it's quite an achievement. Don't miss it.