Vive la difference! Dear MHz viewers, brace yourselves… a blast of French crime-solving delight is coming your way! She wears a parka and a Holden Caulfield hunting cap, she dances and sings spontaneously, she doesn’t give a flip what people think about her and she sees through lies with laser clarity. She connects with working people and troubled kids, and loves art and beauty and modern dance. But she’s not highbrow, because she hates it when she misses her TV dramas (our kind of person!) Oh, and her breezy manner and little red braids suggest Pippi Longstocking. Seriously, what’s not to like? Such an unusual female lead, in my opinion, could only have been written by a woman. And in fact, she was… Captain Marleau is the brainchild of French writer Elsa Marpeau, who describes her as a cross between Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson (Fargo), Raymond Chandler’s literary creation, Philip Marlowe and Peter Falk’s TV cop, Columbo. The series is directed by another female French treasure, Josée Dayan.

French audiences swooned when Captain Marleau came out – it was a ratings juggernaut. Along with being a free spirit, the good captain is very au courant, brimming with cultural references – which range from French songs to Scooby-Doo to Prince to punk rock to Grindr to Ricky Gervais to Britney Spears. She also throws around references to French history and French contemporary stars you may not be familiar with – I wasn’t. (Ah, but that’s what the pause button and the internet are for!) The show is also a big vehicle for guest stars – the venerable Gérard Depardieu appears in the first episode.

Other guest stars will be familiar to MHz Choice viewers and general audiences alike – Pierre Arditi and Claire Nebout (Blood of the Vine), Jacques Spiesser (Magellan), Sara Martins (Detectives), Marius Colucci (The Little Murders of Agatha Christie and Family Murder Party), comedienne Julie Depardieu (daughter of Gérard) and David Suchet, to name a few.

Of course, the success of Captain Marleau hinges on the performance of French actress Corinne Masiero, who pulls it off perfectly. Nothing is as exhilarating as watching as the smartest person in the room play dumb, which is how she plays the part. She’s like a high-wire trapeze artist without a net. Here she is in Episode 4 investigating a murder at a health spa.

In case you think you’ve seen Masiero before, you have – in Churchmen Season 2 as the new age healer, Zivka, who falls in love with Father Bosco… and in Spiral Season 3… and in “The Moving Finger” episode of The Little Murders of Agatha Christie.

So like Captain Marleau at the spa, come on in, the water’s fine! See what so captured the hearts of the French television audience.