First Look 'Mismatch': The Odd Couple – French Style

This  French police series asks the question: can two half-sisters bury the hatchet and finally get along? This series produced by Sidonie Cohen De Lara and Sebastien Charbit offers an unusual twist on the odd-couple variation. The American show, The Odd Couple, has two protagonists – two middle-aged, divorced men – one is a slob, and the other one is a neat freak. Both live in a large apartment where they must put up with each other’s neuroses and peccadillos.

The French program revolves around the legacy – biological and legal – of Chief Judge Edouard Koenig (Alain Doutey) and his legitimate daughter, Examining Magistrate Justine Rameau (Claire Borotra), who is married to police captain, Alain Rameau (Pascal Demolon), who happens to be Lieutenant Vanessa Tancelin’s boss (Constance Gay, Spiral). Tancelin is a great cop, who transferred from Paris to idyllic Strasbourg,* and she is also his wife, Justine’s half-sister. Judge Koenig never told his daughter, Justine, about his affair after his wife’s death, and the daughter born of that union. Those who worked in the court with the Judge knew the truth; only the two half-sisters were never aware of each other. The Judge’s death has serious ramifications for both daughters especially since his will gives each half of everything. Vanessa takes advantage by moving into her father’s home to live with her half-sister, thereby also becoming acquainted with her niece, Margaux (Emma Ninucci).

Justine and Vanessa must not only work together but also live together now, which strains Justine’s relationship with her husband since he adamantly refuses to transfer Vanessa back to Paris. When Justine sees both coming home drunk and stumbling around, she immediately jumps to a wellspring of misconceptions, misunderstandings and erroneous conclusions. This show begs the question: can two siblings – albeit – half-siblings bury their differences, accept the father’s legacy, and accommodate each other’s unique eccentricities and idiosyncratic flaws?

MISMATCH (FACE-A-FACE) is ably directed by Julien Zadi with a keen eye for detail, and co-created by Anne-Charlotte Kassab, Nassim Ben Allal and Yann Le Gal who are guided by literary director, Krystel Basex, and psychological consultants, Violaine Bellet, Stephanie Cohen De Lara and Marie-Christine La Grange, who re-configure the motives and alibis of suspects and possible murderers in a dense psychological morass where the suspects are not who they appear to be, and the murderer(s) is/are really not discernible in this hybrid of the Heuristic Method integrated with Occam’s Razor. It is an onion layered with improbabilities and fallacies that ultimately reveal stark and undeniable truths.

SIDE NOTE:

*Strasbourg is the backdrop for Mismatch. It is located in eastern France’s Alsace region bordering Germany, and is the European Parliament’s official seat and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of Europe’s four main diplomatic capitals in addition to Brussels, Luxembourg, Frankfurt.

Along with Basel – location of the Bank for International Settlements; Geneva – host of the United Nations; The Hague – location of the International Court of Justice and New York City – home of UN world headquarters, Strasbourg is among the few cities that is not a state capital hosting international organizations including the Eurocorps, the European Ombundsman, the European Union, the Council of Europe comprising both the European Court of Human Rights and the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines as well as the European Observatory.

Strasbourg’s port on the Rhine River is a hub of road, rail and water transportation, as well as an important center of manufacturing and engineering with a population of almost 900,000 inhabitants, making it the eighth-largest metro area in France.