From the NY Times Critic’s Pick 1/4/21:
‘Spiral’ Review: A Peerless Policier Takes On Its Final Case
France’s answer to “The Wire” and “Law & Order” begins its final season on MHz Choice.
The long-running crime drama “Spiral” — its title in France, where it premiered on Canal+ back in 2005, is “Engrenages,” or “Gears” — does not take place in a postcard Paris. Tourist landmarks and picturesque boulevards are scant; the Eiffel Tower occasionally appears in the hazy distance, like a mirage. The show’s eighth and final season begins with a shot of Sacré-Coeur, but the camera pans down to the working-class Barbès district, where the dead body of a homeless Moroccan teenager is found inside a launderette washing machine.
And the Paris police officers of “Spiral” are cut from the same rough cloth. Their toolbox includes blackmail, intimidation and a disingenuousness so routine it’s like breathing — you can tell they’re lying in the presence of their superiors because their lips are moving. They’re not “good cops,” but of course they’re good cops. “Spiral” may be an unusually tense, granular and absorbing cop show, but it’s still a cop show. There’s no doubt whom we’re rooting for.
By Mike Hale
NY Times Television Critic
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