Have you been watching … Spiral series five. Is this the best season yet?
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Version 0 of 1. This blogpost contains spoilers from episodes one to eight of season five of Spiral In this fifth series, Spiral is playing around with its family of characters. Gilou, once the tearaway teen, is now the responsible father figure (his arrest for receiving stolen goods notwithstanding). Tintin, the conscience of the team and reliable family man, watches as his marriage disintegrates, and Laure, the evergreen free spirit, is contemplating (single) parenthood. Growing up often means growing apart but as the series enters its 10th year it’s heartening to see that while the problems may have changed, Gilou, Tintin and Laure still form a strong family unit. The crew is there for them when spouses, lovers and children are not. Related: Spiral season five: episodes seven and eight recap – Roban meets his match The central crime is a horrible one, and that’s very much on-brand. If you don’t get blown up, burned or mutilated you’re doing OK in the Spiral universe. The discovery of a mother and daughter trussed together then dumped in a canal kicks off the investigation which, as usual, branches off in several different directions at once, forever hampered by misfortune and misadventure. I don’t think any cop show valorises failure quite like Spiral. Les blunders have long been a defining feature of the show. The raid at Papa Columbus’s illegal gold smelting plant seemed to be an exception. It was that one moment where everything came together – good intel, the police commissioner present, eager press riding shotgun, the target captured and arrested. Then Tintin goes and kills an unarmed and tethered dog. RIP, unknown hound. And RIP Pierre, our pedigree chum from the right side of the tracks. The decision to kill off Clement was a bold one. He’s a beloved original cast member, important to Roban, Laure and – most of all – Joséphine. Breaking up TV’s most handsome couple in the cruellest way possible gave Audrey Fleurot a chance to show her acting chops and she came through powerfully with a gut-wrenching show of grief. She’s a survivor but with Pierre’s civilising influence gone, it will be a while before she regains equilibrium. I hate to play the blame game but … Roban is to blame. He was always a stickler, often obsessive, sometimes maddening, but you always knew he had right on his side. Now his tunnel vision is so complete even Marianne has left. Maybe Juge Mendy can get him back on track or at least rein him in a bit. Someone needs to – the old Roban is the most heroic figure the show has. In the past, Laure has been something of a mother figure to Gilou so it’s nice to see that now she’s having an actual baby he’s the one willing to step up and raise it as his own. Leaving aside the bizarre vista of Laure and Gilou cohabiting and co-parenting platonically, it’s a grand gesture from the man with the big heart and the big right hook. The thing for Laure to do, of course, would be to patch things up with Brémont and pray the baby doesn’t come out looking like Samy. But we shouldn’t rule out the Gilou option: he’s no philosopher but Samy’s death got him thinking about the meaning of life and he now wants something to build on. He’s got a great rapport with kids. Stranger things have happened. You can usually rely on Spiral to provide memorable villains – but that’s where this series is falling short. Niko & Tani and the Butcher of La Villette were impressively vile, and eventhe “leftist toerags” of season four were entertaining. After them, it’s difficult to find Djibril Merini, Blanco the human blowtorch and “everyone calls him ‘the nutjob’” Zach as all that imposing. Nonetheless, the show still expertly weaves connections between the cons, the cops and the silks. It continues to feel comfortable at penthouse or pavement and every level in between. The French justice system is a character in its own right, a complex three-dimensional one at that – gears within gears, like some glorious steampunk creation. It still has stories to tell. |