Series Mania 2022 Day 2: we saw the SF series made in France by Disney+, Syndrome E with Vincent Elbaz and the return of the creator of The Wire

Syndrome E (French Competition)

In recent years, with proposals like Insoupçonnable, Rebecca, Luther, or La Traque, TF1 has taken a darker and more daring turn on the fiction side. And it will prove it again in the months to come with Syndrome E, a new event series with Vincent Elbaz, the first two episodes of which are presented in preview at Series Mania on Sunday March 20 and Monday March 21 within the French competition.

Written by Mathieu Missoffe (Zone blanche) and directed by Laure de Butler (La Promesse), who once again stands out for her real vision and great staging ideas, Syndrome E is the adaptation of the eponymous novel by de Franck Thilliez who launched the series of books devoted to the duo Franck Sharko-Lucie Hennebelle.

The series sees Sharko, a gruff and lonely cop who cannot manage to mourn his daughter, embark on a difficult investigation to find children who have mysteriously disappeared. Meanwhile, an old film from the 1960s provokes strange and dangerous behavior in those who watch it. When Lucie Henebelle, 35-year-old cop and single mother, realizes that her past may be linked to Sharko’s investigation, she joins his team.

Very dark, chilling at times, Syndrome E goes far for prime-time TF1 and that’s what we love. We see bleeding eyes, lifeless bodies whose brains have been torn out, disturbing videos reminiscent of Ring. And some pretty creepy experiments on kids. The introduction is exciting and really makes you want to see what’s next.

Especially since, icing on the cake, the series is served by a five-star cast, starting with Vincent Elbaz and Jennifer Decker from the Comédie-Française. But also Emmanuelle Béart, Kool Shen, Bérengère Krief, Michèle Bernier, Anne Charrier, Dominique Blanc, and Samy Seghir among others.

Soon on TF1

Para//els (Special Screenings)

Disney+

It is the second original French creation of Disney+. With Para//èles, creator Quoc Dang Tran mixes the genre of science fiction with an effective, human and endearing coming-of-age. The series tells the story of four teenagers who, following a power outage in their underground lair, find themselves separated in parallel dimensions.

If the promise of the project is part of the codes of certain recent successes, such as Dark or Stranger Things, the result manages to free itself from these titles thanks to a more organic style and chiseled writing. Para//èles is an ambitious series, but privileges the emotions and the development of its characters with spectacular sequences.

At the heart of a convincing cast, we find in particular Guillaume Labbé, Naidra Ayadi and Gil Alma, but also Thomas Chomel – hero of the Clem series -, who embodies Samuel, the central element of this intrigue which should seduce young and old.

Para//èles is available from March 23 on Disney+.

We Own This City (International Competition)

HBO

Based on the investigative book by Baltimore Sun journalist Justin Fenton, We Own This City marks the return of showrunner David Simon to the series five years after Show Me a Hero, and especially his return to the city of Baltimore, a character in his own right. of his cult work The Wire. It chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore police’s Gun Trace Task Force, a special unit created in 2015 to eradicate gun violence in the city that ended in disaster.

Illustrating the rampant corruption in the ranks of the police and the deterioration of citizens’ trust, shattered by the mass arrests encouraged by the various anti-drug policies, David Simon’s new creation is a ruthless judicial chronicle of systemic police violence, illustrating an increasingly sick America on the verge of tipping over into the Trump presidency.

We Own This City, April 25 on HBO.

Two Summers (International Panorama)

TRV

Belgian series presented this weekend within the International Panorama, Two Summers is the summer series tinged with mystery, thriller, and soap that we really need at the end of winter.

Created by Tom Lenaerts and Paul Baeten, Two Summers tells the story of a group of friends who meet for a vacation on a paradise island, 30 years after a pivotal summer marked by a terrible tragedy, since one of their died in a tragic accident. And this quiet reunion does not take long to turn into a nightmare when one of the members of the group is blackmailed with a video dating from 30 years ago in support, which reveals his responsibility in a rape .

The viewer is immersed in an Agatha Christie-style investigation to find out who is behind the blackmail. Before the situation turns to the game of massacre? The image is very beautiful, the characters well drawn, and the authors take malicious pleasure in scratching the rich and toxic and problematic male behavior over the episodes.

Coming soon to Netflix