2023-11-10 10:43:00
On paper, Master Crimes, the new TF1 event series launched this Thursday, November 9 with Muriel Robin in the lead, attracted plenty of viewers. The public immediately joined in: there were 5.01 million of them in front of their screens to follow the first two episodes. That is 26.3% of the entire public aged 4 and over and 27% of women responsible for purchasing aged under 50, a preferred target for advertisers.
This series is devilishly reminiscent of the excellent American thriller How to Get Away with Murder (broadcast in France on M6 under the title Murder with Viola Davis) which fascinated thriller fans for six seasons. Which also immediately cried plagiarism. In both cases, in fact, an eminent criminologist, professor at the university, finds herself involved in murder cases with her students.
However, the fiction created by screenwriter Elsa Marpeau (to whom we owe, among other things, Alexandra Ahle, hit series from France 3 with Julie Depardieu, Captain Marleau and the remake of The Island of Thirty Coffins) quickly distinguishes itself from its Yankee cousin, in substance, form and tone.
“Master Crimes”, a balanced mix between thriller and comedy
“I’m waiting for the perfect killer!” » By pontificating thus in one of her works, Louise Arbus (Muriel Robin), a psycho-criminologist as brilliant as she is arrogant, did not expect to see herself literally taken at her word. But when a woman is found dead, this inscription stenciled on her back, the expert is forced to return to service in the field. A land that she abandoned eight years earlier, traumatized by having participated in the conviction of a man whose guilt she now doubts.
READ ALSO Muriel Robin: “I am very civic-minded, I was born like that” However, it is difficult to refuse to take up the challenge posed to him personally by the killer. She therefore temporarily leaves her lecture hall to track him down, not without having four of her more or less promising students hot on her heels – inevitably high heels, Louise’s fascination with shoes and other fashion accessories rivaling her interest in crime. But his unorthodox methods, as effective as they are, quickly exasperate Captain Delandre (Anne Le Nen), who is straight in her boots… and in her respect for the rules.
This is therefore the starting point of this detective comedy which, to convince, relies on a calibrated format (too much?) widely tested, and an offbeat tone. Each episode is based on a completed investigation – and quite well structured – while unwinding the common thread of a more personal plot, designed to retain the public. Classic, the formula, which has, among other things, proven itself for HPI, Astrid and Raphaëlle and many other television successes, nonetheless pays off, delivering a well-balanced mix of suspense and lightness.
With Master Crimes, Muriel Robin returns to comedy
The merit goes first of all to skillful writing, which knows how to play perfectly with the codes of the detective genre, even if we would have appreciated more originality. But the real advantage of Master Crimes lies in its characters, first and foremost its charismatic heroine. It’s impossible not to fall under the comically vagrant charm of this elegant criminologist with a sharp mind, an equally sharp tongue and assumed bad faith, whose biting remarks – inevitably – hide the sensitivity, just to respect the positive profile of the heroes from TF1.
READ ALSO Muriel Robin: “What I said about homophobia, I could not have said it before…” With each of her histrionic interventions and so many biting deductions, Louise Arbus bursts the (small) screen, of which she could well become one of the big names. Especially since she finds in Muriel Robin an interpreter suited to her. After roles in dramatic fiction (Jacqueline Sauvage, Eyes wide closed, Doubts…), the 68-year-old actress excels in this spicy and lively score. And finds with obvious (and contagious) joy the comic register that revealed her: “It’s quite pleasant to play, much lighter (than her previous characters, Editor’s note). I needed it,” she told us a few weeks ago.
The icing on the cake for the actress who has never been so fulfilled according to her own words: she plays opposite Anne Le Nen, her wife in the city, with whom she dreamed of working. Their complicity spices up the heated face-to-face encounters between their alter egos, under the half-fearful, half-admiring gaze of the requisitioned students. Who try to follow the teaching of their brilliant mentor with varying degrees of happiness: while Boris, the model student (Nordine Ganso) and Valentine, the brainless Instagram redhead (Thaïs Vauquière) endure the plasters of beginners and the sarcasms of Louise, Samuel, the calm and deserving student (Victor Meutelet) and Mia, the cheeky blonde (Astrid Roos) accumulate good points and praise.
READ ALSO Muriel Robin recounts her life on antidepressantsIt is the same for the young actors who lend them their features, the first two struggling to get rid of their stereotypical character to the point of caricature. Not enough, however, to spoil the pleasure, certainly a little guilty, that we experience in front of this entertaining and welcome fiction in this gloomy period. TF1 made no mistake. If the audiences follow, filming for season 2, already stalled, should start at the beginning of next year.
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