It may be a shortcut, but for the American magazine Variety, “French detective series go off the beaten track”. In the eyes of journalist Trinidad Barleycorn, Out of season takes the most daring route and thus reaches heights “in the art of constantly deceiving the spectator”.
This Thursday, September 15, France 3 is broadcasting the last two episodes of its mini-series, the six fifty-two-minute episodes of which are available on the channel’s website. In front of the camera of Swiss director Pierre Monnard, an impressive Marina Hands plays Sterenn Peiry, the police captain of a winter sports resort in the Dents du Midi, in the Swiss canton of Valais. The tracks are located “a stone’s throw from the French border”, precise Variety, one of the leading American publications on the entertainment industry. But, on this side of the Alps, you don’t just come across pebbles. As the tourists returned their skis and set sail, a woman’s body was found tied up, with an edelweiss in her mouth.
Already bereaved by the disappearance of her 15-year-old daughter in an avalanche, years earlier, Sterenn Peiry very quickly finds herself with a second body on her arms. Although identical, the macabre staging, using edelweiss and red strings, is flushed out on the French side. Hence the arrival of tricolor investigator Lyes Bouaouni, played by Sofiane Zermani, better known by his rapper name, Fianso.
First female roles
On this plot, adds Variety, “a third level has just been added”. Sterenn Peiry’s son kills his girlfriend. It remains to be seen, in the words of the cultural magazine, “how far can a mother go to save the only child she has left?”
For the journalist, Out of season manages to keep the spectator in suspense by providing suspense at each end of the episode. But above all “Marina Hands gives a powerful dimension” to this somewhat hackneyed figure of the policewoman haunted by a personal tragedy. Moreover, develop Variety, “more and more women have the leading role” in French thrillers. And to quote the productions of 13e Rue I killed my husband, Marion or Internal kitchen.
“There was a real need to see female characters that better reflect reality,” judges the director of the distribution company Hago, Virginie Boireaux, questioned by Variety. Between the genres of heroines and victims too usually depicted, “there are lots of types of women, and it’s great to finally see them on screen”.