Villordsutch reviews Witnesses: The Complete Season One…
As a fan of Nordic Noir I’m over the moon to see Witnesses: The Complete Season One arrive as a complete boxset on Blu-Ray. The excellent French Police Thriller likes to let you glimpse its cards giving you the belief that you know the hand it’s playing, however it’s not until the final few episodes do we see what is actually being laid upon the table.
For those that haven’t had chance to capture the show as it passed you by, we start by hitting the ground running as we’re introduced to a young Detective called Sandra Winckler (Marie Dompnier), who is investigating a bizarre series of crimes involving show homes being populated with exhumed corpses of a man, woman and child; all unrelated and posed in a different position. However in this case we arrive at a photograph which has been left of Sandra’s tutor and retired Detective , Paul Maisonneuve (Thierry Lhermitte), beside the bed; he is called in and becomes involved in this case initially as an observer and then much to his displeasure returning on the force.
Through Sandra’s investigations she realises the men being left within the homes, all be it where registered as suicides upon their death certificates where actually murdered, they come to the conclusion that the person – or persons – arranging the corpses are trying to alert the police to the previous crime. Delving back into Pauls previous arrests Sandra locates a couple of suspects who have been incarnated including a vicious rapist and murderer called Kaz Gorbier (Laurent Lucas), it’s discovered that a small number of prisoners escaped and it was believed that Gorbier died in a fire, however later they discover this wasn’t the case as Sandra finds out rather violently in her car.
The story opens up even further when investigating both a recently buried suspect and an answer to a sentence from Gorbier, in relation to the corpses. The story rapidly splits into two main branches, all be it we have had minor life twigs sprouting along the way, here is where you realise you’ve been watching two movements at work.
There are minor elements you’ll be distracted with at the beginning, for example the introduction of Paul Maisonneuve, his appearance is so accepted by the cast (as expected) you feel that you should also know him too. Again this is minor and any other moments arise in the show they will not register above this, even Sandra’s shoes which you’ll see as impractical, end up being unceremoniously binned off later. Other than these mere gripes I can find nothing else negative to even pull out of this series. It is steeped in reality, moving from a dying sea-front town, to IKEA-style new homes built upon previous cemeteries in land-grabbing; and those with power hoping to control those without. The Police Force also isn’t a bunch of square-jawed heroes, or a bunch of corrupt cut-throats, they are human beings looking out for the public and themselves.
Witnesses is an excellent thriller and one that if you’ve missed on its original transmission you’d be wise to pick up now.
Witnesses is available to by now from Arrow Films and you can purchase it here.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=C_zu6XuI_g4
Originally published October 6, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
