A Show To Go: Review of Lupine from Netflix

You looked at me but didn't see me,  A show to go: LUPIN

What image comes to mind when you hear the word "rogue"? That funny fox from Dasha the Traveler? Assistant Professor of Gentlemen of Fortune? Or Frank from Catch Me If You Can? Maybe someone else? With the release of Lupine on Netflix, another noble deceiver, modern esthete and master of transformation Assan Diop will be added to this list.

Assan is the character of Omar C, a French actor you may remember from the romantic comedy "1 + 1". At the age of 14, young Diop lost his father after strange accusations of stealing a necklace, and 25 years later he himself decides to steal that very necklace and gets involved in an adventure closely intertwined with the events of childhood, the death of his father and intrigues at all levels of French society.

The events of the show have been moved to modern Paris, and the show is connected with the original novels about Arsene Lupine only by the love of the protagonist for this series of books. The episodes are built on separate plots about the hero invented by Maurice LeBlanc, but they are harmoniously built into the narrative: for those who read it will be a pleasant reference. On the one hand, this is a free adaptation of the classics of French prose, on the other hand, it is a fascinating series about a resourceful guy who wants to get to the bottom of the truth and knows how to transform, calculate ahead and get ahead of opponents.

Now there are 5 episodes available on Netflix, but even one is enough to intrigue, drag you into the cycle of events and start pulling the strings together in attempts to uncover the causes of Assan's father's death. The necklace, of course, he successfully steals almost immediately but thereby triggers a series of unforeseen events, each of which leads to a new lead, a new person. On the tail hang the hapless French policemen, who, fortunately, do not bump into each other like a Taxi. As expected, there is a well-read inspector familiar with the adventures of the book Arsene Lupine.

The main character has something of the British Sherlock Holmes, brilliantly performed by Benedict Cumberbatch. Omar Xi plays an endearing criminal: courteous, well-mannered, pursuing a noble goal, albeit by fraudulent methods. He deftly changes images, arranges actions, as if playing a chess game. Assan always has an emergency exit and ingenuity, helping out at the right moment for history. There were no Sherlock's palaces of mind and formulas that pop up on the wallpaper, and the non-obviousness of the next step and some understatement only add intrigue. There are cinematic conventions, a too-clever main character, and even the stupidity of individual characters, but in such an easy adventure, all this is easily forgiven.

A special polish to the show is added by the fact that the first episode was directed by the director of "Illusion of Deception" Louis Letterier. The experience of a Hollywood production is felt, although the usual notes of French cinematic charm have been preserved. There is no swing and special effects like a movie with Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, but they are not required on the home screen. In the end, the show is not at all about the wow effect, not about grandiose illusions, but about one person and his goals. 

In 210 minutes of screen time, I saw several vivid images, the charisma of the protagonist, a playful attitude to what he got himself into, a few mistakes, and a lot of good luck accompanying the brave. This time was definitely not enough for me, because the show is interrupted by an important cliffhanger, as befits any modern multi-part work. It will take at least a couple of months to wait for the continuation of the story of a gentleman thief, which is quite enough to read the stories about Lupine.

Lupine is a French show created with the support of Netflix and for some reason, it doesn't have Russian voice acting, only subtitles. This caused certain viewing problems because I had to watch in the original voice acting and read the translation on the screen. Unfortunately, my knowledge of French is far from being free to watch the show, and the English version was not good enough in many scenes. For example, the actors used different intonations or slightly distorted the meaning. A trifle, of course, but it influenced the viewing - while you read the words, you lose small important details in the frame. 

There was one more thing that struck me as a gamer. In one of the scenes, Assan plays with his son on the PlayStation, and everything seems to be fine, the gamepads are turned on and glow in different colors. The problem is that on the TV there is footage from Horizon Zero Dawn, and the phrase sounds in the dialogue: "Headshot, you are killed, loser."

These are two consecutive shots that raise a question for me:

Is it possible that a kid who is clearly familiar with PS4 should not be asked what he and his father can play in the shot to make it lookrealistic? pic.twitter.com/kguGKpzIEc

- Ilya without PlayStation 5 (@iamKacnep) January 11, 2021

It's strange for me that no one on the set, including the young actor, said that this was wrong, and did not offer to include a multiplayer game with a split-screen, because there are quite a few of them. Again, a trifle, but memorable. Any TV show has such nagging, but they hardly spoil the overall impression.

As one of the characters said about the protagonist: "Methods, panache, style and talent - everything is like Arsene Lupine." And this perfectly characterizes the show itself. Lupine is a classic attempt to romanticize a crook by adding something noble and fair to his motives. Therefore, the series turned out to be easy, without philosophizing, gray morality and strained attempts to justify the actions of the protagonist.

There is nothing superfluous in the show, no bells and whistles, only people and the actions they do. It is quite simple, aesthetically pleasing and does not pose serious puzzles for the viewer (except for the main storyline). At the same time, it moderately entertains, disposes, amuses and makes you empathize precisely at those moments in which the main character deserves it.

Well, and most importantly for me, it looks like a breath of fresh air in the modern monotonous serial content.