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Braquo Season 3 is something that I didn’t know had yet been made when the press release dropped into my inbox, but upon seeing it I was all “Mon dieu! It’s time for more Eddy Caplan!”
NOTE THAT THIS REVIEW ASSUMES YOU HAVE SEEN ALL OF SEASONS ONE AND TWO.
Picking up right where we left off, Vogel (Geoffroy Thiebaut) is still gloating about “Four minus one”, after the car is still burning, in which Theo was sat as it exploded.
The hunt is then on for the crooked ex-cop, who tries to pull the alibi that that he has nothing to do with it because he was beaten up by all 3 of the male cops out of our favourite quartet. At the same time, he is seen also hiding out in a country house rented by a hot French chick called Orianne (Lizzie Brocheré, bottom pic) who, like Roxanne Delgado (Karole Rocher), also looks like she needs a damn good wash.
However, our bereft cops can’t spend all 8 episodes moping around, so just 15 minutes in, Eddy Caplan (Jean-Hugues Anglade) gets a call from Roland Vibert (Antoine Basler), a man he put away some time ago and who is now out, yet still pissed off with Caplan, but who says he has something he needs to tell our hero. There’s a potential lot of illegal stuff about to be coming in at the haulage depot where he works.
Everything that follows interweaves and there’s a lot of double-crossing going on, as a war is set to break out on French soil between the Russian mafia, the Georgians and the Armenians.
Key characters – and it’s a credit to the writers that they can juggle so many and they ALL remain memorable – are led by Atom Paradjanov (Arsène Jiroyan), an Armenian who has his fingers in way too many pies; Mikhaïl Pavlovitch (Xavier Schliwanski) – who, like a typical baddie, is always eating when someone turns up to quiz him, while the actor playing him looks like a cross between Stewart Lee and Charlie Brooker – and Levani Jordania (Mark Ivanir, who starred alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman in the engaging drama A Late Quartet), are both ‘Vor v zakone’., aka ‘thief in law’, or a big cheese in the thug world.
On the cop front, there’s a new guy, Andreas Megrelishvili (Ivan Franek), who has a look of Gerard Butler about him. He has his own very interesting story to tell, which will unveil as the season does.
All the actors in the main cop roles – Jean-Hugues Anglade, Joseph Malerba and Karole Rocher – are on fine form as usual, but how does Nicolas Duvauchelle fare as Théo Vachewski? …well, you’ll just have to watch the programme to find out.
And despite being so busy, Caplan still finds time to shave his upper arms and get his back waxed.
Going strong into its third season, Braquo Season 3 is still nothing less than compelling, must-see drama. Episode 6 is one of my favourite in this series, for reasons which will become apparent when you watch it 🙂
And once you get to the end of the last episode, the only problem is that it takes them two years to make a new one! (Well, in fact, it took them 2.5 years to make the third season, so god knows when we’ll get season 4, but I want it now!) Jean-Hugues Anglade has hinted that there will be a fourth season, but that it’s also likely to be the last.
It’s difficult to write a review of a TV series without giving any key points away, but it’s safe to say that at times, it reminds me of ’24’ when it had very tightly-written episodes, albeit without the time element. If you enjoyed seasons one and two, then you know you’ll be coming back for more, and if you haven’t seen them, then make sure you watch them first because the story arc continues into this one.
One of my favourite lines comes from Vogel, but I won’t say who he’s talking to: “It’s not only your life you fucked up. You couldn’t even manage your own suicide.” (puts gun in their mouth)… “I’ll show you how it’s done. But only once, so watch carefully. If the barrel’s horizontal, it’s not going to do the job. You want it to be pointing upwards. Like this…”
And a couple of issues I had, which I’ll hide behind a spoiler tag:
Presented in the original 16:9 ratio, the picture perfectly captures the filthy-looking police station and the grim local streets of Paris, with the latter also being made to look stylish at times, given the direction.
The sound is in Dolby ProLogic and is fine for what it does, getting across the dialogue (even though I need the subtitles to understand it), assorted gunfire and plenty of atmosphere.
Sadly, there are no extras on this release, so technically the overall score loses points for that, but realistically, you’ll see you are getting eight episodes of quality entertainment, so there’s no argument. Just buy it today!
Braquo is easily one of my all-time favourite dramas from overseas, alongside 24, The Bridge, Borgen and Dexter.
The menu features static links to the four episodes on each of two discs, with the theme playing in the background.
Naturally, there are subtitles in English, and they are also optional, so if you are French and have bought this, you’ll can switch them off. Chapters are even thinner on the ground than with previous releases, with just 4 per episode, most of which are around 53 minutes, but one’s a few minutes short of that, and the final episode just tips over an hour.
Annoying, there are trailers before the main menu which I can live without. These should be placed in an extras menu.
Braquo Season 3 is released on July 21st on Blu-ray and DVD.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
10 10 7 0 |
| OVERALL | UNMISSABLE |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 8 * 53 mins (approx)
Year: 2014
Released: July 21st 2014
Cat no: FCD989
Chapters: 4 per epsiode
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: Dolby Pro Logic
Languages: French, Russian
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 16:9
Disc Format: 2*BD50
Directors: Frédéric Jardin and Manuel Boursinhac
Music: Erwann Kermorvant
Cast:
Eddy Caplan: Jean-Hugues Anglade
Walter Morlighem: Joseph Malerba
Roxane Delgado: Karole Rocher
Théo Vachewski: Nicolas Duvauchelle
Roland Vogel: Geoffroy Thiebaut
Orianne Beridze: Lizzie Brocheré
Levani Jordania: Mark Ivanir
Andreas Megrelishvili: Ivan Franek
Michelle Bernardi: Isabelled Renauld
Atom Paradjanov: Arsène Jiroyan
Mikhaïl Pavlovitch: Xavier Schliwanski
Erica Vogel: Julie Judd
Fargette: Joël Lefrançois
Soldatov: Toni Hristoff
Iossif Vissarionovitch: Wojtek Pszoniak
Serguei Batourine: Pierre Bourel
Arkadi Batourine: Vitaly Cheremet
Viktor Batourine: Sacha Vikouloff
Bouledog Batourine: Ludovic Silmezis
Romain Vibert: Antoine Basler
Helene Rossi: Valerie Sibilia
Nino Franchesi: Nicholas Abraham
Idriss Alioum: Tony Harrisson
Mounir Aoudi: Hassam Ghancy
Lea Morlighem: Eden Ducourant
Oscar Morlighem: Tristan Aldon
Baba Aroudj: Gerald Papasian
Aalatin Aroudj: Imer Kutllovci
Avocat Vogel: Serge Cassagnol
Grigory Kantaria: Anton Yakovlev
Dimitri Bitchkov: Leonid Glushchenko
Zourab Amirov: Vladimir Zaridze
Odessa Dimayev: Mihai Tarna
Anatoli Dimayev: Yuliya Dyenisova
Charlie: Laurent Richard
Procureur Vanderbeke: Pascal Elso
Yaponchik: Renat Shuteev
Roustaveli: Iljir Selimoski
Marchandeau: Yves Verhoeven
Salome Vissarionovitch: Olga Babluani
Darius Vissarionovitch: Raphael Hude
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.