Distributor: Just Entertainment
Episodes: 6
Duration: 50 min (per episode)
Falco: Season 2 (DVD) – Series Review
The streets of Paris are still not as safe as can be, with murderers, kidnappers and other scum still roaming about. No time for Falco’s team to rest on their laurels. Villains need to be arrested, victims need to be saved. We’re in for six exciting cases, and an even more enthralling side story.
In season one we met Alexandre Falco (Sagamore Stévenin) when he woke up after being in a coma for twenty-two years. He recovered well and was granted his wish to be a policeman once again, although he did have to pay weekly visits to a psychiatrist. Now, in season two, one year has passed, but Falco can’t find peace just yet. Due to his visits to the shrink, his memory is slowly coming back, although it’s only flashes he sees. Ménard (Arno Chevrier), his best friend at the time of the incident and now his boss, always told him that he shot the shooter who put a bullet through Falco’s head, but Falco is starting to remember that it was Ménard himself who shot him. It is driving him completely crazy, knowing that his best friend tried to kill him. Looking for answers he even breaks into Ménard’s apartment. Lucky for him, his partner Chevalier (Clément Manuel) is on his side and helps him on his quest.
Meanwhile, of course, cases need to be solved, such as kidnappings and murders. Every episode has still got a storyline of itself, while the bigger story around Falco and Ménard gets a more prominent role.
In comparison to season one, the cases in season two seem to have become more violent. It’s also safe to say that the team members are all much more involved, both in Falco’s personal life and in the cases they work on. Falco looks death in the eyes quite a few times, but as he states himself: he and death became friends long ago, during his coma.
Falco’s personal story becomes more and more the focus of the series. He is looking for answers as to why he lost twenty-two years of his life, and why his best friend would betray him. At the same time he tries to be there for his daughter Pauline and his ex-wife Carole.
In this season we also get to know Chevalier a little bit better. While in season one he was quite the weirdo still living with his mum, who desperately tried to pair him off, he now has a rather interesting love life. We also get to see him as a real friend to Falco, while they secretly try to find out more about their boss Ménard’s shady past.
In each episode there is lots of action going on, sometimes maybe even a bit too much. While it is nice to have some excitement every now and then, certainly compared to season one, the creators might have done some overkill. The team is often in danger, and with serial killers on the loose, and kidnappers and bombers lurking around the corner, it sometimes seems as if the world has gone mad and there’s no place untouched. Other than that, the cases are well thought up and provide lots of excitement.
Acting performances are, just like in season one, very decent, and it’s nice to see some new side characters , such as Chevalier’s girlfriend, join the show. As the other side characters such as Pauline, Carole and Cheron don’t get that much runtime, this was a good move by the creators to have an interesting little side story, apart from the big one revolving around Falco and Ménard.
Aside from the shirts and leather jackets he wears, there aren’t that many elements that remind you that Falco is still partly living in the previous century. Sometimes it does get quite clear though, when he calls Chevalier to ask whether he can take pictures with his phone, or when Eva needs to explain to him what happened in Bosnia in the early nineties.
Conclusion
Falco’s season two is quite a bit different from the formula in season one. The cases have become more violent and the story between Falco and Ménard becomes a lot more grim. The storylines are nonetheless well thought up and will certainly keep you hooked. There is a lot of variation in the stories, with killers, kidnappers and robbers, and the victims not always being as innocent as they might initially seem. With a cliffhanger like the one in season two, we can only hope that season three will soon be released.
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