Cannes Confidential: Season One

July 18, 2023 3:54 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

Stop me if this sounds familiar: a hard-working and dedicated French cop encounters a British rogue/con-man/art-thief. Suddenly, she needs his off-the-books assistance to help her resolve a complicated situation. IMDB listing with trailer.

I'm posting this in case people are looking for something to watch during the Hollywood strike. The show is shot in Cannes, is an Acorn production (with an assist by AMC), so the striking unions aren't involved.

posted by sardonyx (3 comments total)

Unlike the last time I posted something like this, I'm not here to say this is the most brilliant show on TV, you must watch it. Quite frankly, it's not. It's fine. It's mostly watchable.

The exposition is a bit clunky and wooden, and there's more tell than show. The acting is a bit uneven and underwhelming. The show should have a higher regard for the viewers' intelligence. (There is one scene in the second episode where they're discussing how poker works that makes you go "really, you have never heard of [this basic thing that EVERYBODY knows about?]"

Before watching the first episode, I read a comment online that said something to the effect of this "is Acorn's attempt at Blue Sky programming" (referencing USA Network's period of producing shows like White Collar and Burn Notice that were gorgeous to look at without an ounce of grimdark). At this point that's what's keeping me watching. I'm in it for the sparking jewellery and the gorgeous cars* and the beautiful boats. I just wish there was more of that content, and more shots of the beautiful parts of Cannes itself.

The other reason I'm watching this is that given that it's summer, there isn't much on that's new to watch, so this was one of the few options that caught my attention. I'm not sure if I'll stick with it, but for now, it's fine to have on in the background or to kill some time when I'm winding down.

*I'm sure this will interest zero people reading this comment, but I have to say that any show that gives me multiple shots of Italian cars leaking fluids earns HUGE bonus points for me. I'll even state that I thought they were just showing those images to foreshadow the car eventually blowing up, but no, the show didn't go there (unlike every other movie or TV show where fluid leak=crash and/or explosion). This time it was just a consequence of something happening prior to being shown the leak. Given what I know about Italian cars in general and Italian cars of that particular vintage, I'd expect that car to be dripping something on a regular basis.
posted by sardonyx at 5:15 PM on July 18, 2023

Well, it’s got Jamie Bamber but I need a bit of bite along with the glitz. If you haven’t seen Riviera (2017-2020), an American art consultant marries into a wealthy but mysterious family living in the south of France. The first season is pretty good and wrapped things up nicely. The first episode of the second season unwound all that so I stopped watching but otherwise, cars, clothes, chateaux and lots of scheming.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:08 PM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

It’s snackable, we enjoyed it.
posted by billsaysthis at 7:48 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]