Maigret - Set 7

The Best Portrayal of Maigret
Bruno Cremer gives the finest and most believable portrayal of Jules Maigret; I believe it is possibly the closest to the intent of Simenon in his novels. Maigret is an unconventional Chief Superintendent, with authority that extends throughout France, and his detective work takes him throughout that country, populated with vivid and believable characters. The plots frequently take turns that are unexpected (both to the viewers and to Maigret himself), no two of the episodes are alike, and the work of the directors and writers is essentially free of the "glitches" that sometimes occur as a result of last-minute editing. I think that Maigret is the outstanding model for the investigative police officer and that Bruno Cremer is a gem among the actors who have portrayed him. These DVDs are expensive but definitely worth the money. By the way, they are set in France shortly after the end of World War II, and the backgrounds are 100% coherent with the settings.

MAIGRET Is A Thinking Man's Thinking Man
When I was much younger, certain authors - Spillane, Chandler, Hammett, and Cain to name but a few - got me hooked on mysteries. Not so much the contemporary, CSI-style evidence procedurals, but more so the old school stuff - true police procedurals that required a detective or a gumshoe who was a quick thinker set out to interview witnesses and suspects. Sure, evidence mattered, but what mattered most was the protagonist was hell bent on uncovering every deep and dark secret the subjects thought they could keep. With today's jet-set, short-attention-span audience, that kind of thing - the cop with a brain for deducing deliberate subterfuge - isn't en vogue. It's more than a bit passé, but I'll take a solid MAIGRET outing any day of the week over a team of scientists (who look like underwear models, by the way) traipsing around Las Vegas looking for hairs, fibers, semen, or whatever else substitutes for a good old-fashioned motive these days.

(NOTE: The following...

Well done mystery series
Enjoyed all of this series. Plots are well constructed, little or non graphic violence evoking thought provoking solutions. Great practice for improving one's French. Wonderful scenes of French villages.

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