BBC Four’s imported French police drama Spiral reaches the halfway point of its third season this week, maintaining its ability to disturb and distress but never disappoint with its unstinting gore, unending bleakness and unparalleled ability to bamboozle the brain, heave at the heartstrings and deliver a crippling kick to the crotch – frequently all at the same time.
Few TV shows have the power – possessed by Spiral in spades – to deaden and re-sensitise the emotions of the viewers apparently at will. Despite this week’s double-bill featuring a man being chopped up into pieces by his clearly-deranged flatmate (there’s a sea of blood, a head on the table, and a bag of something truly disgusting hanging in the window when the police officers arrive), the most horrible and affecting death of the entire two hours is a miserable, bloodless suicide involving a bottle of pills and a plastic shopping bag. The gory violence of the former is almost laughable; the lonely tragedy of the latter is heartbreaking.
These events and many more are woven into the ongoing search for the Butcher of La Villette, which takes yet another turn this week as the inability of Police Inspector Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust) and her team to follow procedure or adhere to anything resembling ‘the law’ causes them to come a cropper. ‘I’m getting really sick of your antics,’ Commissioner Aubert (Stéphan Wojtowicz) growls in despair as the case against their only suspect Ronaldo Fuentes (Misha Arias de la Cantolla) collapses around them.
When beautifully amoral (or is it the other way around?) barrister Josephine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot) is hired as Fuentes’ defence lawyer, it doesn’t take long before her client is freed and the case is handed to the Crime Squad instead of Laure’s team. Although she claims to only take cases for publicity or money, Karlsson seems to revel in thwarting the perpetually-beleaguered inspector. ‘Are you that much of a bitch?’ Laure rages. ‘Honestly? Yes,’ Karlsson replies.
Meanwhile, Judge Roban’s (Phillipe Duclos) investigation into the corrupt machinations of Mayor Courcelles (Nicolas Moreau) are also looking similarly doomed until he decides to follow the example of almost everyone else within the French judicial system and take the law into his own hands. One fake burglary later and he’s forced toad-like prosecutor Machard (Dominique Daguier) to sign the brief required to investigate the dummy company Fortex. However, the personal cost to Roban may be more than le renard argenté of the justice department can handle.
The multiple strands of the story grow ever more complicated, but this week’s episodes do finally see some of them begin to intertwine – and if you follow the clues in the first part, the denouement at the end of the second will be satisfying rather than surprising. However, the identity of the character with whom Laure cops off (pun definitely intended) after finally exchanging her seemingly limitless collection of vests for something a bit more revealing is a shock that even the keenest viewers won’t have foreseen; and as long as Spiral can continue to stun its viewers cerebrally as well as viscerally, it will continue to be compulsory Saturday night viewing.
Airs at 9pm on Saturday 16th April 2011 on BBC Four.