The series Paris Police 1900 on MHz Choice was one of the most exciting shows I’d seen in some time. Every episode a nail-biter, beautifully acted, with expert attention to period detail in costumes and sets. Set in the Belle Epoque era of Paris, the turbulent time sees the rise of virulent anti-Semitism. Jeremie Laheurte played a decent, honorable policeman investigating a woman’s dismembered torso found floating in the Seine. The search for the name of the victim and the identity of the killer leads him down a dangerous, dark, rabbit hole riddled with corruption- in government and his own police force.
The new follow-up is the six-episode- Paris Police 1905, and I have to say it’s even better than the first. The years have not been kind to the main characters. Antoine Jouin (Jeremie Laheurte) is still a policeman but not admired by his fellow officers. He’s married and has a baby but he’d rather stay late at work than go home.
Marguerite Steinheil (amazing Evelyne Brochu), the former courtesan turned informer, is not faring any better. She is forced to hold illegal gambling at her house and her “protection” from the police is eroding. Her artist husband Adolphe (Francois Raison) is unraveling too, finding that he has syphilis. (Syphilis seems to be a major theme this season). Marguerite’s daughter is coming of age also which fills her with dread.
The honorable Commissaire (Marc Barbe) is fed up and wants to step down from office but his scheming daughter (Mathilde Weill) has other plans.
Two crimes occur that seem unrelated. During a round-up of prostitutes by the corrupt vice squad, a woman is taken into custody who begs the authorities to attend to her baby at home. They do not and the baby is found dead. Also, an unknown man is found shot in the face in a shady park (inhabited at night by gay men and prostitutes). Jouin’s investigation unearths a network of corruption and blackmail in the police department, the medical establishment and even in the Catholic church. The closer he gets to answers, the more his life is put in danger.
The tough enforcer Joseph Fiersi (Thibaut Evrard) is juggling a family, helping Marguerite collect debts and is even asked by Jouvin to be Godfather to his baby. “You don’t have many friends,” Fiersi laughing replies.
The creator of this show is Fabien Nury, who wrote the dizzyingly brilliant script for The Death of Stalin. But in this series he gets in all sorts of political angles without being preachy, and the show rockets along, getting incredibly suspenseful towards the end. In fact, the last two episodes will make you insane.
