(director)
Arrow Films (studio)
Cert 15 (certificate)
429min (length)
23 June 2014 (released)
22 July 2014
Series 3 of this ultra-violent French cop drama enters an explosive start when, in a brief recap, we see Theo Vachewski’s car blown up. Theo, part Eddy Caplan’s team of Parisian coppers, is left badly burnt fighting for his life. Never far from breaking the law themselves, Eddy and Co. soon end up in troubled waters when they try hunting down the culprit!
Eddy Caplan (Jean-Hugues Anglade), Roxie Delgado (Karole Rocher), and Walter Morlighem (Joseph Malerba) suspect psychopath extraordinaire, who is working for the police’s internal affairs bureau… and he is a dodgy character indeed! Then again, so are Eddy and his small team, usually verging on trespassing onto the other side of the ‘law’. In particular Roxie leaves no stone unturned to avenge the death of Theo.
But Vogel is not the only reason for the trouble that’s a-brewing. Enter his perfect match: psycho-bitch from hell Oriane Beridz – a freelance interpreter for the police with an agenda of her own: really, she wants to kill Eddy Caplan for something that happened in the past, and drafts in the help of Vogel. Although he is anything but keen on assisting her, he has little choice, for Oriane knows a secret or two that would finish off Vogel if he doesn’t comply!
As if all this weren’t complex enough (actually, that’s just scratching the tip of the iceberg!), Eddy, Roxie, and Walter get drawn into a brutal and relentless war between two rival Russian mafia gangs (plus a trafficking network via Turkey), and a deadly female assassin called Odessa… In between shoot-outs, car chases worthy of James Bond, murders, blackmail and what have you, Eddy’s squeeze gets kidnapped by the extremely nasty Oriane…
With time running out on each side, and so many lives at stake, loyalties and trust shift on an almost daily basis while the constant plot twists and sub-plots add further to the frantic atmosphere.
Jean-Hugues Anglade and remaining cast deliver utterly believable performances; their fixation on the case (make that cases) takes a heavy toll on their private lives. What is less believable is the sheer amount of gung-ho action, and the level of violence these cops get away with. Ok, so they’re French… and the series is created by Olivier Marchal, himself a former Parisian policeman.
Braquo – The Complete Series is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
