Series of the Week: “The Forest”
The forest of dark souls
My friends know that I do not like series, especially the American ones, because the vast majority of them is repetitive, predictable and without daring, very different from their European correspondents. A good example of how a series should be, in this case a miniseries, is the French “The Forest” (“La Forêt”, FRA, 2017), a Netflix production.
Divided into six episodes, the miniseries tells the story of a small French town in the Ardennes region. Like any small town in the world, it is a place where everyone knows each other and knows about the other’s life. So everyone is shocked when a teen disappears without a trace.
The event coincides with the arrival of the new chief of local police, Captain Gaspard Decker (Samuel Labarthe. After working for many years abroad, Decker returns to France with his daughter Lola (Mélusine Loveniers) after his wife’s death.
Despite his large police experience, Decker is surprised by the way the local cops work, especially his second-in-command Lieutenant Virginie Musso (Suzanne Clément). Born in the city, and living there for a long time, Musso knows everything and everyone, and makes her decisions based on this knowledge, sometimes disobeying the established norms.
The missing girl, Jennifer (Isis Guillaume), was a close friend of Maya (Martha Canga Antonio), the adopted daughter of Musso, and Océane (Ines Bally), daughter of Thierry Rouget (Patrick Ridemont), an usual troublemaker. As the three girls were very close, both police and teacher Eve Mendel (Alexia Barlier) try to get as much information as possible.
The problem is that the girl seems to have evaporated. The searches are concentrated in the woods that surround the city, but who finds Jennifer’s lifeless body is Eve. People begin to remember that similar cases occurred in the past, and Eve herself was found alone at the age of six, being adopted by local doctor Abraham (Christian Crahay).
Feeling like a fish out of water in this environment, Decker seeks to impose his authority by using his experience and investigating every possible clue. The situation gets more complicated when both Maya and Océane also disappear.
This mini-series, in addition to bringing a different view of the usual police stories, escapes from the commonplace in many ways, starting with the unglamorous environment of a country town, quite different from the elegant streets of Paris.
Another interesting aspect is that, contrary to what is seen in the American series, all the characters have qualities and defects, things to hide, and even serious transgressions. That is, they look like normal people, not itinerant stereotypes.
The story also brings a mystical aspect involving the forest that gives the title to the series, almost always in the person of Professor Eve. Only survivor of a mysterious and tragic event never clarified, she maintains a connection with the forest that even she can not explain.
“The Forest” is yet another of the many – and good – products that Netflix is bringing to the market, challenging traditional studios and forcing them out of their comfortable business. Like “The Mantis”, “Money Heist”, “Four Seasons in Havana” and many others, there is a movement of renewal in the industry that only benefits the viewer.
Original Title: “La Forêt”