The Sketch Artist (Portrait - Robot) (2021–2023) User Reviews

Really good!

[Guanche48 · 8/10 · 1 April 2022]

I love this series!

I do not know why I hope to see, I don't usually see series in French. I am one big fan of the crime series, investigation and judicial cases.

This series is very emotional, thrillish and tense, with many messages , from those to learn and think, and the characters are very interesting.

I hope for a next season.

French-Canadian 'Mentalist'-like Series comes good by the end of Season 1

[ok_english_bt · 7/10 · 29 February 2024]

It took me a while to warm to this original crime drama series about a police sketch artist who helps to solve crimes investigated by the Montreal Police by using all her skills and emotional intelligence to create electronic 'identikit' profiles of both victims and suspects. Éve Garance (played by Rachel Graton) is surrounded by a rather oddball bunch of colleagues, but while they all contribute something interesting, her civilian background and kind of superpower of 'reading' people make Éve central to solving each crime. The final 'piece' in the 'jigsaw', if you like, and in that sense 'Portrait-Robot' AKA 'The Sketch Artist' is reminiscent of CBS's wonderful 'The Mentalist' in the noughties.

Credit to all the actors and production staff involved, particularly Sophie Lorain who plays Maryse Ferron, Éve's logic-obsessed wheelchair-bound boss and Alexis Durand-Brault who directs the action (Lorain and Durand-Braul also wrote the series), and the other co-stars Rémy Girard as the moribund veteran 'hack' detective Bernard Dupin and his rookie sidekick crime scene technician Anthony Kamal (Adrien Bélugou) add a bit of intrigue and humour to the proceedings. It wouldn't be 'noir', of course, if Éve didn't have some sort of personal issues, but the on the whole the 2-episode story arcs steer clear of the worst clichés and I felt there was enough by the end of Series 1 to want more. I watched 'Portrait-Robot' on British television as part of the 'Walter Presents ...' features of mainly foreign language crime dramas on Channel 4, but would imagine the series is widely available. Give it a go, why don't you?

Old and new skool

[ChristianneOtte · 9/10 · 12 March 2022]

Like the other reviewer mentioned, this is a very watchable show. Yes, there are obvious choices in characters and surroundings, but that's because it works! Just like how I hate it when they implement all sorts of weird or new factors to a romantic comedy, when all we always want to see is girl meets boy, something happens that keeps them apart, but they find eachother in the end. With detectives it's the same. And does it have to be completely credible? No, then I'll watch the news for what actually happens in the world.

What I also like is how they combine old detective work with new methods, exact with less exact science, and use electronics and social media like they are actually used nowadays.

The only downside to this old (en new) skool detective show is that they always have to use grewsome storylines. And since having a baby my mind does not want to handle this anymore while watching a show for fun. But this show kept me fascinated enough to overrule that feeling. Hoping to see the next season soon.

Very watchable even if missing glaring points.

[stevedunchouk · 10/10 · 27 October 2023]

Both my wife and I have watched the series. I binged it over a week and my wife is still catching up. There are some glaring holes in the storylines and also some actual facts pertaining to the characters as to their conditions that are well documented and spoken about on social media but the characters are naively unaware. That can be annoying at times but correctable in later series if the show continues. It is TV, after all, so we enjoy it for what it is. Critics who are nitpicking are just looking for recognition and can go elsewhere for their desires. Even if we do have to watch it with subtitles and annoying commercial breaks.

Definitely watchable

[laduqesa · 5/10 · 19 June 2023]

The trouble is though that the prémisses and the characters are not particularly believable. Remy Girard playing seasoned detective Bernard Dupin was seventy when the series was filmed and admits to being that age as part of a plot in Season Two. It's inconceivable that he'd be on field work as he's grossly overweight and can barely walk. And he's way past the age for retirement. Even worse, he subdues fit young thugs and hitmen without any trouble at all. In real life these guys would have pulverised him.

As for Eve Garance, the sketch artist, it just isn't credible that she gets witnesses to remember small details such as a mole or an earring, or even eye colour, in the contest of a rapid set of events or just a glimpse of the perp.

Maryse and Anthony have important supporting rôles as the head of the unit and CSI boy respectively. The writers seem to have woken up to the fact that they should have written in a techy IT person from the beginning so Elektra had a far more prominent place in the action in season two.

In the background, we have not particularly convincing human interest stories about the five main characters.

The crimes they deal with are over the top even for north America.

I admit I binge-watched but it's still pretty rubbishy. However, the actors and the tight direction kept it together for the main part.

We had three major cliffhangers at the end of season two. I assume a third one will come next year.

So-so

[garethbridges · 5/10 · 28 December 2021]

"Sketch Artist" is the latest in a string of police procedurals I have watched that are underwhelming. It's not that it's an awful show, but since the epic days of Nordic noire ("The Bridge", "The Killing"), American shows like "Bosch" and "Low Winter Sun", and even the Canadian detective show "Cardinal", this seems a big step down in intensity.

The characters are kind of phoned in stereotypes - there's the rugged old-school tough detective, the geeky young IT wunderkind, the unstable but empathetic sketch artist, Eve Garance (from which the show is titled), and an invalided tough as nails female boss. They all work in a special unit outside of the police (so no actual police procedure needs to be researched), working out of a suitably dingy basement, for dramatic effect. You don't have to be a stereotype to work there, but it certainly helps. It's a bit like power rangers, but coloured suits are replaced with cardboard cut-out stereotype personalities

Certain glaring weaknesses can bring a show down, destroying the suspension of disbelief, even for a viewer who wants to enjoy it. As an example, the tough detective, Bernard, doesn't mind using a bit of old-school (and highly illegal) strong-arm violence to crack cases. But he looks too old and slow to possibly be a physical enforcer. It is jarringly implausible.

Stories are dictated via the script in a ham-fisted way. They might as well all walk in and describe their characters, "I'm the one who...".

Also, we don't have one single epic tale here, but rather a sequence of smaller cases that are more or less uncovered by investigation. Arguably, this is not a failing.

I would describe this as early post-woke offering. As an example, when the IT wunderkind, Anthony, attacks the rugged old detective, Bernard, for not liking him for his skin colour, Bernard has a mini-rant about hating everyone equally. It's pathetic. It's not quite as bad as having woke politics preached to you, but having anti-wokeism preached ain't that great.

Despite my whining, it's kind of watchable on a rainy day.

Old age

[clight77 · 5/10 · 31 October 2023]

More unbelivable old men being super heros, get real.. To QUOTE The trouble is though that the prémisses and the characters are not particularly believable. Remy Girard playing seasoned detective Bernard Dupin was seventy when the series was filmed and admits to being that age as part of a plot in Season Two. It's inconceivable that he'd be on field work as he's grossly overweight and can barely walk. And he's way past the age for retirement. Even worse, he subdues fit young thugs and hitmen without any trouble at all. In real life these guys would have pulverised him.

As for Eve Garance, the sketch artist, it just isn't credible that she gets witnesses to remember small details such as a mole or an earring, or even eye colour, in the contest of a rapid set of events or just a glimpse of the perp.