I could use this same review for most of the series I've seen over the past 10 years! Bleak story, too much realism/gore, brutal sex, murders of all kind, torture, almost pornography. None, NONE, of the characters are likable. This goes for most we see nowadays that isn't kiddie fare. If you have any integrity or ethics left, you will NOT identify with a single person. They all do the irresponsible and incorrect thing. They all drink, smoke, do drugs, have sex with hateful people and are in relationships with murderers, addicts and/or perverts. It's like watching a meat grinder. After awhile it's almost boring if it weren't for the beautiful cinematic effects. The music is apt as usual with the murmur of soft bass and drums like heartbeats in background, rain effects, stolen Bernard Hermann (Hitchcock) strings. If you at all start to like a character or they show the flaw of wanting to change their evil ways, that character will 9 times out of 10 be offed in the next moment. It's all horrific and I think that it appeals to generations now of unethical mindless sensation seeking people who were raised by parents exactly like them--void of empathy.
9 Reviews
Somewhat pretentious, yet not among the finest French crime series
BeneCumb27 October 2016
I can't say I am much aware of what is going on in French cinema, but from time to time, for a change, I make time to watch French creations on the topics I like most. So, after e.g. Braquo and Engrenages, I was redirected to En Immersion.
Black-and-white approach is often good, but in the series where practically nobody has any delight in their life, only various problems, it provides too burdensome background for a work where thrill and crime should dominate over personal and health issues. Thus, the pace slowed down, yet there were attempts to link different fates into related loop - characteristic to Nordic noir - but they resulted in both unnecessary over-sophistication and scenes, not speaking of dubious shifts and settlements. It seemed that Episodes 1 an 2 had all the time to "waste", but Episode 3 summed it all up in a certain hurry. Good that the ending scenes were not plain, though.
The cast was quite unknown to me, only Olivier Chantreau (as Guillaume Leanour) was familiar, but his character was a bit trivial to play. The ones depicting Serrero family were just okay, nothing special.
All in all, En Immersion does not measure up to e.g. Virage Nord also shown on Arte, but it is no flop, by all means. Just be prepared to follow more mysticism and mental issues and less criminal stuff.
Black-and-white approach is often good, but in the series where practically nobody has any delight in their life, only various problems, it provides too burdensome background for a work where thrill and crime should dominate over personal and health issues. Thus, the pace slowed down, yet there were attempts to link different fates into related loop - characteristic to Nordic noir - but they resulted in both unnecessary over-sophistication and scenes, not speaking of dubious shifts and settlements. It seemed that Episodes 1 an 2 had all the time to "waste", but Episode 3 summed it all up in a certain hurry. Good that the ending scenes were not plain, though.
The cast was quite unknown to me, only Olivier Chantreau (as Guillaume Leanour) was familiar, but his character was a bit trivial to play. The ones depicting Serrero family were just okay, nothing special.
All in all, En Immersion does not measure up to e.g. Virage Nord also shown on Arte, but it is no flop, by all means. Just be prepared to follow more mysticism and mental issues and less criminal stuff.
Never boring
wittlindiego14 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
What a great work of camera and story line. The show was never boring and has grabbed me that much that i HAD to watch all 3 episodes in a row. Highly recommended. The setting, in mostly rainy Paris, and the black and white camera gives it a special touch. Also a glimpse of how France is dealing with immigration from Africa plus how the drug trade is booming and getting ever so more dangerous. the main Character, a cop which is diagnosed with brain cancer, is the heroic central figure which last task is to bring the dangerous criminals down. At the same time he is struggling with the relationship with his daughter, who herself is slipping into the drug world.
Undercover
searchanddestroy-18 January 2016
What a terrific, dark, bleak french crime TV show that speaks of pushers, drug dealers, harsh cops, brutality and total despair. The main lead is a terminal ill cop who is sent by his hierarchy to infiltrate a pusher's net. You have already guessed that's here a hopeless tale, a thousand miles away from TF1 channel crap factory. You watch a desperate cop drowning. You also have interesting sub characters study. All long this TV series you think of BRAQUO one, of course. The director Philippe Haïm gave us SECRET DEFENSE back in 2008, and also some BRAQUO episodes. Not a too complicated plot, but beware to follow it very carefully. I highly recommend it.
Maigret it sure ain't
tarkatheauteur11 March 2019
This was compelling, but if there had been more than three episodes, I am not sure I would have got through it. I hung in there for the excellent acting and the brilliant b&w cinematography, but every 20 minutes or so I found myself slipping into existential despair and had to take time away to watch cat videos. Bleak does not begin to cover it. The Paris it depicts is to all intents and purposes post-apocalyptic - a place out of which all order, aspiration, joy, hope and positivity have been drained along with the colour. 'Immersion' is its overarching, and often visual metaphor, where individuals hover between survival and death by 'narcosis' (the French title of episode 2, stupidly transmuted into 'Ghost Ship' in the English subtitles). In my view it is worth the investment of time and effort, but you should make sure that something in your life that makes you cheerful is easily accessible when needed: brown paper packages tied up with strings, schnitzel with noodles, whatever.
Long movie or short tv show
kosmasp24 June 2021
This could have easily been a long movie (just over 2 hours), but it was decided to make it a 3 part tv show. Which I reckon works quite well too, especially with the cliffhangers after the episodes/at the end of the episodes. The acting is really good and do not let the b/w fool you ... this gets violent ... and when it does, it does not take any prisoners - pun intended.
Really well told with highs and lows and character choices you may disagree with ... but it's all done realistically ... there is not just good and bad ... there are layers of certain things. The same is true about the ending - and there are quite enough twists and turns in the story to make it more than interesting. It may not be an instand classic, but it still is more than good.
Really well told with highs and lows and character choices you may disagree with ... but it's all done realistically ... there is not just good and bad ... there are layers of certain things. The same is true about the ending - and there are quite enough twists and turns in the story to make it more than interesting. It may not be an instand classic, but it still is more than good.
A mere shadow of what has been coming out of France of Late
prosper129 July 2017
The look is right; Paris, how can you miss? The music is dramatic. The camera department have got their chops down. The sfx are nothing new, but still are interesting. The premise is meh, but okay. It is the writing that turns "En immersion" into a 5.
There are plot holes you can a truck through. I can't comment as even with a turkey like this I'm not going to give away a spoiler. There are too many characters---- and most are just stock characters doing stock things. Actors just do what is on the page and this case they've little to work with, though they try. There are subplots that are underdeveloped, perhaps 5 or 6. Characters come and go, yet never move the story forward.
It was like this was conceived on a Friday night. Written over the weekend. A week of pre-production and casting and shot the following week using that 1st draft. It's almost as if you can hear those words, "don't worry we can fix that in post. We'll have cool sfx, a dramatic score and great editing." All in all I'd say give it a pass and watch something else. Spain, Italy, Belgium, Holland Denmark, Argentina, Scandinavia, Chile have fine cop thrillers; most countries have cop thrillers better than "En immersion." Look around you deserved better.
There are plot holes you can a truck through. I can't comment as even with a turkey like this I'm not going to give away a spoiler. There are too many characters---- and most are just stock characters doing stock things. Actors just do what is on the page and this case they've little to work with, though they try. There are subplots that are underdeveloped, perhaps 5 or 6. Characters come and go, yet never move the story forward.
It was like this was conceived on a Friday night. Written over the weekend. A week of pre-production and casting and shot the following week using that 1st draft. It's almost as if you can hear those words, "don't worry we can fix that in post. We'll have cool sfx, a dramatic score and great editing." All in all I'd say give it a pass and watch something else. Spain, Italy, Belgium, Holland Denmark, Argentina, Scandinavia, Chile have fine cop thrillers; most countries have cop thrillers better than "En immersion." Look around you deserved better.
A black and White Comic Book
sgcim7 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I expected a lot more from this after watching the wonderful French TV crime series "Spiral", but Deep played like an overly melodramatic satire on the film noir genre of the 1950s. The pacing was so rushed that we couldn't stop laughing at event after event piling up on one another. It almost seemed like a silent film that was sped up because of the filming process, but unfortunately there was too much sound; an overwrought score that telegraphed every event in the movie before they would happen, and ridiculous dialogue that seemed like it was trying to outdo Roger Ebert's "Beyond The Valley of the Dolls", or the hilarious filming of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". It wouldn't be fair to blame the actors, because the writing, direction, cinematography, music and the ridiculous pacing of the film, all made it impossible to give anything resembling a good performance, so it made them seem like a bunch of yammering idiots. If you like watching train wrecks like the above mentioned movies, you'll enjoy watching Deep; at best you won't find it boring.
The most melodramatic and possibly dumbest cop show ever made
ysstog5 February 2021
Wow. Stunning how bad this is. Nonsense, unbelievable plot. Characters you don't care even slightly about. Overwrought music and visuals. It really is stunningly bad.
It looks great though. More shows in black and white, please.
It looks great though. More shows in black and white, please.
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