We’re up to season 3 of this French-Canadian crime series set in Montreal, and it’s as you were with the five main characters; Ève Garance (Rachel Graton) as the sketch artist, Maryse Ferron (Sophie Lorain) as the wheelchair-bound head of the police unit, Bernard Dupin (Rémy Girard) as the veteran cop, Anthony (Adrien Belugou) as the youngster of the group, and finally Elektra (Kathleen Fortin) as the technical expert.
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading this article now.
This season kicks off from where season 2 ended. Bernard has been captured by a gang, who took him whilst he was visiting his therapist. When he doesn’t turn up for a team meeting, Anthony calls his mobile and is surprised when his therapist – who has been badly beaten-up – answers the call. She explains what’s happened and the team (albeit without Maryse, who is flying to China for treatment for her medical condition) leap into action.
Bernard, however, is a wily old fox and is leaving clues – like dropping his wallet – for his colleagues to pick up on as they start to track down his kidnappers. Meanwhile, his poor therapist – who managed to record some of the bad guy’s conversations on her computer before getting assaulted – is recovering in hospital from her injuries, which includes some brain trauma and memory loss. Ève visits her and uses her skills to take her back to the scene to help her remember some of the details about her assailants.
Suspicion on who was behind the kidnapping falls on Santo Luciani – the gangster boss who’s haunted the unit since S1 – but, according to his lawyer, he’s away on a fishing trip with no access to phone signals or wifi. But the team get another lead when they listen back to the therapist’s recording and hear the name of a known criminal.
Before long, they’re on the trail of the gang; but one of the team is harbouring a dark secret that had a direct bearing on the kidnapping.
In addition to the crime itself, there’s plenty of human-interest stuff going on – Ève’s son is 6 years old, and his father is considering taking him to England. The boy had thought that Ève was just his Godmother, until the big reveal in S2; and Anthony has issues with his boyfriend, to whom he’s confessed about having killed a man.
I mentioned in my reviews of earlier seasons that it’s like a French-speaking ‘NCIS' or ‘CSI', and that’s still the case. The characters are somewhat cliched, as is the script. But it’s pleasing enough, and if you enjoy US dramas like those mentioned above, this might well float your boat. But watch season 1 and season 2 first before jumping in here.
Walter Presents: ‘The Sketch Artist' Season 3 is available as a full boxset on C4 Streaming now.
