Marianne on France 2: what is the series worth with Marilou Berry inspired by the documentary Ni…

What is it about ?

Investigating judge, Marianne Vauban is a woman with a cheerful outspokenness, surprising methods, and a certain and radiant humanity.

Accompanied by Captain Pastor and his faithful clerk Yves, Marianne must demonstrate all her experience, her sagacity and her humanity to investigate complex and tasty cases which require, among other things, to immerse herself in the world of dance. country, to confront a medium specializing in animal communication, to solve the crime of a truck driver fan of Bella Bartok, to become unbeatable in embalming, or to dissect behind the scenes of a cabaret…

Mariannedeveloped by Frank Magnier and Alexandre Charlotte.

With Marilou Berry, Alexander Steiger, Stephane Pezerat, Laurent Olmédo, Drimi Gouttebel, Alka Balbir…

Every Wednesday at 9:10 p.m. on France 2 from September 7, and already available in full on Salto.

4 episodes seen out of 6.

Well worth a look ?

Since the arrival on the air of the phenomenon HPI on TF1, detective comedies have never been so popular on French television. Already crowned with the success of Captain Marleauwho continues year after year to delight viewers with her incomparable banter, France 2 is preparing to give birth this evening to a new whimsical and colorful heroine cut to delight the hearts of the general public: Marianne Vauban.

Modern and popular, like the investigators camped by Audrey Fleurot and Corinne Masierojudge Marianne Vauban blows, from the first minutes of the series, a breath of fresh air on the police dramas of France Télévisions with her getup, her indefinable accent, her punchlines galore, her love of chocolate éclairs, and her taste. for excesses of all kinds, from good food to unattached sex.

And if this Marianneperformed to perfection by Marilou Berry (I promise you), vaguely tells you something, it’s because the character and the series are freely inspired, according to the production and the channel, from the documentary Neither judge nor submissivewhich won the César for Best Documentary in 2019.

Directed by the teams of the cult show Strip Tease, this exceptional film followed for three years the daily life of Anne Gruwez, a truculent and rebellious examining magistrate from Brussels with an impressive outspokenness. For 99 minutes, the directors endeavored to show on the screen a human and invested magistrate, with unparalleled repartee, as well as the extent of the cases, strange or glaucous, that she had to investigate.

If it is hardly surprising that a production company wanted to make a fiction out of it, we can still be surprised by the mention “freely inspired”, as the series created by Franck Magnier and Alexandre Charlot reproduces almost literally certain character traits and aspects of Anne Gruwez’s work. Indeed, Marianne drives the same blue 2CV, also identifies the different districts of her city according to the homicides that have occurred there during her career, and has a pet ferret (instead of the rat of the Belgian magistrate).

Added to this is a “cold case” which is the red thread of the first season and looks unmistakably like the classified file that Judge Gruwez brings out in Ni magistrate, nor submitted since Marianne makes it a point of honor to wake up a sleepy justice around the murder of a prostitute that occurred 10 years ago in order to finally unmask the murderer. A case that touches her deeply because the young woman was the mother of a little Zacharie, now a gifted teenager, placed in a foster family, and to whom Marianne dedicates a particular tenderness.

This red thread, just like the main investigations of the six episodes, are not the most interesting, as the series, unlike its heroine, is sorely lacking in modernity in what it tells and in its staging. As a result, we have the impression of following cases seen and reviewed.

And we especially remember the brief sequences taking place in the judge’s office, during which we see a succession of funny, grotesque, or hallucinating cases that stand out from the crowd (like this man who is convinced that a monkey is his wife) and really show the work of a magistrate. Who is sometimes more of an investigator than a judge in the France 2 series.

In the end, it is Marilou Berry, exceptional and unrecognizable, who constitutes Marianne’s only real interest, which only applies to her character as a judge who allows herself everything and is afraid of nothing. Larger than life, this Marianne Vauban makes us die of laughter. And also manages to move us. To the point of totally eclipsing the characters who surround him and who struggle to exist, despite the talent of the actors (including Alexandre Steiger in the role of Captain Pastor).

In an audiovisual landscape where detective series like HPI or Balthazar have been able to revitalize a purring genre, not sure that viewers, as amused as they are by the performance of Marilou Berry, want to endure six episodes of uninspired investigations.