Pax Massilia: Olivier Marchal, straight to the point (critic)

Cops with severely flawed methods do what is necessary to stop the drug war that is setting Marseille ablaze. Effective, but already seen.

And it goes, Click, click-click, pan-pan-pan. It’s shooting all over the Canebière in Pax Massiliathe new crime series fromOlivier Marchal which sends wood, on Netflix.

The story of a small police unit in the Marseille city, on a mission to stop a bloody gang war. After his spectacular escape, the evil Murillo is presumed dead during his run in South America. Except that he is alive and well and back in the Old Port, to settle scores with the Saïd family, the one who controls drug trafficking in the neighborhoods with an iron fist. On the cop side, with his not very orthodox methods, Commander Lyès Benamar and his team try to stop the escalation, and put everyone in the salad basket.

The Marchal thriller highway is all mapped out. The director of 36 Quai des Goldsmiths – who co-wrote and co-directed – serves up his usual muscular recipe. It’s strafing everywhere, from Borély beach to the city of Castellane. A scathing postcard, which seeks to hurt in every shot. THE gun fights are uncompromising, the sequences of arrests are impressive and the decorum of Marseille (the filming really took place on site) is effectively highlighted.

But through permanent action, Pax Massilia is also extremely nervous and exhausting. The series never achieves the emotional intensity of what Cédric Jimenez achieved with BAC North, which since 2020 has become the master standard of Marseille thrillers. She would even tend to play the card of assumed caricature. The lines of dialogue – certainly to stick to a reality that has balls – are of nameless vulgarity. Insults burst forth in lunar exchanges, where each character speaks with the emphasis of a tragedian with a heavy vocabulary. Tewfik Jallab Although he has charisma, we have the impression of having already seen his cop from the suburbs somewhere. As we have already seen the boss of the cops (“But what the hell have you done again in Benamar?”) played by Florence Thomassin Or Nicolas Duvauchelle as a lawless bad boy.

Pax Massilia is not a bad Marchal, he is just a rehashed Marchal, who goes straight to the goal without seeking to renew himself, either in substance or in form. A style to be reserved for its enthusiasts.

Pax Massilia, season 1 in episodes, to watch on Netflix from December 6, 2023.